British Council Explores if "Europe is Failing Its Muslims"

Our Shared Europe's first London event "Europe is Failing Its Muslims" Image Credit: British Council/Mike Eleftheriades

The British Council's Martin Rose, who heads their "Our Shared Europe" project, has a new blog post about the London debut of Our Shared Europe, which has been in quiet development over the past year. The project unveiled itself last night to a London audience with an event that posited the motion that "Europe is Failing Its Muslims."

Martin reports:

The debate starts with opening statements and it becomes clear that in one sense at least everyone supports the motion. We’re all liberals, even when we’re not. Flemming in particular, whom some expected to see with horns and a forked tail, was a gentle liberal, persuasive and articulate, pressing the values of an equal society in which government did justice to its minorities by resisting block-thinking, and supporting the rights of those communities’ dissidents. Tariq and Petra undermine their own case, for the motion, by glimpsing strong hopes of change – optimism is good, but confusing. The vote, almost even at the beginning, with the pro-the-motions ahead by 20 or 30, swings to very much the opposite – a convincing win for the antis. But I think not everyone is quite sure what they are voting for, and I hear much equivocation. Flemming and Douglas seem rather surprised.

The event will be re-broadcast by the BBC World News on March 6 and 7. I'm digging around to see if US audiences can watch it.

For those not familiar with Martin Rose, as we are, Martin has written a powerful must-read essay called "A Shared Past for a Shared Future: European Muslims and History-making." The following graf from the essay captures eloquently the challenges (and opportunities) we face in doing meaningful cultural relations work. Both Rita J. King and I have been hugely inspired by the essay:

"I’m not going to dwell for long on these two geopolitical fables of ‘us’ and ‘them’. They are important because they are believed, not because they are true, though both of course contain bits of fact and elements of truth, mixed with fiction and wishful thinking and jumbled together purposefully to prove a pre-determined conclusion. They provide interpretative frameworks for people who have already made up their minds. Worse, they provide glib justifications for behaviour at a personal level which only substantiates the fables. And worse still, they both provide easy tools for manipulating impressionable minds."

[‘Europe is failing its Muslims’ – the live debate]