Anwar Ibrahim and Jusuf Habibie speak at FNF conference in Germany

Historically, Europe had several encounters with Islam. During the first one, Muslim troops conquered Spain, only to be stopped in Southern France in 732AD. Their conquest led to the establishment of Muslim rule in Spain for the next 800 years, described by the Spanish term ‘convivencia’. It was the first attempt to integrate Christian and Muslim faith in one society.

Now, at the turn of the 20th to the 21st century, Europe has to find a new, modern form of ‘convivencia’, because 15 to 25 million Muslims migrated to Europe either from its former colonies, as migrant workers or refugees. They brought along their traditions and must adjust them now to the principles of human rights and the rule of law prevalent in European societies. For its part Europe must ensure that the many millions of Muslims living in its bounds do not face any form of religiously motivated discrimination. At the same time Europe cannot accept practices within the Muslim communities which run contrary to the vital principles underpinning European societies.

The process of establishing a new regime of European ‘convivencia’, based on mutual trust and tolerance among all religious groups, requires an open dialogue among all stakeholders. The Friedrich Naumann Foundation, therefore, invited leading representatives of the Central Committee of Muslims in Germany, the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Office for Religion, the Islamic Federation Berlin, and the Islamic Community Germany. They met with the Chairman of the Council of Evangelical Churches in Germany and a representative of the Central Committee of the Catholic Church in Germany.

Count Lambsdorff, Chairman of the Friedrich Nauman Foundation, gave the opening address and stressed the importance of finding shared solutions based on the principles of human rights and liberal democracy. Subsequent sessions dealt with matters of the inclusion of all currents of Muslim faith, the state and the individual in modern Islam, Muslim culture and education in Europe, as well as modern Islam on the agenda of European foreign and development policy.

Among the many experts who attended this important meeting were H.E. Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, former President of the Republic of Indonesia, and H.E. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. Anwar had to stay in Malaysia for an important court case and joined the conference live on video from Kuala Lumpur.

Resource persons were Prof. Abdullahi An-Na’im (USA), Francois Zabbal (France), Prof. Amin Abdullah (Indonesia), M.J.Akbar (India) and Heba Raouf Ezzat (Egypt). Their contributions and a recording of the panel sessions will shortly be made available on the website of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Germany www.fnst.org.

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