Intercultural Dynamics Programme - [11/24/2006]

“Civil approach” and “civil solution” in the face of “islamophobia”

The Intercultural Dynamics Programme of the CIDOB Foundation, in collaboration with the Sociology Department of Bilgi University in Istanbul and the Helsinki Citizens Assembly - HCA Turkey, co-organised this seminar, entitled Intercultural Citizenship – Political Participation and Muslims.

In the face of the growing tension between a “modern West” and a “Muslim East”, the organisers of this conference stated that the international challenge for the citizens of these countries and their immigrant populations should be confronted from a perspective of a “civil approach” and a “civil solution”, and not only as a clash in relations between “Islam and secularism” or “Islam and Christianity”.

In this sense, the organisers aspired to incorporate participants from countries such as France, Spain, Morocco, the Netherlands and Turkey into this conference, in order to deal with problems of “identity and othering” in this project of interculturality. The seminar participants, from Spain, Morocco, Syria, Turkey and France, debated the political participation of Muslims from an intercultural point of view.

Since 1995, the CIDOB Foundation has been organising different meetings on interculturality, in collaboration with other institutions from different countries, such as Bilgi University in Istanbul in this case.

>> Web page of Bilgi University

>> Consult complete programme (pdf 86kB)

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