Brussels, 21/04/2008 (Agence Europe) -The Commission of the Bishops' Conference of the European Union COMECE, the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, are organising, in partnership with Muslim associations, four seminars on the subject of Islam, Christianity and Europe, as part of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. The first of these seminars was held on Thursday 17 April, under the aegis of the European Parliament. The objective of this initiative is to reinforce social cohesion and peace in Europe, and to show the citizens that it is important to live together in diversity, and that a major element of this diversity is the increase of the Muslim population in an area which has up to now been mostly Christian, the organisers stress. The seminars will have the objective of debating a different aspect of this new demographic configuration, given the stated objective of the European Union to develop relations with the Mediterranean partner countries. Each panel will include a Christian and a Muslim member, a university representative and a member of the European Parliament, who will sum up.
The first conference sought to identify problems with integration encountered by a majority of Muslims in the countries of Europe, distinguishing between those directly related to questions of religion and culture and those of a purely socio-economic nature. It also raised the importance of intercultural dialogue between the Christian and Muslim communities in order to resolve these problems. Professor Ural Manço, a sociologist specialising in the field of religion, stressed the origin of the waves of immigration of the Muslim populations of Europe. Many of these moved at the behest of the populations of Europe, which were seeking a labour force to do the work its populations did not want to do. Unlike previous waves of immigration, which saw workers of Italian, Spanish or Portuguese origin arriving in the countries of northern Europe, North African, Turkish, Indian and Pakistani immigrants experienced only a short decade of full employment. In the early 1980s, mass unemployment swept through these populations, which, at the same time, lost their legitimacy and chance to integrate, Mr Manço explained. On top of this initial factor came the educational failings of the children of these first-generation immigrants, who failed to achieve the dreams of social mobility of their parents. Today 14.5 million Muslim immigrants who entered Europe as part of this work-force migration live in Europe. The various models set in place to make a success of their integration have failed and in these populations, there is the desire for people to find their own place in a society in which the value of the individual is cherished and in which one must stand out in order to succeed, stressed Professor Manço. He went on to explain that for young Muslims, religion has become an instrument to stand out and to play a role in a pluralist European Society which acknowledges the rights of individuals. Muslims in Western Europe live their religion well, indeed better than in other regions of the world, added Mr Manço. Tareq Oubrou, imam at the Al-Houda Mosque of Bordeaux, spoke of Islam's entrance into a Judeo-Christian society full of doubt, into a world of change. But for the first time in history, people who are culturally and spiritually different are rubbing shoulders on the same territory, which brings about inevitable tensions of identity. The lack of dialogue at the level of the religious communities themselves is the basis of the lack of dialogue between the Christian and Muslim communities, opined Mr Oubrou. He spoke out against the poor image of Islam with Christians who ignore the message of love and altruism channelled by the Koran. It is in all of our interests to communicate; we need more visibility in order to avoid fundamentalism, he concluded. In the view of the Dominican brother Ignace Berten, global events such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the new regime in Tehran, have led to exceptional solidarity between Muslims, vindicating feelings of victimhood on the global geopolitical chessboard. The integration (and not assimilation, he stressed) of the Muslim populations in Europe must start at school, which is by no means the case, he lamented. He went on to put a double question: to what extent must the host country change its ways in order to welcome the other? And to the Muslims: to what extent must they give up their cultural practices in order to be accepted in the host country? Only meeting places and a re-reading of each other's traditions and history, in full respect of each other, can lead to a genuine change in mentality and acceptance of mutual differences, he stressed. Called upon to sum up, MEP Ramona Nicole Manescu (ALDE, Romania) spoke out against the obstacles which are still preventing a genuine freedom of faith within the European states. In the face of the rising tide of Islamophobia, Europeans must lend their support to Islam and do more to show what it has brought to the Christian culture and civilisation. She is optimistic that the cultural terrain will eventually allow dialogue to be re-established. (I.L.)