Lord Sacks calls on moderates of all faiths to defend religious freedom

“If we stand together we will win,” he said. “If we fail, we will lose.”

The training of religious leaders who can teach how people of different faiths could live peaceably together had become a “global priority” he said.

Also important was to look at the religious messages given to children. “If children throughout the world are being taught to hate people of other faiths, that people whose faith is not mine are destined to burn in hell, then all the weaponry in the world will not bring peace,” he said.

His book explores the roots of religious violence and explains trouble between Jews, Christians and Muslims as a form of sibling rivalry. But he argues that such rivalry is not inevitable and that religious texts can be interpreted in a way which promotes co-existence rather than conflict.

It contained “challenging ideas for all three monotheisms,” he said. “It is not an easy book. It asks each one of us, Jews, Christian or Muslim to think again.”