EPP-ED Group:

Politics and Religion

Islam

Brussels, 18 September 2002

Centre-Right parties mount conference on Islam and Democracy

The "clash of civilisations", predicted by Professor Samuel Huntington* and the way to avoid it is the subject of a conference that will take place in Strasbourg on 26 and 27 September at the initiative of the Centre-Right groups in the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

The Group co-ordinator for Islamic Affairs, Mr Edward McMillan-Scott MEP (Yorkshire and the Humber, Conservative) who will preside over the first session of the "Faith in Democracy" conference, has invited his colleagues from the EPP-ED Group of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, as well as distinguished speakers from the Islamic and other faiths:

"The conference will primarily address the role of Islam within Europe and the influence Europe can bring to bear on countries of Islamic tradition. It will also examine and identify internal and external actions to be taken in order to relieve tensions through the available mechanisms of the European Union and of the Council of Europe that aim to maximise the consensus between different faith communities in Europe and in the Islamic world." said McMillan-Scott, a long-standing member of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs committee and founder of the EU's 100million Democracy and Human Rights Initiative.

The conference will start on Thursday September 26 at 3.00 p.m. with an opening speech by Lord John Kilclooney, President of the Working Group "Christianity and Islam" of the EPP Group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The participants will be welcomed by Hans-Gert Poettering, President of the EPP-ED Group of the European Parliament and Mr Rene van der Linden, President of the EPP Group in the Council of Europe. MEPs Mr Bashir Khanbai, Arie Oostlander along with the Bishop Emmanuel Adamakis, Director of the Liaison Office of the Orthodox Church with the European Union, will address the meeting.

During the second day (Friday September 27 at 10.00 am) Professors Maurice Borrmans from the Pontifical Institute for Islamology and Arab Studies, Tariq Ramadan from the University of Fribourg, Hannifa Cherifi, Special Advisor to the French Ministry of Education and Ivan Jelev Dimitrov from the Orthodox University of Bulgaria will take the floor.

Mr McMillan-Scott, in a press statement, underlined the importance of the conference which, for the first time, will deal at European political level with such issues. He pointed out that the development of concrete actions to approach the Islamic nations throughout the world and to understand the Muslim population of Europe (over 12million Muslims reside in the European Union) will help mutual understanding, will relieve tensions and ultimately will promote democracy and human rights in those countries. The time perspective of internal and external actions to be discussed, is over 15 years:

"We have to face the issue on a long-term basis and make people understand that we care about the peaceful co-existence of different faiths in Europe and recognise that one of the EU's primary foreign affairs objectives is the promotion of democracy and human rights world-wide", added Mr McMillan-Scott.

* 'The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order' by Samuel P. Huntington 1997

For further information please contact Mr McMillan-Scott's office :+32.2.284 5959 or Yannis Zografos EPP-ED Press Officer +32.475.598189