"Religion is back onstage" – that was the opinion of Michael Bünker, Bishop of the Protestant Church in Austria. And none of the participants at the second Allianz Lecture in Vienna’s Burgtheater, was inclined to contradict him. In front of an almost sold-out audience, Bünker joined Green European politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit, ethnologist Halleh Ghorashi, who comes from Iran and now teaches in the Netherlands, and Oxford Islamic studies expert Tariq Ramadan to discuss "A Europe of Religions – Dialogue Instead of Exclusion." Gerfried Sperl, former editor in chief of the Austrian daily "Der Standard", moderated the "Talking about Europe" event.
Halleh Ghorashi, who holds a university chair in Management of Diversity and Integration in Amsterdam, argued that the main problem was not the strength or weakness of religions, but growing intolerance and a lack of equal rights. "When minorities feel attacked, they have to defend themselves and their boundaries," she said. But "when minorities feel they have freedom and a safe space, they loosen up."
Religion - Booster or stumbling block for Europe?
"A revolution in trust"
Tariq Ramadan, Geneva-born and a Swiss citizen, was bothered by terms like "minority" and "immigrants." "I am not a minority. I am a citizen," he said. He pointed out that many Muslims in Europe are not immigrants by any means, yet are still perceived as foreigners.
Yet because Muslims are so visible in Europe, and immigration and terrorist violence continue, he could understand the fears that many people have about Muslims. "We need a revolution of trust, to build spaces of trust at a local level, a new 'we'."
Daniel Cohn-Bendit pointed out a specific example of such a space of trust: while a deputy mayor in Frankfurt am Main in the nineties, he set up a multicultural center. He called himself a "militant atheist who defends the right to religion," and warned only against the upsurge of fundamentalists and creationists in many religions.
The Vienna Burgtheater was almost sold out
The right to decide
Cohn-Bendit also declared himself an advocate of "minorities within minorities," such as gay Muslims or gay priests. In regard to wearing head scarves or the veil, he likewise supported the "right to dissent." Ramadan called for a consistent position in the debate on head scarves as well as other issues: "It’s against Islam to force a woman to wear one, and against human rights to forbid it."
He too said he would fight discrimination against homosexuality, even though he is against it personally. And while he objects to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, Ramadan demanded the right for all to criticize the policies of both Islamic countries and Israel.
Cohn-Bendit pointed out that not all immigrants think as Ramadan does, and many do not consider themselves citizens of the country where they live. He recalled the French Jews, who had to decide after their emancipation by Napoleon whether to be governed by Jewish religious law or French secular law – a debate that remains as current today as it was then.
But there was unanimity that religion-based communities can make a contribution toward European unity. Tariq Ramadan emphasized universal shared values. As he said, religion can make an important contribution to reconcile humanist rationality with ethics, "if we want to save the world."