Progress for Western Liberal Democracies and their Muslim Communities?
It is an indisputable fact that there are both peace-loving Muslims and violent Muslims,
not only in the Islamic world, but also in most Western countries.
How can a liberal democratic society define and develop a positive relationship to the Muslim community living in its midst? How could or should the Muslim community itself deal with its violent members?
On 13 December 2006, "A Proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding" was presented to the European Parliament to deal with exactly that question.
Although there seem to be hundreds of webpages (newspaper articles, discussion boards, blogsites, etc.) that report about or react to this initiative (Google), we have not found even one location that makes this charter available online — despite the fact that we have seen it float around a couple of mailing lists.
Since this document has been publically proposed to the EU Parliament, and it is an important document that a wider public needs to be informed about and needs to be enabled to discuss in detail, we trust that neither the author nor the parlamentarian who introduced it, will object to making it available to a wider public by placing it on this website.
Apologies in advance if we have caused any inconveniences inadvertedly. We will gladly link to an official website (e.g., an online archive of documents of the EU parliament), if the charter would becomes available there, and the author or sponsor of this proposal sends us a request to point there instead of publishing it ourselves.
A Proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding
By Sam Solomon
Presented to the European Parliament by Gerard Batten, MEP
It may be particularly enlightening to read the above charter in comparison to our recent series on Pacifism and the Sword in the New Testament, outlining the Biblical view of the relationship between State and Church, and its consequences for the individual Christian believer.
Additional remarks:
1. Answering Islam is not associated with any political party in any country. The proposal of this charter in the EU Parliament is a political process, and various political forces will necessarily be involved in its discussion, pro and contra. Our decision to make this charter available to a wider public does in no way mean an endorsement of any political group or their goals.
2. We do not present the charter as the definite and final solution. This charter will certainly not be the last word. However, we believe it to be a substantial contribution and hope that it will help to initiate a larger debate, and build momentum for the urgently needed open discussion on these issues.
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