Monthly Archives: March 2022

Shirin Taber (email), Executive Director of Empower Women Media

Welcome to Live What You Believe, a booklet designed to equip stakeholders and leaders to support freedom of religion and women’s empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Over the last decade, violence toward women from groups like ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Taliban has increased. Despite women’s resilience, we rarely hear positive stories of women who challenge these violent acts of intolerance. This booklet, created in partnership with religious freedom advocates, explores how freedom of religion and belief is critical for women’s rights, peacebuilding and thriving societies.

Many organizations already put in significant efforts in documenting and publicizing the tragic cases of religious discrimination of women in Muslim contexts. While our booklet acknowledges these human rights violations, our focus is to draw attention to what is not being talked about enough – the many positive benefits of the universal right of freedom of religion, belief, and conscience for women in Muslim-majority contexts. As one of our network participants perfectly explains, “cultivating freedom of belief and conscience unleashes creativity and innovation which is needed more than ever in our increasingly global world.”

With the right tools and approaches, leaders can play a particularly important role in shifting attitudes and building social movements to support religious freedom for all. Unfortunately, religion has sometimes been misused to justify incitement to violence and discrimination toward women, and it is vital that leaders from all faiths show leadership to counter religious-based violations. In preparation for this booklet, we conducted dozens of interviews with women’s rights advocates and religious freedom experts from around the world. We connected with lawyers, social workers, artists, businesswomen, faith leaders and scholars as they shared their lived experiences. Complementing these interviews, we interwove case studies and women’s captivating personal stories about the benefits of religious freedom they shared in their workplace and community.

Through our work and research, we have learnt that women are more entrepreneurial and productive when they are allowed to freely express their beliefs (whether religious or secular) and bring their whole selves to work. Along these lines, Jacqueline Isaac, an international lawyer and religious freedom advocate, makes an excellent point: “We cannot ignore that in order to flourish, people have to be able to address their deepest questions of existence and meaning, both privately and in community with others.” With these words in mind, we are excited to share with you this religious freedom training booklet.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us personally. We hope this booklet stimulates rich conversations and fruitful advocacy efforts that shift the culture to support greater religious freedom worldwide. As we continue pushing for change, let us work together to support women’s rights to religious freedom and dignity.

The Russia and Ukraine battle you probably haven’t heard about involves the Orthodox Church

Lori Joe Brown, a Senior Manager at American Express within the Global Field Enablement Team, shares in the second of a two-part Driven 4word* podcast why she thinks it’s so important to find connection in the workplace, and what has driven her forward as she’s traveled God’s path for her life.

Tune in at the 23:00-minute mark to hear about how Lori is able to develop and encourage others in the workplace as co-lead to the American Express Christian employee resource group called SALT.

In a previous episode, Lori shared about her childhood in Brooklyn, how her parents’ divorce shifted her whole life, and how she stayed true to her dream of being a professional.

* 4word is the only global organization for Christian women in the workplace led by women. 4word leads, connects, and supports women in the workplace to help them achieve their God-given potential with confidence. 4word achieves this mission through 4word’s Digital Content, 4word Community Groups, and the 4word Mentor Program.

Lori Joe Brown has been working in Corporate American since the tender age of 18, as the summer-intern to VP of tenders & exchanges department, of a Wall Street shareholder relations firm.

Currently Lori is a Senior Manager within the Global Field Enablement Team at American Express which serves as the Center of Excellence for a 4,000+ person sales organization, delivering high impact global strategies, content, competencies, and connections that accelerate sales productivity. She has been with American Express for over 15 years in various roles developing her fellow colleagues in Human Resources and Leadership & Development.

Lori’s passion lies within developing and encouraging others in the workplace through her faith which she has been able to do as co-lead to the American Express Christian Colleague Network called SALT. Through this Christian employee resource group, she provides leadership to a 1,200-member group of employees. It has been an intricate part of the American Express employee experience globally for the past 20+ years, while assisting other Fortune 500 companies start their own Christian networks.

Lori’s non-profit work is just as important. She sits on the board of 4word, a Professional Christian Women’s organization that helps women in the workplace reach their God-given potential with confidence through mentorship, forums, blogs, and conferences.

