Do we have a ’shared Europe’…?

Having been invited to be a panelist at the British Council sponsored debate, Europe & Islam: whose identity crisis? at the European Parliament last Thursday (19th November 2009), I was asked to open the discussion by responding to the following question: do we actually have a ’shared Europe’?

My answer is posted below:

Do we have a ’shared Europe’? Well yes we do, but we ’share’ Europe in different ways.

We share some values, we share some of our culture, and we share some aspects of our identities for instance. But it is important to stress that this does not mean that we are homogenous: sharing does not mean that we are all the same.

So while we can – and do – share aspects of our values, culture and identities amongst others, still there remains a great difference and disparity between and within what we traditionally see or perceive to be Europe. So the British remain quite different and distinct from the Greeks, the Swedish from the Spanish and so on.

Report: Europe & Islam – whose identity crisis?

Following my participation in the ‘Europe & Islam; whose identity crisis?’ debate at the European Parliament in Brussels last Thursday (19th November 2009), I’m pasting below the report from the British Council’s website. To view the original page, please click here:

Europe has, according to the Pew Forum, about 38 million Muslims – about five percent of its population and that proportion will continue to increase. Yet, we are facing a growing mutual mistrust that leaves Europe on the verge of a dangerous rift.

One of the major cultural challenges that we face today is whether we can overcome the fear that difference and diversity will weaken national and social cohesion and succeed in building a Europe that is enriched by its different cultural identities.

BBC News: “UK population ‘to rise to 71.6m’”

As being reported on the BBC website, the population of the UK is expected to increase from 61m to 71.6m by 2033, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). As it states, just over two-thirds of this increase is expected to be related directly or indirectly to migration to the UK.

If the projected increase materialises, the population will have grown at its fastest rate in a century: by more than 10m in the 24 years between 2008 and 2029, less than half the time it took to rise from 50m to 60m between 1948 and 2005.

Event: ‘Europe & Islam: Whose Identity Crisis?’

As part of the British Council’s ‘Our Shared Europe’ project, I have been invited to participate in a debate at the European Parliament on the 19th November 2009 entitled, ‘Europe & Islam: whose identity crisis?’.

If anybody would like to attend the debate, then please contact osedebate@britishcouncil.be before the 11th November.

Full details of the event are set out below:

Europe & Islam: Whose Identity Crisis?
Hosted by Sajjad Karim MEP

Thursday 19th November 2009 – 10:30 to 13:00
European Parliament, Brussels

In a continent of diverse cultures how people choose to identify themselves is becoming increasingly important; whether through nationality, religion, language or political outlook. Can these identities mix, are they changing, and which are most important?

And is identity in Europe becoming a more complex issue for its citizens? How are European Muslims reconciling their multiple identities? And what is the basis for a European identity? Does an increase in extremism, euroscepticism, islamaphobia and a move back towards nationalism indicate that people are unhappy with those who identify themselves in different ways?

In a continent progressively challenged by mixed identities, who is it with the identity crisis? Europe, or Islam, or both?

Participants

Pal Schmitt
Vice-President of the European Parliament
Douglas Murray
Director, The Centre for Social Cohesion
Malika Hamidi
Vice-President, European Muslim Network
Dr Chris Allen
Academic, writer and broadcaster on Islamophobia in Europe
Bashy Quraishy
Chair Advisory Council, European Network Against Racism
Daniel Hannan
Member of the European Parliament

Debate moderated by Shada Islam, Senior Policy Executive, European Policy Centre.

Further information can be found at http://www.oursharedeurope.org/activities.

“We don’t do God” but then maybe we do: Speak Out magazine

(The following short post is an introductory piece that will be included in the next edition of Speak Out magazine due for publication in early June. It will introduce a collection of short pieces about minority religions in Birmingham and a more detailed piece of the British Humanist Association’s recent report into the ‘religion or belief’ equalities strand – click here to read)

The former Labour spin-doctor Alistair Campbell was once famously quoted as saying, “We don’t do God”. In many ways, Campbell may have been speaking on behalf of the British per se: or at least how things might have been because there are signs that some things might be changing.