Report urges dialogue between Islam and West

DEEP DIVISIONS: Western governments are seeking to engage Muslim groups in structured dialogue with mixed results. (Getty Images)

Greater integration with the Muslim world is seen as a threat by 60% of citizens in many European countries, according to a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report.

The report, Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue, looks at how Muslim and Western societies perceive and relate to each other on political, social, economic and cultural levels.

It reveals the majority of world citizens believe violent conflict between the Western and Muslim worlds can be avoided, but that they also share a deep sense of pessimism about the state of the relationship.

Out of 21 countries surveyed in 2007, all but two (Bangladesh and Pakistan) believed interaction between Western and Islamic communities is getting worse, with the proportion of people who think the ‘other side’ is committed to better relations rarely rising above 30%.

While on average 65% of respondents in Muslim majority countries say Muslims respect the West, 60% feel that the West does not respect Muslims. On average 60% of Americans and Europeans agree.

Governments committed to ideas of equality and recognition, but eager to maintain majority support and national cohesion, are seeking to engage Muslim groups in structured dialogue with mixed results, the report finds.

It presents the ‘emergence of citizenship and integration’, as the second most powerful shaper of the state of dialogue after international politics, and says Muslim minorities committed to full citizenship are increasingly finding a voice in the public sphere.

More than 30 leaders from business, politics, religion and media met today in London to discuss findings of the report.

Muslim leaders from a number of European countries said their communities were willing to integrate into mainstream culture, at a forum organised by the WEF and Georgetown University.

Delegates identified growing radicalisation and blamed a lack of communication on “social and economic marginalisation as well as ideological and financial interference from outside Europe”, the WEF said in a statement.

“There is real acknowledgement on both sides that we are all guilty of not building the bridges that we are capable of doing,” said co-chair and former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton.

“The debate will not end,” he said. “The world is in such a state and the divisions are so deep and dark.

"The issues of September 11th are still with us and what we have got here is a real community of trust and faith including members of the secular community. We should look towards the future with a ray of hope.”

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