Lastly, Lori is a certified John Maxwell Executive Coach, Trainer and Public Speaker. She holds a BA in Organizational Behavior & Change Management and a MS in Global Human Resources Management & Development both from New York University. She currently resides in Richmond, VA with her husband Dwayne Brown.

Interview with 2018 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Gold Medalist Steve Killelea

Every year the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) issues the “Global Peace Index” (GPI), the purpose of which is to score 163 nations according to their levels of peacefulness. The overall GPI score for 2021 indicates that the global situation – as a result of the coronavirus pandemic among others – has once again deteriorated. But will this trend continue? “The changing economic conditions in many nations increases the likelihood of political instability and violent demonstrations”, says Australian philanthropist and IEP founder, Steve Killelea, during an interview with Sven Lilienström, founder of the Faces of Peace Initiative. The 72-year-old creator of the Global Peace Index is certain: “Humanity is on a tipping point!”

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Source: Faces of Peace initiative

Mr. Killelea, you are the creator of the Global Peace Index (GPI) – the world’s leading quantitative measurement of global peacefulness: What does “peace” mean for you personally?

Peace can have many meanings and I find it best to understand what type of peace I want to talk about first. For example, if I am interested in personal peace, I would describe it as the absence of afflictive emotion. One of the greatest writers on peace was Leo Tolstoy, the author of “War and Peace”, who realized that peace had a spiritual dimension that could only be expressed through the individual. History, he said, had been about finding evil and attempting to destroy it, but in the process of destroying evil, we become the very thing we are seeking to destroy. He said we have been doing this for thousands of years and without success; therefore, we need to find a new approach – we need to find peace within. His perspective was that only when one has become personally peaceful can one truly create peace in the world. This is a profound insight and one that reverberates down through history to the present day. It is paraphrased in simple ways such as “Peace starts within one’s self”. For me, personal peace is what I aim to feel within. Not being overcome by negative emotions really makes for a clearer head and, therefore, better judgement calls. And personal peace is important because all power structures, in the end, are composed of people, and serene leaders are more likely to make peaceful decisions. Similarly, peace is an upward and downward phenomenon: the system influences people and people influence the system.

Politicians today, however, still often use peace to simply mean the absence of war. This implies that once the guns fall silent, peace has been achieved. This way of thinking doesn’t describe what creates a resilient peace, one that will not lapse back into violence, and one that is associated with many other social characteristics that are considered desirable, including stronger economic outcomes, higher resilience, better measures of well-being, higher levels of inclusiveness and more sustainable environmental performance.

At IEP, we use two different definitions of peace. The first was used to develop the Global Peace Index (GPI) – the absence of violence or the fear of violence; otherwise known as Negative Peace. But as mentioned above, while this is an excellent definition to determine how peaceful a country may be, it doesn’t tell us what is required for a country to be peaceful; it closes off the possibility for finding new approaches and solutions that extend beyond security, and can create the conditions necessary to restructure our societies so that they have the capacity to adapt and modify to our constantly changing environments. The definition we use for a sustainable peace is Positive Peace, which refers to the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies.

The Global Peace Index (GPI) 2021 registers – as is has for most previous years – a deterioration in global peacefulness. What is the reason for this? What role will climate change play in future?

Measuring peace is contextually rich; in some areas peace is improving, and in others it is deteriorating. This is also true for countries and regions.

Over the last 10 years, peace has deteriorated by 2.4 percent; however, in that time, 86 countries have improved, while 75 have deteriorated. This highlights that when countries fall in peace, they fall at a faster pace than they improve. Peace is built up gradually over time.

The Global Peace Index can be divided into three domains. Two have deteriorated over the decade, namely “Safety” and “Security”, which measure the internal state of peace, and “Ongoing Conflict”. The other domain, “Militarization”, has improved, but as can be seen from rising tensions in Indo-China and NATO relations with Russia, this trend is reversing.

At an indicator level, “Violent Demonstrations” has deteriorated over the ten years, along with “Number of Refugees”. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the level of conflict and violence in the world in 2020, with some of these effects likely to last for years to come. There were over 5,000 pandemic-related incidents between January 2020 and April 2021 that involved some form of violence, ranging from violent demonstrations and riots in response to lockdown measures, to physical assaults targeted at people of Asian descent. There were at least 158 countries that recorded one or more violent incidents directly related to the pandemic during this time. While it is still too early to fully gauge the long-term effects of the pandemic on peace, the changing economic conditions in many nations increases the likelihood of political instability and violent demonstrations.

