"Launching new initiatives to contribute to peace-building in the Middle East": this is the purpose of the third "World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace", which the Swiss Foundation "Hommes de Parole" will be promoting in Paris from 15th to 17th December, with the support of Unesco. Founded in 2000 by Alain Michel, “Hommes de parole” aims to "create spaces of dialogue at the service of peace", explains Michel, who believes that "nowadays peace can only be attained with the support of the population", because "a peace that is only subscribed to by the governments, without the agreement of the population, would be cold, unstable and doomed". The meeting will be attended by 85 people, including imams and rabbis from Israel and the Palestinian Territories, from Egypt, Iran, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and Syria, and some Christians. The congress will be opened by Koïchiro Matsuura, general manager of Unesco; Abdoulaye Wade, president of Senegal and of the Islamic Conference Organisation; Michel, who is also the president of the World Congress of Imams and Rabbis. Speakers will include Shlomo Amar, head rabbi of Israel; Sheik Mohammed Hussein, the Mufti of Jerusalem; and mgr. André Vingt-Trois, archbishop of Paris. A final declaration will be adopted at the end of the congress.
