Distinguished Attendees,

Esteemed Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

Today we are gathered in Bitola, the city of two traditions – "a la turka" coming from the East and "a la franga" coming from the West. Although seemingly contradictory, "a la turka" and "a la franga" are intertwined here through coexistence, respect and acceptance of diversity. Not by coincidence, the Republic of Macedonia is organizing right here the 4th World Conference on Dialogue among Religions and Civilizations.

This Conference is dedicated to two extremely important and topical themes - migration and integration. To address this dual challenge, it is indeed necessary to go deeper. We need to consider the role of migration in the development of religion on the one hand and the impact of religion on migration on the other. To clarify this complex of issues, academic discussion is not sufficient. We need to open the holy books.

Reading the Torah, we will notice a narrative that is constantly repeated. With the expulsion of the fallen man from Eden, the saga of mankind begins, which is doomed to perpetual motion, relocation and resettlement.

In this perpetual cycle perhaps most striking is the story of Abraham who was called by God to leave his godless country Haram and head towards the unknown Promised Land. Accepting the call, the 75-year-old Abraham became the most famous migrant in antiquity. From then onwards, the narrative of migration has become an essential part of God's plan for humanity and man's quest for God.

Furthermore, we read that at the time of Abraham's grandson Jacob there was famine in the Middle East. Egypt was the only place where there was enough food. To survive, the old man Jacob and his family migrated to the fertile valley of the Nile. This is one of the first documented cases of what we call economic migration today.

But the story does not end here. Over the next four centuries, Egypt became a place where Jews were enslaved, exploited and discriminated against, and their first-born male children slaughtered. Faced with such repression, the lawgiver Moses brought the Jewish people out of the tyranny of Pharaoh. But the road to freedom proved longer than expected. The stateless Jews were wandering through the desert for 40 years before they finally settled in the Promised Land.

12 centuries later, when the Promised Land was ruled by Rome, Emperor Augustus decided to conduct the first census. This meant that everyone should be registered at his place of origin. In the New Testament, we read of Joseph, the carpenter, and his pregnant fiancée Mary who had to leave Nazareth and go to Bethlehem. There, in a cave, Mary gave birth to Jesus. This family of travelers soon faced with the inevitable narrative of exile. Fearing that the newborn Messiah would jeopardize the regime, the paranoid Herod the Tetrarch ordered all male babies in Bethlehem to be killed. But Joseph, warned in a dream, took Mary and Jesus and fled to Egypt, where they remained for 12 years until the death of Herod. So, not only Jesus Christ came to earth as a child in a family of refugees, but he himself grew up in what would be called today a refugee camp.

Judaism and Christianity are no exception. The same goes for the third Abraham's religion - Islam. It is thought that one of the distant descendants of Ishmael is the Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam. In June 622 AD, faced with mortal danger, Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina, where he built the first mosque. The importance of this migration known as the Hijra is huge that in Islam it is taken as the starting year for counting the time.

Something similar is found in Eastern religions. We know that in the 5th century BC, in the east of India lived Prince Siddhartha Gautama. He left the luxurious life in the palace of his father to dedicate himself to the search for truth. Faced with suffering, transience and decadence of life, he gave up the pleasures to find peace or nirvana. Thus, Siddhartha became Buddha.

Distinguished Attendees,

What is common for all these stories? No matter how much they are different, world religions have at least one thing in common. And that is that each of them emerged by a call to leave the home, by an exile, escape or migration. The founders of world religions were migrants, refugees, exiles, banished...

Abraham left his idolatrous country.

Moses fled from the oppressive regime.

Jesus was born in a family of refugees.

Muhammad was persecuted for his beliefs.

Buddha left his home and searched for the meaning of life.

It should not be surprising that in each of the religions the call to set out on a journey takes central place. The call to migrate from skepticism to faith, from rebellion to reconciliation, from pride to humility, from hatred to love. Because, to believe means to travel.

Thus, since the dawn of history and civilization, the journey became the most powerful metaphor for human life. And the goal of that journey is search for meaning, significance, destination and home.