In terms of climate change, many ecological threats exist independently of climate change; however, climate change will have an amplifying effect, causing further ecological degradation and pushing some countries through violent tipping points. The main finding from IEP’s latest Ecological Threat Register – which combines measures of resilience with the most comprehensive ecological data available to shed light on the countries least likely to cope with extreme ecological shocks – is that a cyclic relationship exists between ecological degradation and conflict. It is a vicious cycle whereby degradation of resources leads to conflict, and the ensuing conflict leads to further resource degradation. Ecological threats will continue to create humanitarian emergencies and will likely increase without a sustained effort to reverse the current trend. Breaking the cycle requires improving ecological resource management and building socio-economic resilience

Keyword European Union: According to the Global Peace Index 2021, Europe is the world’s most peaceful continent. The Russia-Ukraine conflict aside, what makes Europe one of the safest regions in the world?

This comes back to Positive Peace. Europe has the highest rates of Positive Peace globally. Eight of the ten countries with the highest levels of Positive Peace reside in Europe.

Positive Peace consists of eight Pillars. These Pillars function as a system with each interacting with all others. The Pillars are: Well-Functioning Government, Strong Business Environment, Low Levels of Corruption, Free Flow of Information, Equitable Distribution of Resources, High Levels of Human Capital, Acceptance of the Rights of Others and Good relations with Neighbors.

However, for some European countries, these measures have been deteriorating and substantial improvements in economic and health indicators were partially off – set by worsening political radicalisation and quality of informed debate. Denmark, Iceland, United Kingdom, Greece and Spain have all deteriorated over the last decade, although they are still rated highly.

In the overall GPI score for 2021, Germany has fallen to 17th place. On the positive side, the German Federal Government intends to make weapon exports more dependent upon the human rights situation than before. What is your opinion about this announcement?

Germany is one the world’s largest economies, with arms exports a major industry. The country also recently announced they will supply Ukraine was sophisticated weapons to fight the Russians, including Stinger missiles to target planes.

As I note in my book, “Peace in the Age of Chaos”, the desire to live in a safe, sustainable and prosperous world is universal; and I believe it is achievable if we use a more expansive understanding of the concept of peace – a peace that is practical, one that recognises threats and believes a level of military action is needed. The sad fact is that many parts of the world are not safe, and therefore the military is a necessity. The Russian invasion of the Ukraine points out that adequate defenses are necessary; however, the sale of weapons to countries that will use them for coercing other states to their will or abusing their citizens is abhorrent.

The bigger question is what is the adequate level of protection that a country needs, as excess expenditure would be more productively spent on funding business, health or educational sectors to name some.

The USA, Russia and China in particular, are driving the development of hypersonic weapons. Does this development affect the GPI score? Are you in favor of regulating this type of weapons technology?

Yes, it does affect their scores. One of the indicators in the Global Peace Index is sophistication of weapons and the more sophisticated they are, the higher the score.

The Institute for Economics and Peace is in favor of agreements to limit the use of weapons; however, in the current global situation it is hard to see the nations possessing hypersonic missiles agreeing to being regulated.

In fact, at this stage getting agreement between the major powers is becoming more unlikely as rivalries and tensions increase.

In your book “Peace in the Age of Chaos”, published in 2020, you write, among other things, that western democracies need to be revitalized. How do you mean this? What makes reading the book worthwhile?

When looking at Positive Peace, many western democracies are slipping. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) recently published their Democracy Index which found that democracy had fallen globally, and for most western democracies.

There are three domains within the Positive Peace Index – Attitudes, Institutions and Structures. The attitude domain has fallen in most western democracies. This domain consists of factors such as group grievances, corruption, quality of information and fractionalized elites. The latter being where the elites of a society fight amongst themselves. All of these factors have been falling for the last decade.

“Peace in the Age of Chaos” has four themes running through it. The first is my personal journey to peace and time spent in some of the more violent places in the world. The second is the entrepreneurial journey of creating a global think tank, while the third covers the research on what creates and sustains peace.

