On the 12th of January 2016, Dr. Wafik Moustafa spoke at the ‘Building a Culture of Peace in the Middle East and the Global Arena’ conference, which was held in the Knesset, Israel. The event was co-sponsored by the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Global Ethics, Alsadiqin, and the Movement for the Culture of Peace and Reconciliation. The Knesset Host was M.K. Ksenia Svetlova.

The conference was attended by Members of the Knesset (MKs) , Muslim, Christian, Jewish religious and civil society leaders from the Middle East and Europe.

Dr. Moustafa spoke in the session on ‘Implementing the culture of peace in the Middle East and Europe.’

He told the audience that he was a, “big believer in the value and importance of cross cultural activity and interfaith dialogue in supporting reconciliation and building world peace” and that “Cultural exchange gives us the chance to appreciate points of commonality and where differences exist to understand what lies behind them.”

Dr. Moustafa added, “we are not trying to achieve homogeneity across the region and the world but respect, and mutual understanding.”

He concluded by saying, “we must use cultural exchange to put forward the ideas of pluralism, tolerance, freedom and democracy in the Arab world. We also must use cultural exchange to build understanding, ties and friendship between Israel and the Arab world.”

The speech was very well received.

In a separate meeting, Dr. Wafik Moustafa met with the speaker of the Israeli Parliament, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein and presented him with his book on Egypt.

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