10:34, 20 November 2009
Gulay Icoz has raised a critical aspect of the appointment of Herman von Rompuy as president of the European Council which has not received enough emphasis.
According to the Guardian, van Rompuy believes: “The universal values which are in force in Europe, and which are also fundamental values of Christianity, will lose vigour with the entry of a large Islamic country such as Turkey.” This is a disingenuous claim: the whole point about universal values (democracy, human rights and the rule of law) is that they provide the basis on which individuals of all religions and none can feel at home in a Europe characterised by ‘unity in diversity’.
And it is not just significant vis-a-vis a future Turkish accession, still some years off in the most optimistic scenarios. It is critical in the here and now for individual Muslims in the Europe of 27, who are being implicitly told by van Rompuy that their support for universal values is in question. Progressive Muslims recognise that embracing a ‘European Islam’ is not only valuable to promote integration between Muslims and non-Muslims; it is also of value to foster the reform of Islam. Van Rompuy’s is exactly the wrong message to send to them.
Intercultural dialogue has become a key challenge in Europe. Van Rompuy has, ironically, been appointed partly because of his capacity to re-establish a government in Belgium including Flemings and Walloons. Yet he has shown no sensitivity whatever to Europe’s newer cultural diversity.
Much has been made of the lack of celebrity of van Rompuy–’Mr Nobody’ in much of the media coverage of his appointment. But he is a chair, not an executive president as the English connotation of the word suggests. The more serious issue is that he must not only be able to achieve a consensus around the table with the heads of government at the European Council: he must be able to enjoy the respect of European citizens, of all religions and (in my case) none.