The fourth theme, which is the most important, explains why Positive Peace, combined with systems thinking, provides a transformational approach to reinvigorating western democracies and building a more peaceful world. Humanity is on a tipping point, and unless we do something differently, we will never get the levels of trust, cooperation or inclusiveness necessary to solve our global problems, including climate change, bio-diversity, lack of food, to name a few.

In these Anthropocene environments that we humans are creating, two aspects become critical – our capacity to deal with rapid change and our ability to manage the ecosystems of the planet. Adaptability and resilience will be the key. Positive Peace is both the measure and the solution for these. It provides a mechanism to understand which countries are most at risk. These future shocks could be financial, biological, ecological or societal. Given the right severity of shock all countries will implode, but with an understanding of the likely shocks and levels of resilience, development can be better targeted. Through building up the Positive Peace factors a country’s resilience can be enhanced, thereby improving its adaptability and responsiveness when shocks do occur.

Mr. Killelea, our seventh question is always the same: What three trouble spots are in your opinion currently the most dangerous and what measures do you suggest to de-escalate conflict and stabilize peace?

The first is the Ukraine, which has everyone’s attention currently. But the issue is more than the Ukraine, because given the deceit that Russia has shown in the lead up to the war, what other aspirations does the President have in building back the greater Russia. This can only be dealt by realization that war does not work. This can be accomplished by sanctions, although Europe is unlikely to put in place sanctions that are truly crippling on Russia. The other is a long-protracted campaign that saps Russia’s military resolve. It is likely to create regime change, but it would appear that an insurgency campaign would then ensue. We have seen the effects of this in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The second is the Sahel in sub-Saharan Africa. It has the fastest growing Islamic militias in the world and the fastest growing rate of terrorism globally. The problems here are systemic and complex and so need a truly systems thinking approach. Weak governments, lack of adequate food and water, the highest rates of population growth in the world and a large number of refugees. The starting point is a thorough systems analysis and then building international agencies that match the systemic nature of the problem.

The third is North East Asia. The rising power of China and the clash of values with democracies, especially the US. This conflict is going to be played out over decades, especially as China uses more coercive methods to achieve goals. Taiwan is a flashpoint and could easily start a regional war.

The scale of the issues confronting humanity is truly daunting, and our current approaches are simply not working. Systems thinking provides a solution, a new way of conceptualising our world, our societies and how politics should function. At the heart of this view is that complexity cannot be understood by breaking problems down into ever smaller and smaller bite-size chunks. The application of systems thinking to societies is a recognition that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that emergent phenomena like peace or climate change are irreducible. Positive Peace provides the vision of where to take the system.

Mr. Killelea, thank you very much for the interview!

Press Contact:
Sven Lilienström
Founder of the Faces of Peace initiative | Faces of Democracy

Broicherdorfstraße 53
41564 Kaarst – Germany
phone: +49 (0) 2131-5978299
mobile: +49 (0) 177-3132744
email: press@faces-of-peace.org
web: www.faces-of-peace.org

About the Faces of Democracy and Faces of Peace initiatives:

With more than 100 prominent national and international individuals from politics, the media, business and society – including numerous European heads of state and government, Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, the publishers and chief editors of leading media publications and the CEOs of international companies – the Faces of Democracy initiative is now in its fifth year of existence. The first “faces” of the 2019 founded Faces of Peace initiative are SIPRI Director Dan Smith, the Chairman of the Atlantic Brücke e.V. Sigmar Gabriel, the OSCE CiO 2019 and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic Miroslav Lajčák and the Chief of Staff of the 69th Submarine Brigade of the Northern Fleet Vasili A. Arkhipov.

(With an exhortation about connection in time of war) 

by Kent Johnson, J.D., Senior Corporate Advisor, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation

Part of the blog series, Authenticity & Connection, category DIVERSITY

It has become clear to nearly all business and HR experts: Remote Work, done well, requires close attention to promoting authenticity and connection in diverse workforces. Personal relationships matter, whether they’re forged in physical proximity or over the internet. The implications of this idea reach far beyond our immediate workplaces.

