"Dialogue, tolerance and education. The joint action of the Council of Europe and the religious communities": this is the subject of the workshop promoted for today and tomorrow at Tatarstan (Russia) by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the CoE, Alvaro Gil Robles. The meeting, which is the fifth of the series and had been arranged a long time ago, falls at the time when the debate is hottest about these subjects, also due to the recent facts associated with the publication of the caricatures of the prophet Muhammad and the violent reactions in many Muslim cities. Gil Robles, as he was about to leave for Russia, explained that the meeting will be attended by "illustrious Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders from the member states of the Council of Europe, as well as government representatives". "In the widest scenario of the promotion of inter-religious dialogue and relations between the State and the Church, the workshop will be focussed stated the promoters from the Strasbourg headquarters of the CoE on objective education on beliefs and religious concepts as appropriate tools for fighting ignorance of other religions, which is often the cause of intolerance and violence". The Council of Europe is considering the possibility of establishing a European Institute for Education to Religious Concepts, a possibility that will be thought over by the delegates.
