The Secretary General of the MIF, Chairman of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of the Russian Federation and the Council of Muftis of Russia, Mufti Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin on behalf of the Muslim clergy and the Muslim Ummah of Russia expressed condolences in connection with the loss of life and the large number of injured in the explosion in the capital of Lebanon on August 4:

"I express my sincere condolences in connection with the explosion in the port of Beirut, which entailed many human casualties, hundreds of injuries and mutilations, large-scale destruction. Lebanon suffered a truly national grief and shock. In this difficult hour, Muslims of Russia express their sympathy and sincere empathy to the people. Lebanon, they grieve along with those who lost loved ones in this tragedy. Indeed, we are all from Allah and to Him our return. We pray to Allah Almighty for mercy to the souls of the lost, for the healing of the victims and patience for those who have suffered loss.

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.

Report of the Chairman of the Religious Board of Muslims of the Russian Federation and the Council of Muftis of Russia Sheikh Mufti Ravil Gaynutdin at the 7th Congress of the Religious Board of Muslims of the Russian Federation