Muslims shouldn't be seen as intolerant
"The High Representative of the United Nations for the Alliance of Civilizations, Jorge Sampaio, underlined yesterday in Strasbourg the problem of the integration of the Muslim minorities in the Europe, defending that it will be necessary new politics to increase intercultural dialogue.
Sampaio, that spoke during the solene session in the European Parliament, carried out in the scope of the European Year of the Intercultural Dialogue , pointed out that there is currently an hole in the form as the westerners and the Moslems see each others, "with the westerners to be seen by the Moslems like condescending and dominating, and the Moslems being seen by the westerners as fanatic and intolerant".
Aiming that "the discrimination and to marginalização socioeconómic marginalization generates unhappiness and intolerance" and enlarges the hole between the western and Muslim public, the High Representative of the United Nations notified that this division feeds stereotypes and to polarization, increasing the extremism.
The former president of Portugal, quoted by the Portuguese agency, advanced: "To deal with the integration of the Muslims in our european societies we need new politics to all levels. We need European action , but also initiatives in terms of the national governments, as well as local measures", said.
The High Representative defended that is necessary, mainly, to develop the participation and democratic citizenship, through education oriented for the human rights, respect for the others and for the dialogue and intercultural comprehension ."We need to learn how about competences intercultural competences and teach them to our citizens", affirmed.
Sampaio was assigned by the secretary-general of the UN, Ban Ki- -moon, as representative for the Alliance of Civilizations in April of 2007. It was initially proposed by the Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, in 2005, in the 59.ª session of the General Assembley of the UN. And it was supported by the prime minister of Turkey Recep Erdogan. The objective is to relief the tensions that exist between the world of Islamic religion and the so called western world.
The plan of implementation for 2008/2009 was presented in May of last year and the first Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations carried out itself, in January, in Spain, having been dedicated to the youth. The Alliance of Civilizations can be also expert as counterpoint to the theory of the Shock of Civilizations. "
Source : http://dn.sapo.pt/2008/10/23/internacional/muculmanos_devem_vistos_como_...
