Muslim World League chief condemns hate speech at the G20 Interfaith Forum in Salt Lake City

The 2026 G20 Interfaith Forum opened on 15 October at the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, welcomed by President Dallin H. Oaks, with a letter from Pope Leo XIV read by the Holy See's ambassador. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, denounced hate speech as a path to exclusion and violence and described hope as an active commitment: a decision taken by people who work hard for a better tomorrow. Over two days participants are refining faith-based policy proposals for the G20 economic forum in Miami in December; forum president Cole Durham noted that G20 countries hold about 75 percent of world trade and 85 percent of global GDP. Speakers stressed that religious communities can cooperate without abandoning their differences. Why it matters: interfaith work becomes institutional when it feeds a standing process with a deadline and an audience, as this forum does with the G20.

This is a QeRN summary by Ahmed Qerni. Read the original at Deseret News: https://www.deseret.com/faith/2026/10/16/president-oaks-tabernacle-choir-open-g20-interfaith-forum/.