European Forum for Muslim Women

I was invited to the European Forum for Muslim Women for a conference on Women in Dialouge for Peace in Brussels. The conference was held at the European Parliament and I was asked by the organizer, Mrs Dorsaf Ben Dhiab, to moderate the dialouge with the panel. We were women from all over Europe, from Italy, Ireland, Sweden, France, Spain, Greece, Bosnia, Switzerland and many more. We were muslim women, catholic women, protestant women, non-religious women, but foremost we were united there in the parliament hall to share and learn from each others different perspectives.
Before coming I had many questions: How can we unite against racism and discrimination? What unites us within Europe? Who is excluded? Are we included only by citizenship? To what extent is the European citizenship connected to social and economic rights? In Sweden we pay taxes to the church, but not the Mosque, is this regarded religious discrimination in Europe? How do we create preventive measures for peace?
In the panel, we had Mr Sajjad Karim, who is member of the European Parliament and the first muslim parliamentarian from Britian. Mr Karim was in my eyes an extraordinary political speaker, who stressed the importance of acknowledging and embracing the European muslim identity. We had Mrs Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, vice-president of the European Parliament and we had Mrs Luisa Morgantini, vice-president of the European Parliament, who gave her contribution by video. In the panel, we had Mr Michael Privot, head of the European Network Against Racism as well as Mrs Leila Kurki, president of the SOC section of the European Economic and Social Committee.
For me, it was an educating experience, on the difference and interrelatedness of identity, nationality and citizenship in relation to human rights and inclusion versus exclusion of the European community. And it was fascinating to see how we could create an inclusive dialouge with five different laguages used in the discussions.
Four of us met with Carl Schlyter, who was very attentive to the reflections raised by these women from more than 12 European countries.
Peace be upon you