DOI: 10.1111/bioe.13154 DEBATE Bioethics and the thorny question of diversity: The example of Qatar‐based institutions hosting the World Congress of Bioethics 2024 Mohammed Ghaly 1 | Maha El Akoum 2 | Sultana Afdhal 3 1 Research Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics (CILE), College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar 2 World Innovation Summit for Health, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar 3 World Innovation Summit for Health, Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar Correspondence Mohammed Ghaly, Research Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics (CILE), College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, P.O. Box 34110 Doha, Qatar. Email: mghaly@hbku.edu.qa Abstract In 2022, the Research Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics (CILE) and the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) submitted a proposal to host the 17th edition of the World Congress of Bioethics. After announcing that the CILE‐WISH proposal was the winning bid, concerns were raised by bioethicists based in Europe and the USA. To address these concerns, the International Association of Bioethics (IAB) developed a dedicated FAQ section, in coordination with the host institutions, for the first time in IAB history. One‐to‐one communication ensued and individual responses were shared with these colleagues. As a continuation of this conversation, we (CILE Acting Director, WISH Research Fellow and Head of Content, and WISH CEO) address the concerns raised in the Letter‐to‐the‐Editor of Bioethics by Graaf et al. As we support the call to revisit some contentious issues within the global community of bioethicists, we maintain that this should be based on meticulously discussed, informed, consistent and equitable criteria. We also argue that mutual learning from diverse cultures and moral traditions is the optimal way for our scholarly community to be truly global and to eschew the flaws ensuing from ethnocentric discourses. KEYWORDS cultural diversity, global bioethics, human rights, intercultural communication ethics, migrant rights 1 | INTRODUCTION Since 2013, the Qatar‐based Research Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics (CILE) and the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) have forged a long‐term collaboration framework. The aim was to enhance the field of Islamic bioethics by developing religio‐culturally sensitive responses to the challenges triggered by modern biomedical technologies and to develop sustainable and constructive engage- ment with bioethical discourses in other religious and secular moral traditions. As part of this research agenda, they submitted a joint proposal to host the 17th edition of the World Congress of Bioethics (WCB) in 2024. In 2022, the International Association of Bioethics (IAB) announced the success of the CILE‐WISH bid. After 16 editions, it will be the first time that the WCB will take place in an Arab and Muslim‐majority country and in the whole Middle East. The announcement came in the midst of polarizing controversies over the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, with Western media campaigns accusing Qatar of human rights and ethical violations. Counter voices accused these campaigns of hypocrisy, adopting double standards, and vilification based on misinformation. Bioethics. 2023;1–5. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/bioe © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. | 1 14678519, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bioe.13154 by Cochrane Qatar, Wiley Online Library on [14/03/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License