On 3 October in Assisi Pope Francis will sign his third encyclical “Omnes fratres. On brotherhood and social friendship.” The content of the new encyclical is still unknown, but it is expected to be devoted to the “style” of human co-existence during and after the Coronavirus pandemic. The Vatican says that the Pontiff’s missive will touch on many themes that he discussed throughout the year, one of which is interreligious dialogue.

During the days of the blessed month of Ramadan, firmly believing in the limitless mercy of Allah and overflowing with hope in His help and love during these days of hardship and trial, I turn to my brothers in Abrahamic faith with words of solidarity and fraternal support. I am grateful to our Christian brothers as represented by the head of the Roman Catholic church, Pope Francis, for the idea of unifying the religions in prayer and fasting to end the Coronavirus pandemic. I also thank our brother, sheikh Ahmad at-Tayyid of al-Azhar university, who has supported this call in the name of fraternal love and mutual understanding between our communities.

Muslims throughout the world are keeping the fast in the month of Ramadan and are prostrating to the Lord with additional prayers. However, prayer and fasting are types of religious practice whose foundations were laid by our common forefather Abraham. May 14 2020 has been chosen to show the unity of different religions and confessions, each one according to its own tradition, in fasting and turning in prayer to the Lord, thereby serving as a reminder of the unity of our roots and the common joint responsibility that we bear before the Creator for upholding the harmony and order of the world He created.

The 9th of May will stay in our memory as the day of national proud for our country and our people. We sincerely wish you all strong health, peaceful sky, happiness and prosperity.

We, participants of the 15^th International Muslim Forum / IMF /, organized in Berlin by the Permanent Secretariat of the IMF (Moscow), the Religious Board of Muslims of the Russian Federation (Moscow), and the Islamic Federation of Berlin, having discussed the moral and legal grounds, prerequisites, and prospects for further development of interreligious and intercultural dialogue in response to the modern universal human civilizational and geopolitical process, are herewith for the following:

1.              Communication of nations, communities, and cultures based on the desire for mutual comprehension and cooperation is natural, stemming from the moral nature of man. In the light of the migration processes that have taken up an all-embracing and irreversible nature, due to both economic and environmental factors, as well as military operations, the inter-civilizational and interreligious dialogue becomes not only an uncontested condition for the sustainable development of communities; it is being transformed from transnational cross-border phenomenon into the process, which holds modern societies together from the inside at the level of local communities, professional guilds, the humanitarian sphere from philosophy, literature, and visual arts to charity and volunteer movements. In this regard, participants of the 15^th International Muslim Forum highlight the great importance of creating and developing platforms and initiatives that help representatives of different cultures understand each other and overcome various prejudices.