A positive force

“The role of religious actors in strengthening civil society and democratization in the countries bordering the EU” is the title of the second in the series of seminars “Islam, Christianity and Europe”, which was held in Brussels on 4 March on the initiative of COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community), the EKD (Evangelical Church of Germany) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.A change in mentality. “Religious actors have played a key role in the processes of democratization of some countries in Central Europe, such as in the Poland of Solidarnosc or in the peaceful German revolution in 1989”, explained Klaus Ziemer, an expert in the socio-political and economic transformations in Eastern Europe. “If today the Churches have lost their monopoly of the social state, they can boast of the company of many other actors in the pluralist context [of our time] and remain important constructors of civil society thanks to their structured organizations which support the functioning of the new democratic institutions”. Ziemer maintains that “the social actors can generate a change in mentality towards neighbouring countries, preceding the institutional and political transformations”, as in the case of relations between Germany and Poland. However, “the relations between the new EU members and their south-eastern neighbours are still much conditioned by history and by the political exploitation” in which the Churches too have been involved.Commitment to peace and justice. “Religion is an ambivalent factor in the processes of development and social transformation”, said Thorsten Göbel, member of the aid organization “Bread for the world”, “and we need to face up with sincerity to the risks involved”, such as the fact that “religions can be exploited in conflicts of a social, political and economic nature”. “If religions seek power and social influence through close collaboration with the State – he continued – they will end up being forced into silence about the process of democratization or conflict resolution”. In his report to the seminar Göbel explained that religions nonetheless have a great deal of potential: “The Churches have the enormous advantage of being able to commit themselves to peace and justice at all levels. The being anchored in the structures of society implies that they can link local events with developments at other levels”. For this reason Göbel argued that “those actors of change that have religious motivations must be supported in their initiatives of cooperation in development, to enable them to play their role of transformation in the societies in which they are inserted”.Islam and democracy. “Are Islamic actors capable of creating democracy?”: that was the key question posed in the intervention of Amr Elshobaki, chairman of the Arab Forum for Alternatives at Cairo. In the light of his decade-long study of the reality of the “Muslim Brotherhood”, Elshobaki stressed that “the processes of democratization is Islamic countries need to be launched by lay reformers, who do not belong to political movements of religious inspiration, and only at a later stage should they try to integrate the religious forces”. As is shown by the European experience, a democracy cannot be fearful of opening a dialogue with the more extreme and radical forces, with the aim of “integrating them”. This also goes for forces such as Hamas, which must be involved, but only once the democratic processes have been launched. “In the Moslem world there are three types of religious actors”, continued Elshobaki: “first, the Islamic movements dedicated to social work on behalf of the disadvantaged in the popular quarters of the big cities; second, the violent groups that play a destructive role, but that are on the whole marginal; and third, the Islamic movements that try to play a political role but that have very conservative aspects, such as the Muslim Brotherhood”. It is difficult to imagine these movements promoting democracy. Some experiences. In the final debate it emerged, nonetheless, that experiences such as “the council of Muslim theologians” in Morocco are making headway. Though they are not political movements, they are able to promote universal values such as human rights and democracy in Moslem societies. The Turkish experience with the AKP, the Justice and Development Party, demonstrates that it is possible to break the Islam-secular duality and found a modern democratic party. Critical towards any direct involvement of religions and in particular of the Churches in the political process was also Roza von Thun, MEP and Solidarnosc activist during the Communist period, whose intervention ended the seminar.