New Europe Bridges Religious Divide

Here is a promising interfaith effort in Europe: Stephen Schwartz "New Visions for European Islam", TCS Daily:

I have immense doubt that, at this moment, necessary voices of calm and restraint will proliferate on either side in Old Europe. I now believe that all hopes for conciliation between European Muslims and non-Muslims must come from New Europe. Western Europeans are, I fear, spiritually exhausted; and they express their "Christian" loyalties only as a means of declaring they are not Muslims. They are afraid of Muslims, but mainly because they are insecure about their own religious legacies. The peoples of New Europe -- Poles, Hungarians, Slovenes, Romanians, and even some other citizens of former Yugoslavia -- survived Communism thanks to their spiritual commitments, often to traditional Catholicism. They are stronger in their Christian belief and are in a better position to view Islam without fear.....

Yet Islam cannot become European without a Muslim leadership of European origin. There is no reason the European states cannot demand that Muslim religious officials be trained in Europe, following an academic curriculum that will emphasize European responsibilities. Such a curriculum is now standard at the Faculty of Islamic Studies of the University of Sarajevo, which trains imams and muftis (religious judges) serving Bosnian Muslims. With a modest budget and official international backing, the Bosnians could establish a central European Islamic university for the certification of European clerics. At the conclusion of the cycle of meetings I attended, on February 24, the chief Muslim scholar of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Mustafa Ceric, came to the Croatian metropolis of Zagreb to present a Declaration of European Muslims. That Ceric had come from the Bosnian capital to that of Catholic Croatia to publicly read the declaration was symbolic -- the Muslim leader came to Christian Europe to appeal for understanding rather than staying home.....

Instead of a clash of civilizations, a dialogue across borderlands could take place, with the historic eastern Mediterranean frontier of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina serving as the point of mediation. Ceric's Declaration embodies an authentic, European Islam greatly influenced by Sufi spirituality. Since its circulation by the Center for Islamic Pluralism, the text has chiefly attracted support from foreign Muslims, including Turkish and Indonesian intellectuals, because most American Muslims -- even moderates -- are caught up in the noise surrounding the "cartoon jihad" and other media frenzies.

Hopefully American interfaith groups will explore this approach.