In line with the decisions taken by the Third Summit in Warsaw in May 2005, the Council of Europe is increasing the intercultural dialogue with its neighbouring regions. Within this framework, the Secretary General of the OIC was invited to an exchange of views with the Committee of Ministers.
CoE and OIC are exploring ways to promote dialogue to avoid the clash between civilisations. The Portugese Chairman of the Council of Europe referred to the fact that there are still several attempts of fundamentalistic interpretations of the Koran, and that within this subculture several terrorist organisation find their support, especially among young people. One of the major topic of the conversation was thus how OIC can contribute to avoiding these tendencies.
The Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu highlighted the core areas of the CoE: human rights, democracy and rule of law. He emphasised that Islam is a religion with a history of tolerance and that the moderate forces in Islam are the important ones. The radicalisation is a more recent phenomenon.
Ihsanoglu claimed that the common values between Islam and the Western Countries together outweigh the differences, and that the two religions share the same standards for the inviolable human dignity. Democracy is a primary condition for human dignity, individual and religious freedom.
Ihsanoglu denounced terrorism as a threat against human dignity. He still noted that the "war against terror" has failed to provide any convincing results, because this campaign primarily has focused on military means. As causes for fundamentalism Ihsanoglu pointed out poverty and the lack of good governance and democracy.
Ihsanoglu encouraged more intercultural dialogue, but stressed that the cooperation should be based on mutual respect. He considered the CoE and OIC to be natural partners in this respect. Several of the member countries are members of both organisations, among them Russia, which became an observer to the OIC this year.
He presented a list of actions to consider in order to decrease the tension between the Muslim and Christian world. Primarily, there is the need for an official recognition of Islam as a religion of equal value. Islamophobia is according to ECRI, one of the leading tendencies in Europe at the moment, and it is necessary to identify the causes and how to combat it. Within history education, human and social sciences it is important to avoid a demonising image of Islam. There is the need for intercultural dialogue at all levels (local, national, regional, international and in the media). Cultural diversity has to be strengthened (through campaigns, laws, etc.) There has to be opened a debate concerning the role of the media and the intelligentsia in propagating prejudges. One should work further to ensure the right to practise ones religion. There has to be a focus on the causes of terrorism. Young muslims have to be involved in democratic processes it theirs societies, in order to have a positive sensation of belonging and a responsible citizenship. Ihsanoglu proposed to develope a structural cooperation between the CoE and the OIC.
In the following debate, several Council of Europe member states pointed out that the dialogue has to be based on respect for fundamental human rights and core values of CoE, including gender equality and women's participation.
The OIC: it has members in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America composed of 57 states and many non-Muslim observers, including the Russian Federation, recently admitted last June, during the 32nd session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, which was held in Sana’a’ Yemen. The OIC is the world’s second largest intergovernmental organisation, next to the United Nations, representing a population of 1.3 billion people – almost one fifth of the world's population.
Press release related to the PACE session