LOC17:13
14:13 GMT
(WITH PHOTOS)
BRUSSELS , May 5 (KUNA) -- The President of the European Commission, Jose
Manuel Barroso, underlined here Monday that Islam is part and parcel of Europe
and he also condemned the concept of clash of civilisations.
"Islam today is part of Europe. It is important to understand this.One
should not see Islam as outside Europe. We already have an important presence
of Islam and Muslims among our citizens," Barroso told a press conference this
afternoon after an informal dialogue between EU leaders and around twenty
high-level representatives of Christianity, Judaism and Islam in Europe.
"We can be a European citizen being a Christian, being Jewish or Muslim or
having no religion," he noted.
On his part, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dr.Mustafa Ceric, said
Islam is indeed part of Europe but unfortunately Turkey is not yet part of
Europe.
"Following this logic Europe has to prove that Islam is part of Europe by
not delaying the acceptance of Turkey to the EU," Ceric told the joint press
conference.
Many people in Turkey and the Muslim world believe that Turkey will not be
accepted as an EU member because it is a Muslim country.
Mondays meeting was co-chaired by European Commission President Barroso,
Slovenian Prime Minister and current President of the European Council, Janez
Jansa, and the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pottering.
This year's meeting focused on two major challenges facing the European
Union: Climate Change and Reconciliation.
This was the fourth such annual meeting with religious leaders and the
second involving the Presidents of the three EU institutions. The initiative
was launched by President Barroso in 2005.
Barroso said that the inter-faith dialogue proved that "preachers of clash
of civilisations are wrong".
Janez Jansa told reporters that "the environment is not only natural but
also a sacred place. Community and loalty between man, nature and the Creator
is a basic principle of Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike".
Slovenia, he said, would like to create an Euro-Mediterranean university
which will be a meeting place for young people coming from the Christian,
Muslim and Jewish world.
A charter will be signed on 9 June in Slovenia, which holds the current EU
Presidency, on creating this new university.
EP President Pottering said "intercultural dialogue is an important
contribution to the European Union's relations with its neighbouring
countries, in particular in the Mediterranean region".
He noted that since the EU has declared 2008 as the European Year of
Intercultural Dialogue, the high-level meeting is a welcome opportunity to
focus o on the topic of "Reconciliation through intercultural and inter-faith
dialogue".(END)
nk.bz.
KUNA 051713 May 08NNNN