European Islam and Muslim neighbours – Fears and Opportunities

Erste Stiftung and European Stability Initiative (ESI)
organised a public debate on: European Islam and Muslim neighbours – Fears and Opportunities, Vienna, 10 June 2011.

Never has Europe's relationship with Islam been more debated. From Vienna to Stockholm, from Berlin to Madrid, and from Sarajevo to Istanbul Europeans discuss the future of European Islam and the fears and opportunities of having Muslim neighbours - inside the EU and next to the EU.

Thilo Sarrazin's book 'Germany does away with itself' (Deutschland schafft sich ab) has triggered a huge controversy. So has the statement of Germany's President Christian Wulff that 'Islam belongs to Germany'. Similarly Austrians, French, the UK and Italy discuss the position of their sizeable Muslim populations in society. Then there is the EU accession bid of Turkey' and of Balkan states with large Muslim communities (Albania, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Kosovo).

The EU accession of these Balkan states and Turkey would – if successful – make every fifth EU citizen Muslim. Recently, the anti-authoritarian uprisings in Arab countries on the shores of the Southern Mediterranean also promise new dynamics, and challenges for the emerging EU foreign policy. But can a continent in which fear of Islam and populist impulses seem to be in the ascendant respond to and shape all these developments?