There is a certain quietness to Eric Roux’s manner, a deliberate attentiveness that draws the listener closer. It is not the quietness of hesitation, but the steady cadence of someone who has spent his life arranging words with care — words that, over time, have built an architecture of bridges between faiths, between traditions, between ways of belonging in the world. The language of freedom, of dialogue, of religious rights, is spoken by many. But few speak it as Eric Roux does, with the quiet force of conviction backed by decades of advocacy.
In the landscape of interfaith dialogue, where noise often trumps nuance, Roux has become, almost without theatrics, one of Europe’s steadfast architects of religious freedom. In an age when declarations are made in capital letters and outrage is broadcast in real time, his work has moved with the patience of stone masons, laying one invisible brick after another, creating spaces where belief, in all its unwieldy plurality, can be quietly honored. His work is not about flashy gestures or grand speeches. It is about steady commitment, deliberate actions, and a conviction that true change takes root when nurtured carefully and without fanfare.
Roux was born in France, in a generation that had begun to mistrust grand narratives but still yearned, perhaps unknowingly, for a kind of sacred coherence. In his youth, he sought answers across the spiritual spectrum, wandering, as he would later describe it, not lost but hungry. His explorations led him eventually to the Church of Scientology, where he found both a personal spiritual path and an organizational framework through which to act in the world. By 1993, he had been ordained as a minister, having chosen to take up the mantle of leadership within his faith community.
But it was not enough to belong to a faith; belonging had to be made meaningful in society. And society — with its often uneasy relationship to minority religions — would not make that easy. France, despite its proud commitment to liberté, égalité, fraternité, harbored a peculiar suspicion toward non-traditional religious movements. Roux saw early on how prejudice, masked as secular rigor, could suffocate the delicate freedoms of conscience and worship. Over time, he recognized that his faith was not just a personal matter; it was a matter of public interest and human rights.
By the early 2000s, Roux had begun to dedicate himself beyond his own community, co-founding the European Interreligious Forum for Religious Freedom (EIFRF), a platform meant not to promote one religion, but to defend the right of every person to believe — or not — without state interference. The EIFRF’s mission was clear: to create a space where diverse voices could be heard, where individuals of all faiths could come together to affirm their right to worship without fear of repression. Roux’s work became increasingly vital in a time when governments were beginning to impose “sect filters,” listing certain religious movements as cults in an attempt to regulate or suppress them.
His involvement with the EIFRF marked a crucial turning point in his life. Eric Roux’s advocacy was no longer limited to his own faith community but expanded to encompass the wider issue of religious freedom. The organization sought to unite like-minded individuals, regardless of faith, to raise awareness about the importance of religious liberty and to combat the growing discrimination against religious minorities. His role at EIFRF was one of legal expertise and diplomatic finesse, attending conferences, speaking at the United Nations, the European Parliament, and the OSCE, where he would insist, patiently but persistently, that freedom of religion or belief was not a privilege for the favored, but a right for all.
At these gatherings, Roux was rarely the loudest voice. He did not grandstand or moralize. Instead, he would build slow arguments, brick by brick, invoking not only human rights conventions but the ancient wisdom that freedom must be defended in silence as much as in spectacle. His speeches were often met not with thunderous applause but with quiet reflection. His listeners, even if they didn’t fully agree, could not help but acknowledge the depth of his commitment to what he believed was an unassailable right: the freedom to believe.
In 2013, Roux found a new home for his expanding vision within the United Religions Initiative (URI), a global grassroots network committed to interfaith cooperation and peacebuilding. Through EIFRF, he became one of URI’s “Cooperation Circles,” contributing a European voice to a global mosaic. The Cooperation Circles, groups that span the globe, serve as the heart of URI’s efforts to build interfaith relationships and tackle pressing global issues such as poverty, violence, and environmental degradation. Over time, his commitment deepened. In 2022, he was elected as a Global Council Trustee for Europe, and in September 2024, Roux rose to Chair of URI’s Global Council — the first European in that position, but perhaps more importantly, a quiet reaffirmation of URI’s belief that leadership need not shout to be heard. It was a significant moment in Roux’s life, a recognition of his quiet but persistent efforts to protect the rights of religious minorities and to foster interfaith cooperation.
