PACE Inter-religious Dialogue
Strasbourg, 16 September 2012 - "We follow with great concern the violent protests that have flared up across the Middle-East triggered by the circulation of an Islamophobic film, and we wish to support and spread Pope Benedict XVI’s call for renewed Muslim-Christian co-operation in the Middle East; we underline that all religions can live together without hatred, respecting beliefs of each, to build together a free and humane society", said Jean-Claude Mignon, PACE President and his predecessor Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, former PACE President and member of the Turkish delegation to the PACE.
On 12 April 2011, following a debate which brought together leading religious figures from across Europe on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe reached out to religious leaders to help create “a new culture of living together”, based on the assertion of everyone’s equal dignity and adherence to the Council of Europe’s basic principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
Approving a recommendation based on a report by Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE) on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue, the parliamentarians called on Europe’s governments to set up a new “platform for dialogue” where high-level representatives of Europe’s main religious institutions – in particular Christian, Jewish and Muslim ones – could meet, together with humanist and non-religious organisations, to discuss how best to promote “the values that make up the common core of any democratic society”.
On 12 September 2012, PACE President also condemned the assassination of US diplomats in Benghazi.
Report: The religious dimension of intercultural dialogue (Anne Brasseur, Luxembourg, ALDE)
Statement by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania
Statement by His Eminence Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran
Statement by Professor Mehmet Görmez, Chairperson of the Presidency of Religious Affairs of Turkey
Statement by Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia
PACE President reacts to deaths of US Ambassador in Libya and colleagues