Chapter 1A Human-Centered Push for Peace

The Abrahamic Movement presents religion as a bridge rather than a wedge. According to its own materials, the grassroots interfaith initiative uses the shared figure of Abraham (Ibrahim) to bring Jews, Muslims, Christians and minority communities into sustained dialogue and practical cooperation. It is led by Tom Wegner and grew out of the spirit of the Abraham Accords, while arguing that political normalization needs a deeper cultural and spiritual foundation to last.

Its central claim, set out in its vision statement, is that peace processes built only around land and security have limits. Lasting stability, it says, requires identity-level reconciliation: recognising each other’s legitimacy and dignity rather than merely tolerating each other’s presence. Coverage of the movement describes Abraham as a symbol of recognition, partnership and hope.

From ideas to everyday encounters

The movement is deliberately practical. It reports more than 50 multilingual dialogues, Jewish-Bedouin gatherings in the Negev, meetings in Kfar Kama, women’s dialogues in Jerusalem, and publications such as the Abrahamic Peace Codex series. It also works with Druze, Alawite, Assyrian and Christian communities and with partners focused on de-radicalization and coexistence. The emphasis is people-to-people: WhatsApp groups, Facebook and Telegram communities, summits and face-to-face meetings.

Rooted in the Middle East but globally networked, it reports branches or active presence in Israel, Morocco, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and the Palestinian Authority, Pakistan, Somaliland, Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, the Netherlands, Finland, Canada and the United States, with partnerships reaching Indonesia and Malaysia. Many of these are places where contact with Israel is sensitive or restricted.

Chapter 2Tom Wegner: Strategist Turned Peace Activist

Wegner is an Israeli media strategist, author and activist who co-founded and leads the movement. His public profile describes work as an adviser to Israeli political figures and institutions, including roles described as spokesperson for former prime minister Ehud Barak and communications adviser to a defense minister, plus public-relations work at the Peres Center for Peace. He is also known for earlier advocacy on medical cannabis and for co-founding the Israeli Space Association and the Trees Fund.

His books include Cannabis Wars and, more recently, The Abrahamic Revolution: A Middle East Peace Formula (2025), which won a Global Books Award gold medal. With Palestinian writer Elias Nasri Babon he co-authored Unity of the Believers, which explores uniting Abrahamic religions in a single monotheistic framework as a route to regional peace.

Wegner calls his approach “interfaith diplomacy,” not classic interfaith dialogue: religious language and shared symbols used to build political and social support for cooperation.

How his background shapes the movement

The mix of politics, media and civil society shows in the design: part diplomatic initiative, part media project, part grassroots network. In his own telling, it uses multilingual Zoom dialogues, messaging groups and targeted media outreach in Arabic, Hebrew and English, and draws on a personal network of politicians, intellectuals and journalists across the Muslim world. He argues, for example, that the Quran and Zionism both point to the children of Israel’s connection to the land, and that this can be a bridge rather than a battleground.

Wegner describes the Abraham Accords as a necessary but insufficient start, and calls his framework “Abrahamic federalism”: close cooperation and shared destiny without erasing national or religious identities. He says he grew up inside Israel’s security culture, “the language of suspicion and fear,” and that the Arabic newspaper Al-Hadath Al-Arabi named him one of its “Men of the Year” for 2025.

Chapter 3What “Interfaith Diplomacy” Means

The movement defines interfaith diplomacy as a form of track-1.5/track-2 diplomacy that uses shared Abrahamic faith, symbols and narratives to build political and social support for normalization and cooperation, especially between Israel and the Muslim world. Religion is treated as an instrument of public diplomacy: delegations of religious leaders, joint statements and faith-based events meant to legitimise cooperation and counter narratives that call such contact betrayal.

Chapter 4Countering Muslim Brotherhood Narratives

Interfaith diplomacy is designed, its proponents say, to undercut the religious foundations of Muslim Brotherhood-style arguments about Jews, Israel and normalization. Analysts of Abrahamic discourse note that it uses the same scriptural universe but reaches opposite conclusions. Researchers document that Brotherhood-linked currents have selectively used Quranic verses and hadith to depict Jews as hostile, and framed normalization as cultural and religious contamination.

Cover, confrontation and long-term competition

The movement tries to lower the social cost of engagement by organising delegations of clerics, publishing books and articles with theological backing, and building local chapters and digital communities so ordinary people meet Jews and Israelis as partners rather than abstractions.

It has also confronted critics directly. In Iraq it issued a public response to Hizb ut-Tahrir, defending dialogue and coexistence and rejecting accusations of “merging religions.” Wegner frames such attacks as evidence that peace is seen as a threat by “merchants of hatred.” Ultimately, the project is ideological: replace the “eternal enemy” story with a “family of Abraham” story.

Chapter 5The Legacy the Movement Is Up Against

Scholars and analysts argue the Muslim Brotherhood has been among the most influential forces shaping how many Arabs talk about Jews. Reference accounts describe antisemitism as present before the Brotherhood’s rise in the 1920s and 30s, but not yet a mass ideology, and academic research traces how the movement blended traditional prejudice with modern European conspiracy theories and spread them through sermons, pamphlets, newspapers, and later radio and television.

Collapsing three categories into one

A key charge is that Brotherhood-influenced discourse erases distinctions between Jews as a religious group, Zionists as a political movement and Israelis as citizens of a state, so that the terms are used interchangeably. Analysts say this lets criticism of Israel slide into classic antisemitic tropes and makes coexistence theologically suspect. Ideologues such as Sayyid Qutb are cited as arguing that Jews were undeserving of “People of the Book” status.

The cycle the movement wants to break

The same analysts argue the effect is self-reinforcing: hostile rhetoric fuels conflict, and conflict reinforces hostile narratives. It also raises the cost for leaders who consider peace, even where governments pursue quiet security or economic ties. Breaking that cycle with an alternative Islamic discourse of recognition and coexistence is what the Abrahamic Movement says it is for. Whether faith-based statecraft “from below” can outpace decades of entrenched narratives is the open question, and one its supporters and critics will keep contesting.