G20 Interfaith Forum in Turkey: Religion, Harmony, and Sustainable Development

A Message from the Conference Conveners 

Religion plays a major role in global events, touching issues from medical ethics to cross-border conflicts to macroeconomic trends. However, religion can be misunderstood or even overlooked as a factor in world events and, thus, the contributions faith and religion make to social well-being and policies, which impact national and international communities, are often not recognized.

The 2015 G20 Interfaith Forum held in Istanbul 16-18 November. 2015 brought together scholars, lawyers and political leaders, with faith and interfaith leaders from around the world for three days of discussion and dialogue as a substantial contribution to the G20 Economic Summit. The gathering was designed to showcase the scholarly and societal contributions of various faith traditions and philosophies from around the world, and to create opportunities for communication and relationship building and raise the profile of participating communities, groups, and organizations.

Conference Convenors were

• Dr. Recep Sentürk, Director, Alliance of Civilizations Institute, Faith Sultan Mehmet University, Turkey
• Dr. Brian J. Adams, Director, Centre for Interfaith & Cultural Dialogue, Griffith University, Australia
• Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr., Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, BYU Law School, USA