Panel Summary: High-Level Panel at UN World Summit Advances Granada Declaration Framework to Combat Islamophobia and Antisemitism Together

Doha, November 10, 2025

New Ground Research, in collaboration with Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, convened a high-level session titled "The Granada Declaration: A Unified Framework to Combat Islamophobia and Antisemitism" during the Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha. The panel brought together international experts to discuss this groundbreaking declaration and its practical implementation across education, human rights, policy sectors, and other arenas of engagement.

The Granada Declaration of Principles for Combatting Islamophobia and Antisemitism represents an unprecedented integrative approach by establishing unified principles to address both forms of discrimination together, creating practical pathways for implementation across various arenas of engagement, while enhancing enforcement of existing UN resolutions and frameworks for combatting racism.

Ambassador Dr. Khalid Fahad Al Khater, Director and Founder of New Ground Research, outlined the path that led to the declaration's development. "New Ground Research held its 4th Annual Roundtable on combatting Islamophobia and Antisemitism in Granada, Spain, following previous meetings in Doha, where 25 subject experts convened to collectively draft the principles, with meticulous attention to nuances needed to both understand and confront these growing twin-challenges" he explained. "The declaration helps refute policies premised on the notion of an inevitable and ongoing state of confrontation between Muslims and Jews. This declaration also comes at a sensitive time, when both communities are witnessing escalating racial practices targeted against them."

HE Elma Saiz Delgado, Minister of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration of the Kingdom of Spain, emphasized the declaration's role in advancing social inclusion and justice, noting that the initiative aligns with Spain's enduring values in combatting racism and discrimination.

Dr. Dalia Fahmy addressed the declaration's critical framework and functional purpose, emphasizing how it reframes both Islamophobia and antisemitism as interlinked forms of racism and systemic discrimination rather than purely religious bigotry. "The Granada Declaration offers a justice-driven framework that clearly defines and contextualizes both forms of discrimination, shedding light on their societal impacts and manifestations," she explained. She emphasized that the declaration does ten essential things: it frames both as racism with systemic dimensions, acknowledges their secular forms beyond religious contexts, encourages unity in combatting both together, provides practical guidelines for identification and action, protects freedom of expression by distinguishing incitement from protected speech, addresses collective responsibility by rejecting blanket community accountability, warns against misuse of these claims, centers on societal harm, advocates for systemic change at multiple levels, and outlines robust strategies for addressing these interconnected forms of prejudice.

Dr. Ahmed Shaheed connected the declaration to international human rights standards and the UN's global agenda. He emphasized that a cornerstone of universal human rights is the recognition of equal and inherent dignity of every member of the human family, and that the Granada Declaration embodies and operationalizes these core principles. Dr. Shaheed explained that the declaration draws on the full range of international human rights obligations, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion or belief, rights of religious and racial minorities, and protection against racial and religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence.

He highlighted that states often commit two types of errors: inaction in the face of racist hate, which may itself amount to complicity, and the use of overly broad laws that punish protected speech. "When laws designed to fight racist hate restrict legitimate speech, they not only undercut the fight against racism but also themselves amount to human rights violations," Dr. Shaheed noted. "The Granada Declaration offers guidance on ways to avoid this pitfall."

Dr. Shaheed also addressed the growing recognition of the racialization of Muslims, pointing to formal opinions by the European Commission on Racial Intolerance and the EU Action Plan to combat racism, which recognizes anti-Muslim hatred as a form of racism. He connected the declaration to the UN's Rabat Plan of Action, which stresses that hate speech must never go unchallenged and emphasizes allyship as the strongest shield against hate. "The fundamental objective of the Granada Declaration is generating these whole-of-society responses," he stated. "Allyship is the David that can bring down the Goliath of hate."

Dr. Brian Klug illuminated the declaration's integrative philosophy, explaining the significance of addressing both forms of discrimination "together." He emphasized that the declaration's first principle succinctly establishes the foundation: "Islamophobia and antisemitism are forms of racism." Dr. Klug explained that both attribute overwhelmingly negative traits to entire communities, with some of these attributes being identical across both forms of discrimination. "These phenomena can and often do interact or intersect," he noted, citing examples including the Great Replacement Theory, campaigns against ritual slaughter of animals for food, and the global fallout from Gaza affecting both Jews and Muslims.

He emphasized that embedded within the declaration's ten principles is a vision of an inclusive society based on equal respect for all members and human dignity. "Whereas racism dehumanizes, the Granada Declaration contributes to rehumanizing Muslims and Jews," Dr. Klug stated. "An integrative approach implies that Jews and Muslims should care about the othering of each other, which can only enhance Muslim-Jewish understanding and good relations. This is the 'peace dividend' of the Granada Declaration."

HE Ambassador Alvaro Renedo Zalba of Spain to Qatar underscored the urgent need to combat both forms of discrimination simultaneously in today's interconnected world. He particularly praised Granada's selection as the declaration's namesake, highlighting the city's civilizational legacy as a symbol of coexistence and dialogue among diverse cultures.

Dr. Dalia Fahmy closed the panel by emphasizing the importance of transforming the declaration's insights into practical solutions. "Ultimately, the aim is to bridge the divide between a declaration and real-world strategies by harnessing expertise across governments, civil society, academia, and international institutions," she stated. Dr. Fahmy outlined the plan of action, which includes identifying synergies between the declaration and work by UN system actors in combatting hate, developing a practical roadmap for implementing the declaration's principles globally, establishing guidelines to counter the instrumentalization of antisemitism and Islamophobia in political discourse, and strengthening collective initiatives across sectors to address these forms of discrimination in their cultural, institutional, and structural dimensions.

The Granada Declaration establishes an effective framework to counter attempts that leverage racial rhetoric to pit Jewish and Islamic communities against one another through cultural, religious, or racial allegations. It complements existing international efforts while creating new mechanisms for practical application across education, human rights, and policy sectors.

New Ground Research has circulated the Granada Declaration at the 2025 Doha Forum, marking an additional step toward deepening effective international cooperation. This effort aims to create a new foundation for understanding and reducing racial and hate rhetoric toward Muslim and Jewish communities worldwide.

This is the second high-level engagement with the UN for New Ground Research on the Granada Declaration.