Muslim World League chief ‘clarifies truth of Islam’ in Italy multifaith meeting

Addressing 5,000 people at a ‘Building Bridges’ multifaith event in Italy this week, Muslim World League Secretary General Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Alissa said that extremism is an isolated condition, far from the principles of Islam.

“The values of Islam encourage extending bridges of dialogue, peace and harmony,” Dr. Alissa said at the event, which was attended by more than a million people over the course of the week-long event.

During the event, Pope Francis spoke, as well as other high-level speakers such as Italian President Sergio Mattarella and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Dr. Alissa stressed that the Muslim World League “has felt the importance of clarifying the truth of Islam, which has loved, coexisted, engaged and cooperated with all, after Islamically isolated evil, mad, and ignorant extremism has tried to harm and hijack it.”

He added: “One cannot imagine any religion which is incompatible with life can survive for more than 1400 years; that is Islam’s age to this day. It is still among the most widely distributed geographically and in growth, where Muslims today number nearly one billion and eight hundred million people. All of them appreciate and understand God’s design in multiple religions and ideas.

“All of them also understand the culture of others and consider coexistence, harmony, tolerance and peace a high moral value in their religion as evidenced by clear texts in the Holy Quran and Sunna. They also confront those who misuse these texts either through misinterpretation, or deliberately misusing them for any purpose.”