Business experts routinely underscore that an organization’s culture and values are hugely important enablers of good remote work. Here are three examples from hundreds that I could cite:

1. (1) THE “AGILE WORK” MOVEMENT. Renowned Harvard Business Professor Timothy R. Clark notes that the concept of “Agile Work” has spawned a global movement shaping all kinds of work – especially remote work. “Agile” rests on shared values, the first of which is “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” The Agile literature is filled with appeals for personal “vulnerability” and “psychological safety” and many other ideas we’ve been spotlighting in these blogs.

2. (2) “MORAL INJURY.” Ron Carucci and Ludmila Praslova have identified “wounding of the soul” as a prime cause for employees quitting. To address this, they advocate sensitive connection with employees’ core values and cultures that encourage acknowledgement of wrongs, and forgiveness.

3. (3) “PRESSURE TO REMAIN SILENT.” In a recent study of 1400 workers, 90% felt emotionally or physically unsafe to speak their mind more than once in the past 18 months, and 38% felt unsafe either every day or every week.

Nearly all the mainstream business articles I’ve seen on coping with remote work touch these kinds of topics. They advocate cultures of personal openness and psychological safety, decry moral injury, and argue to dispel the pressure to remain silent about one’s core identity. They underscore the value of interpersonal connections and deep friendships. But the vast majority still scrupulously dodge the topic of religious expression at work. Until 2019, articles about the role of faith and belief in the workplace were almost entirely relegated to religious media.

This is changing. Companies like Intel, Texas Instruments, American Airlines and Amex are rocking the boat with success stories about how diverse religious expression is enabling rich, diverse connections, and enriching corporate culture. [See my blogs on HOPE for many more examples.]

Point is, work culture is a huge determinant of organizational effectiveness. And remote work certainly presents challenges to culture. Without physical proximity, the struggle to connect across diverse cultural lines is even tougher. Today, remote work and “The Great Resignation” are driving HR leaders to explore new ways to free employees so they can relate more meaningfully with one another.

Faith and belief has much to say on this. The work of champions like the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation is helping diverse companies everywhere turn the tide, even where work is remote.

I’ll close with a final note on remote work that pertains directly to the current crisis in Ukraine.

In all our blogs promoting cross-cultural authenticity and connection at work, we have more in mind than just making work more pleasant and more welcoming. Especially through remote connections, there’s a possibility of promoting civility and loving-kindness abroad in a personal way. Surely many of you have business interactions with people in places like Ukraine, and other places where freedom of religion and belief is far more constrained than here in the USA. Do the people you correspond with know that your faith (or belief, or core values) moves your heart to care about them? Are you communicating your heartfelt compassion? Are you praying for them?

This growing business movement for greater freedom of expression of religion and belief has a profound reach far beyond the walls of your company. When the doors are opened, freedom of religion and belief connects remotely, deeply. We help weave a fabric of civility in this sometimes-insane world. I hope many of you will apply the principles of your faith and belief to walk through these doors (both physically and online) and touch the hearts of individuals, whether they’re associated with oppressors or the oppressed. Impact world culture today.

Nominations are open for the 2022 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards. Business CEOs will be recognized for their work in interfaith understanding and peace. All of the leaders are recognized for using their businesses to build bridges of authentic connection between people of diverse backgrounds.

The awards will be presented by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation at the global Dare to Overcome conference on May 24, 2022, at the Busch School of Business at Catholic University in Washington, DC, in partnership with American Airlines.

Before completing the nomination form, please watch the short video from the Templeton Religion Trust (TRT), “Covenantal Pluralism,” which describes the philosophy of the awards. TRT is a supporter of the awards.

Brian Grim

Russia’s military might — unleashed by Putin on Ukraine — is deplorable. Many factors contribute to this or any war: economic or territorial gain, nationalism, revenge, civil discord, religion, to name a few. One that is usually overlooked is the role of government restrictions on religious freedom, which I’ll come to in a moment.

Numerous writers have discussed the religious motivations Russia has had in supporting Bashir Assad’s forces in the Syrian war. One direct connection was that the Russian Orthodox Church, which has deep historical connections with the Orthodox Christian communities of the Middle East, lobbied Putin to take a strong stand in defense of Syrian Christians. The titles of a few of the articles tell the story:

• — Defender of the Faith? Russia’s ‘Holy War’ in Syria
• — The [Russian Orthodox] Christian zeal behind Russia’s war in Syria
• — Is Russia’s intervention in Syria a ‘holy war’? Russian Orthodox Church: ‘yes’
• — Russian church: The fight in Syria is a ‘holy war’.

