I Have a Dream... - 13-06-2008
The Middle East in Europe and Europe in the Middle East
Nilüfer Göle (Professor of Sociology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Paris), Tariq Ramadan (Visiting Professor, Erasmus University Rotterdam) and Paul Scheffer (Professor Urban Geographies of Place and Social Interactions, University of Amsterdam) will give their view on the growing population of Mulims in Europe.
Nilüfer Göle
Although in other parts of the world a higher percentage of the population is Muslim, in Europe Islamic culture and religion are very much part of current society and its cultural inheritance. Nowadays many Europeans have good reasons to consider themselves both European and Muslim.
Is a new form of European Islam evolving? In contrast to that, the image of a European Muslim community that is becoming more and more isolated and retreating behind the boundaries of a strict interpretation of Islam can be found as well. Do the latter perceptions make sense? Does the approach of multiculturalism confine people's fate to their inherited tradition, as the Indian economist and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen argues? Doesn't the notion of society as an aggregate of different cultures (folklore) lead to a poor range of visions of our future?
Moderator: Markha Valenta (Researcher VU University, Amsterdam)
I Have a Dream… is a joint initiative of Felix Meritis and MEXIT and consists of a series of workshops during the afternoon followed by public lectures in the evening. The total programme will include a wrap-up session and a compilation of essays. This programme is made possible by the support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oxfam Novib and Dare2Connect.
