[11] Mohamed Sahnoun was born in 1931 in Chlef (known as Castellum Tingitanum during Roman times, Al Asnam during the Umayyad Caliphate period and from 1962 to 1980 as well as Orléansville during the French colonization), in Algeria.

As an activist of the FLN, he responded to the call to strike launched by the Union générale des étudiants musulmans algériens (Ugema) on 19 May 1956,[12] stopped studying in Paris and came back home in Algeria.

There, he started to work in the 'Social Centers' created by former French Resistance fighter Germaine Tillon with the agreement of Jacques Soustelle (then Governor General of Algeria) in order to alleviate misery, squalor and illiteracy in Algerian populations.

In the name of peace and human security, Ben Bella agreed to convey a message to Fidel Castro making clear how much the American regarded this situation as a casus belli.

[31]" These ideas stayed with him through his long professional career, where he was from the onset a man of dialogue, trying for instance to establish appropriate communication between communities about Congo through the UNESCO-backed World Assembly of Youth (WAY), or as a leading figure of the OAU, particularly when African countries were confronted with the problems stemming from the borders inherited from colonialism, or in his different missions for the UN.

[31] He reinforces further this reflection in his later career years as he more and more commits in favour of human security, for instance though The Responsibility to Protect project (2001) or through his organizing from 2008 to 2012 of the Caux Forum for Human Security, with the following five themes: Healing Memory, Just Governance, Living Sustainably, Inclusive Economics and Intercultural Dialogue[32] Very committed to interreligious diversity and dialogue, Mohamed Sahnoun rose strongly against the idea of Clash of Civilizations, saying for example: "I said to Huntington during a discussion in Washington, there is no such clash.