Religion is also a motivation in Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. This time, it’s pitting Russia’s brand of Orthodox Christianity against Ukraine’s, which has separated from the Russian hierarchy. Again, a few recent articles tell the story:

• — EXPLAINER: How is Russia-Ukraine war linked to religion?
• — Religious nationalism and the invasion of Ukraine: Under Putin, the Russian Orthodox Church has resumed its czarist role as an arm of state policy.
• — How Is Russia-Ukraine War Linked to Religion?
• — Russia Attacks Ukraine: Why Some Experts Insist Putin Is Motivated By Religion

What I would point out is that it is not religion in general, but the government restrictions on religion that are the predictor of whether a state will be predisposed to starting a war.

In an award-winning 2007 research article (which I co-authored and which we fleshed out in a 2011 Cambridge University book), we empirically showed that it was not “religion” in general that led to violent religious persecution and conflict, but it was the level of social regulation of religion (SRI) the level of government restrictions on religion (GRI) that led to violent persecution and/or religion-related conflict.

That article and book were part of the background I brought with me to the Pew Research Center to establish their annual global studies on the levels of government restrictions on religion (GRI) and social hostilities involving religion (SHI) – not quite the same as our SRI.

The chart below shows that Russia is in a league of its own among countries in Europe when it comes to government restrictions on religion – it is the only country in the region to score very high. But what does that high score on the chart represent?

Explaining the Pew Research Center Russia Score

The government restrictions index is a score that takes into account 20 different measures. Russia scores poorly on the vast majority of the indicators, as summarized below:

• — There are limited national legal protections for religious freedom and the national government does not generally respect religious freedom in practice
• — The government prohibits worship or religious practices of one or more religious groups as a general policy; Public preaching by religious groups is limited by the government
• — Proselytizing limited by the government; Religious literature or broadcasting limited by the government
• — Foreign missionaries face restrictions
• — The wearing of religious symbols, such as head coverings for women and facial hair for men, is limited by the government
• — There was widespread harassment or intimidation of religious groups by the government
• — The national government displayed hostility involving physical violence toward minority or nonapproved religious groups
• — There were instances when the national government did not intervene in cases of discrimination or abuses against religious groups
• — The national government’s established organization to regulate or manage religious affairs is coercive towards religious groups
• — The national government denounces one or more religious groups by characterizing them as dangerous “cults” or “sects”
• — The government formally bans religious groups for both security and nonsecurity reasons
• — There were instances when the national government attempted to eliminate an entire religious group’s presence in the country
• — The registration process for religions clearly discriminates against some religious groups
• — There were between 1,000 and 10,000 cases of government force toward religious groups that resulted in individuals being killed, physically abused, imprisoned, detained or displaced from their homes, or having their personal or religious properties damaged or destroyed
• — The government shows a high level of favoritism to one religious group above others

Putin’s New Best Friend, China

In the geographically larger, more populous, and highly diverse Asia-Pacific region, one country stands out as having the highest government restrictions on religion, according to the Pew Research Center – the People’s Republic of China (see chart). The list of items for which they gain this very highly restrictive score are similar to the list for Russia, only more so.

One difference that may seem a ray of hope is that China has much fewer social hostilities involving religion. However, the reason for this is ominous: their government restrictions are so pervasive and powerful that social dissent or uprisings are quelled forthwith.

While this does not predict that China will necessarily go to war, the data and the policies reflected by the data are nevertheless alarming not only for the state of freedom of religion or belief, but for what the lack of these portend for China and the world.

2022 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards
Normally, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards would be held in the host city of the Paralympic Games, as we have done in Brazil, South Korea and Japan. However, such events are not welcomed in China.

They will be held in Washington DC this May and in India in 2023. The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation works for peace in various ways, including shining a light on the work that business leaders do to promote interfaith understanding through their companies, philanthropies and advocacy.

At Dare to Overcome, we will honor these leaders (along with CEOs from the 2021 virtual awards) before the gala concert on May 24.If you know a business leader working for interfaith understanding and peace, please consider nominating them for the 2022 award.

With prayers for an end to the war in Ukraine,

Brian Grim
RFBF President