Euromedia

A dialogue between "Europe" and "Islam"

This article from the Daily Star newspaper highlights a two-day conference taking place in Lebanon between Europeans and Muslims from across the Arab countries to Indonesia. It's not clear from the article what's on the conference agenda, but organizers are emphasizing that the point is to create a dialogue between "Islam" and "Europe."

Interestingly, a main sponsor is a think tank associated with Hizbullah, a Shia group that challenged the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon. Hizbullah, incidentally, is on Washington's list of terrorist organizations. No dialogue there.

It's surprising that such a conference is taking place. I will look further into it to make an analysis of the potential impacts such "dialogue" could have on European policies with respect to the Middle East and indigenous Muslim communities in EU nations.

I wasn't able to find European stories on this (at least in the British press).

Daily Star, Lebanon "Conference aims to take heads out of the sand"

Conference aims take heads out of the sand
Organizers hope to promote dialogue between Islamic world and Europe

‘The idea came from the think tank of Hizbullah in 2002, and they proposed this idea and we welcomed it’

Christian Henderson
Daily Star staff

A conference aimed at promoting dialogue between the Islamic world and Europe held its opening session Tuesday in which the speakers called for

Manfred Kropp of the Orient Institute in Beirut set the tone when he called on the large crowd of religious figures and academics from all sects and nationalities to remain open to what others had to say.

“Dialogue entails a method ­ to listen to the words of others, and to expect in return to be listened to by the other, and it implies that certain rules are strictly followed: from the renunciation of any kind of violence down to the rules of respect and politeness,” Kropp said.

The Islamic World and Europe: From Dialogue Toward Understanding was organized by four different groups, a fact that is evident in the wide variety of speakers who include MPs from Lebanon and Indonesia as well as academics whose expertise cover a wide range of disciplines and schools of thought. The conference is being held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Leslie Tramontini a research fellow at the Orient Institute, and one of the organizers of the event said that combining the efforts of four organizations had not been easy.

“Organizing the event was more difficult with four groups than it was with one.”

Tramontini said that the Orient Institute was first approached by Hizbullah with a proposal to set such a conference up.

“The idea came from the think tank of Hizbullah in 2002 and they proposed this idea and we welcomed it. How could we not welcome such a thing?”

The event has been the result of some controversy in Germany after a commentator in a newspaper accused the conference of being anti-Semitic and questioned why German government funds should be used to help fund such a conference.

Tramontini dismissed the criticism. “We have had so much positive response in Germany,” she said. “I think this is a polemic,” she said in reference to the criticisms.

“We are of the point of view that putting your head in the sand is of no use. You have to do dialogue.”

The conference covers subjects ranging from democracy, resistance against occupation, political Islam and US foreign policy ­ although the absence of any US officials or academics is conspicuous.

Tramontini said that the magnitude of the subject made it difficult to include everything.

“The Islamic world is a big world and Europe is a big world. There is no way we could include everything,” she said, pointing to the size of the two-day agenda.

“Look at the program, you would be destroyed by those two days, it’s 10 hours,” she said.

Samir Farah, the representative of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, an NGO that promotes democracy and one of the organizers of the event, said that he hoped a permanent working group could be established as a result of the conference.

“We are hoping that they will come to a certain understanding, and that they will form a sort of permanent committee to sustain such dialogue among the Islamists and Europeans.”

Mohsen Salah, a member of The Consultative Center for Studies and Documentation think tank, which is directed by Hizbullah, and is the only Lebanese group to play a role in the event, said that he hoped a new attitude could be found on behalf of both sides.

“We try to have a new approach. We try to shed light on some issues," said
Jamal al-Banna, a writer and younger brother of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Hassan al-Banna, lauded the spirit behind the event.

“I think that this conference is very important, and it must be a continuous movement, and it is very important to take a bridge between Islam and Christianity and the East and the West,” said Banna, who is presenting a paper on democracy. “Confrontation (between East and West) didn’t get anyone anywhere. It’s a harmful phenomena.”

Posted by Roya Aziz at February 19, 2004 01:07 AM