The Muslim Council of Elders is an international group founded in the United Arab Emirates in 2014 to work together to promote peace, principles of tolerance, address sources of conflict within Muslim communities, and “bring the Islamic nation together,” according to its website.
The council’s board members include Nigerian Sheik Ibrahim Ibn Saleh al-Hussaini; Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed bin Talal; Grand Mufti of Azerbaijan Sheik Allahshükür Hummat Pashazade; and Abdallah bin Bayyah, an influential Islamic scholar who teaches in Saudi Arabia.
Pope Francis told the council: “We who are descended from Abraham, the father of peoples in faith, cannot be concerned merely with those who are ‘our own’ but, as we grow more and more united, we must speak to the entire human community, to all who dwell on this earth.”
Before the meeting at the mosque, Pope Francis spoke privately with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, a leading Sunni cleric and the grand imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo.
Pope Francis with the grand imam Sheik Ahmed Muhammad Al-Tayyib in Bahrain, Nov. 4, 2022. Vatican Media
Pope Francis and al-Tayeb jointly signed a document on human fraternity in Abu Dhabi in 2019 during the pope’s first trip to the Arabian Peninsula. The two have met several times since, including on Pope Francis’ most recent trip to Kazakhstan.
During the meeting, Pope Francis gave the grand imam a sculpture of an olive tree, signifying peace. He commended al-Tayeb for his “courage” in speaking about dialogue among Muslims at Bahrain’s interfaith summit.
Al-Tayeb and Francis both issued calls for peace in Ukraine in their speeches on Friday morning at Bahrain’s conference on East-West dialogue in the presence of other religious leaders, including the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I.
Pope Francis made a “heartfelt appeal for an end to the war in Ukraine and the start of serious negotiations for peace.” The pope called on “the great religions” to be “a conscience of peace for our world.”
Al-Tayeb said in his prepared remarks: “I also call for the end of the Russian-Ukrainian war to spare the lives of innocents who have no hand in this violent tragedy. I call for hoisting the flag of peace, not of victory, and to sit down for dialogue and negotiation.”