How can spiritual transcendence safeguard peace in any community, let alone our planetary universe?

Fifty-one years ago, leaders of different religious institutions from around the world, representing all Christian denominations and their Islamic/Muslim counterparts together with representatives from diverse faith communities, including Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Zoroastrian, and Baha’i, came together with two purposes in mind. The first was to assemble to advocate, as one spiritual and religious voice, for a holistic peace— not just the absence of war: rather, seeking to prevent the very causes that lead to conflicts in the first place, including the escalating nuclear arms race and proxy wars, poverty, rampant human rights violations, and the decline of the primacy of the rule of law around the world.

The second purpose, what would become Religions for Peace, aimed to put words into actions, by practically working together at the national, regional, and global levels. From the latter inclination Inter-Religious Councils (IRCs) were born. This would be a structure that basically would convene the religious leaders from all faith institutions in any one country and serve as a space for these leaders to meet as equals, regardless of numerical, historical, or demographic religious dynamics. In other words, in the majority or minority, old or new, monotheistic/Abrahamic, or not, these faith leaders would meet as equals. For what purpose? To speak as one about the rights of all; to struggle as one for the rights— and dignity— of all; to ensure that no one is left behind. To hold accountable government and governance and to be the partner of all other secular civil society actors. These were the faith-based and faith-inspired civic actors working for the rights of all: yet with a special focus on the most vulnerable. In short, theirs is a human rights mission and a human-rightsbased approach. Far from attempting to equalize or generalize the commonalities between each religion, this form of “interfaith dialogue” is more an attempt to translate deeply shared faith inspiration into common action destined for the most vulnerable anywhere.

This interfaith movement was mobilized owing to incendiary rhetoric and the near catastrophic increase in nuclear arsenals.