Strasbourg, 27/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - The meeting, on Wednesday in Strasbourg, of the representatives of the main religious communities in France was attended by European Parliament Nicole Fontaine, as well as the presidents of the GUE group, Francis Wurtz, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Graham Watson, and of the EP/Palestinian legislative delegation, Luisa Morgantini, and Vice-President of the EP/Israel Delegation François Zimeray. It was a meeting that Ms Fontaine had organised to contribute to dialogue and reconciliation after the racist incidents caused in France by the escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. It, went off without incident. Ms Fontaine told the press: "we agreed to meet quite frequently" to discuss the "values that unite us". Of course, said Ms Fontaine, "I plan to extend this reflection to the whole of the religious community" in other countries also.
During the same press conference, the interlocutors all welcomed Ms Fontaine's initiative. Chief Rabbi in Paris, Mr Messas said that, for him, the meeting "was a moment of happiness". He hoped that all imam would call, in their mosques, for the Middle East crisis not to be exported to Europe. The Rector of the Paris Mosque, Mr Boubaker, appealed to reason and said he hoped the Muslim communities would avoid any form of excess so that a "culture of religious peace" could develop. Metropolitan orthodox bishop for France Jeremie recalled that Christians have also been engaged in the Middle East for centuries, and Monseigneur Jean-Louis Papin, Bishop of Nancy and Toul, stressed the usefulness of a "common expression of views" by the representatives of the different religious communities and of "indepth work at the level of dialogue between religions". We must fight "anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim sentiments", said Pastor Alfred Sarg, Vice-President of the Protestant Federation in France, who launched the idea of creating an Institute of advanced studies on religions in Europe. He made a distinction between "holy" places, places of souvenir and "sacred" places, saying, "for us, only God is sacred, and we believe that, if one considers stones and monuments as sacred this could result in the 'sacrifice' of human lives".
During Thursday's plenary, Ms Fontaine, who stressed that, since the "indescribable acts" of recent attacks against synagogues in France could not be condemned during emergency debates which were not planned during this plenary because of the budgetary vote, read a declaration in which she launched an appeal for the cessation of violence and respect of religious freedom and tolerance between all communities. This was affirmed yesterday with the representatives of the different religious communities in France, said Ms Fontaine, who recalled that, in 1995, the European institutions had adopted a declaration on the fight against racism and xenophobia in Europe. She noted that the latest affirmation of such values by the EU was the European Charter of Fundamental Rights endorsed in Biarritz.