Europe meets with European Muslims
The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, held talks with leaders of Islamic communities at the G20 summit.
Download the Note for audience with President Sassoli in Bologna
“I think it is a privilege that European Jews, European Christians, European Muslims and secular Europeans can all live together in Europe”.
These words by David Sassoli, the President of the European Parliament, were greeted favourably by members of Eulema, the Council of European Muslim Leaders, who met with him privately during the G20 Interfaith Forum held in Bologna from 11th-14th September.
“The rules cannot be set by economics and science alone: religion also has a crucial role to play - so Mr Sassoli went on to say - we must all work harder to bring together our different religious families and Europe should be the testing ground for this unity of religion and diversity. In this respect religion can help democracy and we must strive to get rid of this notion that Islam is something that does not belong to Europe”.
This appeal met with the approval of the 12 Muslim men and women representing Islamic communities from 9different states, including the Imam Yahya Pallavicini, coordinator of EULEMA for Italy, Nedzad Grabus, Grand Mufti of Slovenia, Souad Onniselka from Finland, Imam Shaykh Muhammad Ismail from the United Kingdom, Amina Baghajati from Austria, Sheikh Dr Muhammad Umar Al-Qadri, President of the Irish Islamic Council for Peace and Integration, Anna Stamou , the spokeswoman for the Association of Muslims in Greece, Anouar Kbibech , President of the Rassemblement des Musulmans de France (RMF), Tarafa Baghajati , Islamic Religious Authority of Austria, and Liya Makhmutova , President of Muslim Baltic Women from Estonia.
The imam Yahya Pallavicini presented President Sassoli with a picture of the gate of Kaaba, the holy temple in Mecca.
The meeting also involved Prof. Alberto Melloni, secretary of FSCIRE, who hosted the event, Halima Rubbo from the Italian COREIS, and Prof. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Senior Advisor to KAICIID, the International Dialogue Centre founded by Austria, Saudi Arabia and Spain.
Muslim leaders from Eulema told the president of the European Parliament that “they were concerned about the increasing spread of anti-Muslim sentiment against religious people in Europe and that a new generation of Muslim experts must work together more effectively to overcome the challenges facing intercultural and interfaith dialogue as a way of combating prejudice”.
With this in mind, they asked President Sassoli to devise “better policies for promoting the religious freedom of Muslim citizens in Europe”. The various proposals included backing training courses for imams and murshidats (female religious leaders) on the issue of shared European values and fundamental rights, working in partnership with Hebrew and Christian organisations including the Giovanni XXIII Foundation for Religious Sciences (FSCIRE).
On the subject of integrating immigrants, Eulema also plans to work with Caritas and Sant’Egidio in Italy to provide professional-social training and psychological and spiritual support to help prevent the risk of alienation and the creation of ghettos. A special plan will be studied for Afghan refugees.
Members of Eulema together with the Secretary General of KAICIID Faisal Bin Muammar