Yet, at the same time, we witness a reverse process. As migration affects religion, religion or ideology affects migration.

That influence can be positive. Examples are the missionaries who, with their dedication and power of arguments, are conquering the hearts and minds of people around the world. The ancient Roman road Via Egnatia passed through Heraklea, the road which the Apostle Paul took when he went to the West, but also the pilgrims who went to the East. From these areas were St. Constantine - Cyril and Methodius who were missionaries to the Saracens, Khazars and Slavs. Here their students St. Clement and Naum returned.

But the story has a dark side too. Throughout history, there were many attempts to spread religion through force of argument. At its peak, this phenomenon born exclusivity, radicalism and extremism united in the intention to destroy diversity. Jihad, crusades, pogroms are historical examples of violence in the name of religion, violence against religion itself.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Reasons for modern radicalism and extremism are many.

It is known that the migrant and refugee crisis facing Europe results of the conflicts in the Middle East, which, in turn, is a consequence of a failure of the old adage that says: Do not open old wounds. And some of those old wounds are Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria...

The straightforward boundaries drawn in the desert sand that divided the ethnic and religious identities are now disappearing from the new map of the Middle East and North Africa. Libya almost does not exist as a state. The political map of Syria looks like leopard skin. Iraq and Yemen are divided into Sunni and Shiite areas. This chaos is used by the monstrous movements like ISIS, Boko Haram, Jabhat al-Nusra... to carry out systematic destruction of whole communities, their homes and temples. In just a few years the mosaic of ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity that was created and preserved for centuries and millennia is destroyed.

The persecution of people of different faiths and beliefs is even more pronounced, not only in non-secular but also in developed and secular societies.

In the past two years, most of the refugees who came to Europe were from the Middle East. It is a place where for centuries and millennia hospitality to the stranger is considered holiness. Coming to Europe, they naturally expected that they would be treated as they would treat us - with respect for the inherent and inalienable human dignity. Instead, in many cases, they met with closed doors, fear, prejudice, mistrust and xenophobia.

With this attitude towards the migrants, some European countries built ghettos without walls, where the different are tolerated without really being respected, where they are tolerated but not accepted. Molenbeek, Saint-Denis and other islands of poverty and exclusion in the rich European capitals have become nests for radicalism, violent extremism and terrorism.

Apart from the political, there are economic and environmental factors that contribute to the growing movement worldwide. Millions of people are leaving their homes due to environmental degradation, extreme weather events, desertification and rising ocean levels. I will remind you that two years ago we saw the first climate refugee from Kiribati.

As a consequence of this, more than ever before, we live in times of refugees and migrants, displaced and persecuted who have experienced loss of home, family, homeland...

According to UNHCR, there are more than 65 million forcibly displaced persons in the world today, of which 21 million are refugees and 10 million are stateless. They carry with them all their ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural diversity. It is therefore said that everyone can be found everywhere and that every religion and belief is present or at least available in every society and every country in the world.

Esteemed Participants,

Freedom in failed states in the Middle East and North Africa, in poor societies of the Third World, is only abstract noun. In such conditions, the developed world should help refugees and migrants to attain this ideal.

The diversity from the Middle East and North Africa does not disappear. It migrates to Europe. The refugees and migrants, who set off in pursuit of happiness and freedom, hope that they will attain these ideals on our continent.

Faced with the reality of the growing diversity of Europe, we are facing several major challenges:

Can we learn to live in peace with our deepest religious, ideological and identity differences?

Can we learn to respect each other, rather than just tolerate?

How will we achieve the fragile but important balance between human rights and freedoms and human responsibilities and duties towards other people?

Can we guarantee the fundamental human freedom of thought, conscience and religion?

The answer to these questions depends on whether we will be able to set the foundations for a truly multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multilingual international society that is free and fair but also stable and safe. The least we should do is to fear, because fear is the filter through which we perceive only threats, not opportunities that stand ahead.

I am confident that this 4th World Conference will partially answer these dilemmas and help to end this 21st century more peaceful than it started.

Thank you.