Ismail Royer, RFI’s Director of Islam and Religious Freedom, spoke Tuesday at a session at this week’s 2026 IRF Summit. Titled, “Forging Multi-Faith Partnerships in Our Communities and Nations,” the session was dedicated to Religious Prisoner of Conscience Ali Ünal. Royer introduced Dr. Ünal, a prominent Turkish religious scholar who for decades had “contributed to Turkey’s religious life through work focused on dialogue between faiths and cooperation based on shared values.”

In 2016, Turkish authorities arrested Dr. Ünal as part of a crackdown on Hizmet, a religious movement that the government blamed for a failed coup earlier that year. Dr. Ünal, who was a prominent figure in that movement, was convicted without evidence of “founding and leading an armed terrorist organization” and sentenced to 19 years and 6 months in prison.

Royer explained that Ünal’s arrest was not merely political. Turkey’s official religious affairs department issued a report justifying the government’s crackdown by accusing Hizmet of apostasy and “creating a new religion,” and stating that it aims “to erase them from the mind and heart of the nation.”

The IRF Summit brings together a broad coalition of institutions and individuals that support religious freedom around the globe for an annual, in-person event in Washington, D.C. Over 90 organizations representing more than 30 faith traditions participate in this event to advance international religious freedom.

Dr. Ünal was recognized at the Summit during a special session organized by the Prisoners of Conscience Working Group under the International Religious Freedom Roundtable. The panel drew attention to individuals around the world jailed for practicing their faith or expressing their beliefs peacefully.