Human Rights and Democracy Media Center "SHAMS" organized an open meeting in the village of Faqou a in Jenin governorate on the role of Arab communities in European countries in promoting a culture of dialogue and communication between peoples and societies (Denmark as an example). The meeting commenced by Hussein El Deik from SHAMS center by giving an introduction about the center and its activities being implemented in all the governorates in the West Bank and funded by the Danish Representative Office, most importantly the tolerance and accepting one another project which aims at disseminating the culture of dialogue, communication and acceptance of others, and political participation through developing the cultural and political capacities of young people in the Palestinian society in order to have a space for dialogue and accept the other opinion and to address the culture of isolation and intolerance.
The journalist Ali Samoudi, director of Majd Media Institution and a correspondent for al-Quds newspaper and Al Jazeera TV channel, has presented a working paper on the reality of Arab communities in European countries in general and in Denmark in particular. He said that the presence of Arab communities in the West has enabled these communities to play a role in their new societies and to establish organizations and institutions within the civil society where Islam has become the second largest religion after Christianity in Europe, and Arab and Muslim communities nowadays have representatives in municipalities, in European parliaments, academic institutions and have presence in the scientific and sport fields.
On the religious level, Samoudi explained that there are a lot of calls that came in the last period by many religious references in the Arab and Muslim world about the need for communication and dialogue with the West in order to bridge the gap resulted from misconception and mistrust and to present the true image of Islam and Muslims, indicating that there is a degree of freedom for Muslims in European countries and there are many international solidarity movements with Arab and Islamic issues, even at governmental level Islam has been recognized as an official in Austria since 1912 and in Belgium in 1974.
The participants discussed the reality of Arab communities in European countries especially in Denmark between having a unified efforts and being fragmented and dispersed which lead to weakness in their inability to formulate a unified position to pressure on decision-makers in European countries for the benefit of Arab issues, and to the absence of future and policies to influence the European societies and to mobilize support for their just causes, and to expose Israel s policy that gains support from the European community officials.
Efforts of Arab and Muslim community must be consolidated to influence European public opinion, and to face the Zionism propaganda in Europe.
On the other hand, the weak role of Arab and Muslims official media has constituted another important factor for the failure of delivering Arab and Muslims messages in the European communities. Another vexing issue is the identity crisis and the inability of Arab and Muslims communities to integrate with the Western societies.
One of the Participants introduced her personal experience as she lived in Germany between the years of 1972-1984 and she explained how Arab and Muslims community was able to explore the blatant Israeli policy during its assault on Lebanon in 1982, and how the community succeed in garnering support for Lebanon, where huge mass rallies swept the streets of Germany in a protest against Israeli attack. But she stressed the fact that Arab and Muslims community suffer an identity crisis and their efforts are still fragmented and weak.
Samoudi said that the reason for the weakness of Arab institutions media performance is due to its partisan to certain political parties in their homelands, which make each institution s role a reflection of a certain views and opinions as it sees itself part of the certain political party,
This makes its vision blurred and lacks clarity on how to manage the "debated issues". He stressed that the Arabs in the West need media organizations interested in their cases and provide them with professional media services. He added that in "Denmark as an example" there is more than two hundred and fifty-Arab institution, mostly based on national and religious grounds, and there is no higher council for the community or a coordination committee for these associations.
Participants commended the last official political stance of the European Union, which considered Jerusalem as the capital of two states, a strong international recognition for the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with its capital Jerusalem, and expressed gratitude to the Danish representation for supporting and sponsoring these initiatives , and demanded "SHAMS" center for the need to continue holding such constructive meeting, at the end of the meeting , Mr. El Deik d thanked the participants for their valuable participation in this important meeting, which comes in a series of meetings carried out by the Center to support and encourage dialogue, communication and acceptance of others among all peoples and communities and within the same society.
At the end of the meeting, participants recommended the need for Arab communities in Europe to act as ambassadors and representatives for their country and societies and reflect the good image of their countries and their peoples and to make advocacy for fair rightful cause to influence the decision-makers attitudes to support Arab and Islamic fair issues.
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