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Euro Islam, fiction or reality?
How does Islam fit into the Western world?With the immigration of large numbers of Muslims to Western Europe in the last decades, cultural and religious conflicts soon started to rise, due to the so called 'radical different' values and beliefs of the Muslim population. A lot of Muslims who live in Europe are daily trying to find a way to combine their Islamic belief with the European way of life.
But how can differences become a source of progress instead of division?
The EuroIslam Project aims to encourage young Europeans to start an intercultural and interreligious dialogue, provide more knowledge about Islam and the Islamic culture and come to mutual respect and understanding. Especially the young generation must overcome differences between Muslims and Western people, start to see what we have in common and creating an enriching way of living together.
AEGEE, as an European NGO, enhances meetings between people with different backgrounds and facilitates a fertile dialogue between youth, politicians, journalists and scolars, in order to break down prejudices that are still prevalent in the Media and in our current way of thinking.
Aims:
- Prevention of future problems that may occur out of the expansion of Islam in Western society
- Promotion of the values of mutual respect and understanding between the parties through intercultural and inter-religious learning among young people
Objectives
- Prevention of future problems that may occur out of the expansion of Islam in Western society
- Providing knowledge of the theory of EuroIslam
- Supporting and encouraging intercultural dialogue between Christians, conservative Muslims and modern Muslims, Politicians and European Students
- Collaboration between Youth NGOs in Europe and Religious Youth Organisations
- Preparatory activities
- Building a team to coordinate the project setting a strategy for the timeframe
- Contacting locals promoting the project within AEGEE network
Methods
- Cultural Nights, to encourage intercultural dialogue Lectures and debates, to provide knowledge about Islam
- Action Week, collaboration with other Youth NGOs for an intensive training
- Conferences
- Cultural Sessions, to encourage cultural dialogue and fight xenophobia
- Thematic Seminars, Essay and Movie Contests to facilitate knowledge transfers and discussions
Target group
- European Youth
- Muslim Youth
Expected Results
- Better understanding of each others religion and traditions
- Active collaboration of European NGOs with Muslim NGOs in overlapping fields
- Better and more neutral knowledge of Islam within European Students
Follow Up
- Results booklet CD
- Online documentary of project Short Movies
Partners
- Cultural Working Group - Cosmetice barbati
- International Politics Working Group - http://web.aegee.org/wg/ipwg/
Future Events
- Cultural Euro Islam Day at Summer University Vienna- Kapfenberg
07.08-21.08.05, Vienna, Austria
- Cultural wonders of Islam and Christianity
25.09.-01.10.05,
Shkoder, Albania
- Final Conference Euro Islam Project
03.10.- 07.10.05, Bucharest, Romania
- Workshop at Autumn Agora
20.10.-23.10.05, Izmir, Turkey
- Blurring Cultures: The integration of Islam in Europe
(Exchange Mannheim-Canakkale)
06.11.-12.11.05,
Mannheim, Germany
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The EuroIslam Project
