Professor Akbar Ahmed and his staff visited Denmark and met with Muslim NGOs and representatives 9th December, 2014, Ambassador Akbar Ahmed is the Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, DC and former Pakistani ambassador to the UK. He and his team are currently conducting a book and documentary film project on Islam in Europe entitled Journey into Europe; the project is a study of Muslims across Europe and the attitudes and perceptions of Europeans regarding their Muslim neighbors. On Professor’s Ahmed’s wish, we arranged an informal meeting of 40 NGOs, politicians, business people, students and human rights campaigners from various nationalities and background. In an intense session of 3 hours, various issues pertaining to the Muslim communities in Denmark were discussed and brought to the attention of the visiting team. Professor Akbar Ahmed and Dr. Amineh Hoti from the Think Tank; Dialogue and Action explained the reasons of the visit and pointed out the following. • Islam is not new in Europe but has been an integral part for the last 1000 years. • Muslims have contribute tremendously to the enlightenment of Europe • Europe is built on the idea of pluralism and inclusive democracy and it is important that Muslim minorities are given their place in the society. • The most important issue now is that the conflict should be replaced with dialogue and co-operation Many subjects were brought up by participants, like; Islamophobic political statements, negative media discourse, including internet, laws indirectly aiming at Muslim communities, hate crimes and hate Speech and lack of official data in this field, pork in the schools discussions, banning of Halal slaughtering, boy’s circumcision, building of Mosques, blame for anti-Semitism, private schools described as Quran/Muslim schools, rights considered by many Danes as special privileges for Muslims like; prayer rooms in hospitals or public places. The consequences for Muslims if right wing political parties win the coming election in 2015 were of special concern. Few delegates appealed that Muslim communities should also be self-critical and do not provide the right wing forces any excuse to malign them. Winding up the session, it was pointed out that hopefully the film and book about Muslims in Europe will take the concerns expressed by Muslim NGOs in Denmark would be included because Denmark with all its democracy and human rights claims is one of the most Islamophobic country in the world. The 3 hours session was very informative, interesting and beneficial. Professor Akbar Ahmed thanked us for arranging a very successful and inclusive session and congratulated the participants for their individual efforts to be part of the society in various fields. His message of hope and forward looking attitude to Muslim communities was very much appreciated by all.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 00:11:35 +0000
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