At the URI headquarters in San Francisco, where the board gathered after his election, Roux delivered a brief, characteristically restrained acceptance address. There, he remarked that there is no singular faith that owns peace or holds all the truth — only people gathered in goodwill across their differences. The room did not erupt into the raucous cheers one might expect; instead, there was a slow standing, a solemn recognition. His was a leadership of quiet dignity, grounded not in the pursuit of power but in the service of others, in the effort to create a world where religious difference is not a reason for conflict but an opportunity for understanding.
If there is a throughline in Roux’s life, it is this insistence on the humble fact of difference — that to believe differently is not a threat but a promise: the promise that humanity, in its endless variation, can still find a shared ground. In practice, this means navigating not only between religions, but within them: between Orthodox and Reform, Sunni and Shia, Theravāda and Mahāyāna, conservative and progressive, those who cling and those who reform. Roux has been involved in dialogue between a wide array of faiths, from the Catholic Church to Buddhist communities to Orthodox Jews, understanding that the strength of a pluralistic society depends on the ability to see and respect the differences of others.
Eric Roux has always been someone who listens deeply, even when those around him might not fully grasp the weight of their own words. There is a thoughtfulness to his approach that leaves room for all perspectives to be heard. It is not that he believes every viewpoint is equally valid, but that the act of listening — especially to those one disagrees with — is itself a form of respect and a necessary precondition for any kind of meaningful dialogue. Whether working on religious freedom legislation in Europe or engaging with the international interfaith community, Eric Roux’s work is always marked by this careful, thoughtful listening. It is this quality that has earned him the respect of colleagues and adversaries alike.
There are, inevitably, moments of discouragement. Roux has been the target of smear campaigns by those who view religious diversity not as a strength but a dilution of the “true faith.” He has witnessed how governments, even in democratic Europe, quietly institutionalize suspicion against minority religions through so-called “sect filters” and blacklists. Each setback could have pushed him into cynicism or retreat. Instead, he has responded with an almost monastic discipline of engagement: another conference, another dialogue, another letter drafted carefully and sent out into a bureaucracy that may or may not read it. His resilience has been a hallmark of his leadership, his refusal to be cowed by hostility or indifference. It is this quiet resilience that has helped keep the flame of religious freedom alight in Europe, where challenges to this fundamental right often appear in the guise of law or state policy.
In private conversations, Eric Roux sometimes speaks about hope not as a feeling but as a practice — a daily, deliberate act, like laying another stone in a cathedral he knows he may never see completed. His faith, though personal, seems to have shaped him toward a broader fidelity: not to a doctrine, but to the very possibility of shared humanity. His is not a hope born of naive optimism but one grounded in a deeply held belief that, through sustained effort, human beings can build a better world together. This belief has driven his activism, his advocacy, and his daily work.
Outside of his formal roles, Roux has remained a prolific advocate. He has published articles on religious freedom, spoken at global interfaith summits, contributed to roundtables at the United Nations. His written work, while less known to the general public, reveals a thinker deeply invested in the paradoxes of modern pluralism: how to honor freedom without succumbing to relativism, how to defend minority rights without alienating majority traditions. His approach is never simplistic; rather, he understands that the work of interfaith dialogue is deeply complex, requiring patience, understanding, and the ability to confront uncomfortable truths.
Today, even as he leads one of the world’s largest grassroots interfaith organizations, Roux remains strikingly unassuming. In public events, he tends to dress simply, to defer to others on panels, to redirect praise. His presence is less that of a general rallying troops than of a gardener tending many different seeds, knowing some will grow, some will not, and that the garden is never finished anyway. His work is the quiet, constant tending of that garden, ensuring that the seeds of understanding, cooperation, and peace have every opportunity to take root and flourish.
To walk with Eric Roux through a conference hall — whether in Brussels or New York or Nairobi — is to witness a quiet choreography of handshakes, nods, whispered greetings. He moves calmly, with deliberation, yet never seems out of place. There is a sense, among those who know him, that Roux does not aspire to lead faith communities into a single unified voice, but rather to preserve the polyphony — each voice distinct, each voice essential. His leadership is not about homogenizing belief but about fostering a space where diversity can be celebrated and protected.
It is a difficult thing, in a noisy and suspicious world, to hold onto this vision. Yet, brick by brick, handshake by handshake, Eric Roux continues to build it: the quiet architecture of freedom, a structure light enough to shelter many beliefs, strong enough to endure the winds of fear.
And like all true architects, he seems content to let the work speak for itself.
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