IPU: Interfaith Dialogue and Strengthening Trust Among Persons of Faith and None -By Leo Igwe

The second interfaith conference of the Interparliamentary Union (IPU) will take place in Rome, Italy from June 19 to 21, 2025. The Italian Parliament and IPU with the support of Religions for Peace are organizing the event. Humanists International, a global body for humanists, atheists, and other nonreligious individuals and groups, has been invited to participate. As a humanist who has invested in furthering interfaith/belief dialogue in Nigeria, I believe that the invitation of Humanists International is a significant and exciting development. The theme of this year’s event is: strengthening trust and embracing hope for our common future.

In forging this common future, the place of trust cannot be overemphasized because trust is the first condition of humanity. Trust is the glue that binds humans together. It undergirds human civilization and progress. Trust is necessary for religious and philosophical nourishing and flourishing. Incidentally, relations between faith/belief traditions have not always been cordial and harmonious. Interfaith relations are fraught with tension, suspicion, and mistrust. Religious and secular life stances operate as rival ideologies; proponents often conflict and kill each other. Faith traditions compete for supremacy and domination within and without. Each religion claims to be the truth, the only truth. Every religion claims to embody the absolute truth and to typify perfection and infallibility. Each faith denounces others as false, fake, or inferior. This cosmological climate breeds tension and rancor; it has weakened trust, and undermined hope and peace, making dialogue difficult, elusive, and sometimes impossible. For humanity’s future and survival, it is pertinent to strengthen trust and promote peaceful and harmonious coexistence of persons of all faiths and beliefs.

The first edition of IPU’s Interfaith dialogue was on working together for our common future. The event took place in Marrakesh in 2023. That conference identified areas of action for parliamentarians that would foster more peaceful and inclusive societies that honored religious and belief diversity and upheld the equal and inalienable rights and dignity of all. In the light of events in the world today, this is a future worth working for. And parliamentarians should lead the way in furthering inclusion, equality, and non-discrimination for all.

The Rome conference reechoes the same sentiment. According to the organizers, the event will “bring together parliamentarians and representatives of governments, religions, beliefs, faith-based and civil society organizations, the United Nations, international organizations and academia to engage in dialogue around good practices and challenges in their work to promote sustainable peace, human rights, democracy, good governance, and inclusive societies, while exploring avenues for joint action”.

As the organizers further noted, “Engaging different stakeholders in dialogue and cooperation around issues of peace, justice, and coexistence is an important part of the ecosystem approach which the IPU adopts in all its work”. Parliamentarians are critical stakeholders in fostering interfaith dialogue, and peace because faith/belief plays a powerful role in politics, governance, and other parliamentary affairs. Parliamentarians are often motivated by faith or belief in their everyday functions and duties.

IPU must be commended for committing to an inclusive interfaith dialogue, especially for extending an invitation to humanists, atheists, and other nonreligious persons. People who profess no faith or religion exist in all parts of the world. They are citizens and they pay their taxes and fulfill other civic duties. Unfortunately, nonbelievers are often treated as criminals or terrorists in many places. Nonreligious persons are human beings and their rights are human rights. But in many countries, atheists and agnostics are treated with indignity and disrespect. Humanists are targets and victims of religious intolerance and oppression.

Apostasy and blasphemy laws exist in many countries and are used to persecute and prosecute atheists, agnostics, religious dissenters, and other minority religious/belief groups. An interfaith dialogue that excludes persons from no faith traditions is incomplete and cannot deliver a common future for all. A dialogue of only people of faith is a credal monologue that alienates instead of integrating and connecting peoples. Hopefully, the Rome conference will provide a beacon of hope, and motivate parliamentarians to work towards a more inclusive interfaith dialogue and strengthen trust among persons of all faiths and none in various countries.

Igwe is Humanists International’s delegate to the Second Parliamentary Conference on Interfaith Dialogue in Rome from June 19 to 21, 2025