More Information on the Conference "ISLAM AND POLITICS IN A WIDER EUROPE"
 In co-operation with the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS, Brussels), and  the Center for Intercultural Studies and Partnership, Sofia, the International Policy Fellowships organized a conference under the title “Islam in Wider Europe perspective” from 20th to 22nd of October, 2006 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The conference was carried within the project “Islam, the Balkans and the European Neighbourhood Project” of Dr. Simeon Evstatiev from Sofia University, a 2005-2006 IPF Fellow belonging to the Workgroup “The Challenge of Wider Europe”. The event covered the regions of Western Europe, South East Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, focusing on their relations to Europe and its Neighbourhood policy project. The main thematic circles turned around the relation of Islam and Europe with religion, politics and the public sphere, pluralism and democracy and reform and modernization.

The public event of the conference under the title “Islam and Politics in different contexts” (October 20th, 2006) was opened with addresses of Prof. Prof. Dr. Alenander Fedotoff, Vice-Rector of Sofia University, and Mr. Petko Doykov, Head of the Middle East and Africa Directorate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria. The introductory presentation of Dr. Simeon Evstatiev (Islam and Politics from a Wider Europe Perspective) was followed by address of Michael Emerson (CEPS, Brussles), regarding the European Neighbourhood Project and was followed by three keynote presentations of:         

  • Prof. Dale F. Eickelman (Dartmoth College, USA) - Emerging Middle Eastern Identities and Ideologies: The Role of Media and Information Technology 
  • Prof. Olivier Roy (E.H.E.S.S., Paris) - Islam and Terrorism in Europe 
  • Prof. Robert Hayden (Univesrity of Pittsburgh, USA) - Islam and Politics in the Balkans: Antagonistic Tolerance

In the panels in the next two days the presentations covered large variety of issues such as Democratic Transformation of Islamism in Europe (Amel Boubekeur - EHESS, Paris), Mobilization and Institutionalization of Islam in Europe (Sara Silvestri - University of Cambridge), Muslims and Discrimination in Europe (Tufayl Chudhuri, UK), Islam and the War on Terror (Neil Melvin - CEPS, Brussels), Islamic Religio-Political Movements in Central Asia (Faris Ismailzade - Azerbaijan; Cornell Caspian Consulting ), Ethno-Sectarian Discourse in the Iraqi Media (Ibrahim Al Marashi - Iraq; Koc University, Istanbul), Rights of Migrant Workers in the Gulf States (Nazila Ghanea-Hercock - United Kingdom), Evolution of Islamist Parties in Turkey (Senem Aydin - Istanbul; Free University of Brussels (VUB) and CEPS, Brussels), Panislamism in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Ahmed Zildzić - Oriental Institute in Sarajevo), Islam and Politics in the Western Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, and Montenegro (Christian Moe - University of Oslo) and Internal and External Challenges to Religious Tolerance and their Manifestations in the Life of the Muslim Communities in the Balkans(Plamen Makariev - Sofia University). Other prominent Bulgarian scholars also attended the conference as discussants.

The public event of the conference was also attended by a number of media journalists, who covered it in both print and electronic media.