More than 80 prominent Muslim figures from 16 European countries took part in The Future of European Muslims conference hosted by Turkish-German Muslim body DITIB in Cologne, Germany. Final declaration of this most comprehensive Islamic gathering slammed global terror groups like FETO and ISIS while uniting against German government’s attitude towards its Muslim institutions in its reaction.
“Global terror groups like FETO, ISIS, Boko Haram abuses humanity and Islamic values,” said Ali Erbas, the head of Turkey’s top religious body while reading the final communique of the event. He lifted his head to look at the cameras to make a stronger point and continued:”Those terror groups are threat to existence of Islam in the world.”
First of the such conference was held in Belgium 5 years ago. DITIB bringing the most important Muslim figures of Europe and many scholars and academics from all around the world showed that the Turkish-German Muslim institution which runs more than 900 mosques in Germany alone is the most influential Islamic structure of Europe. The members of the conference agreed to hold it every other year and form an coordination office within Turkish religious authority, Diyanet.
The 16-item final declaration of the conference touched upon the most important problems of Muslims in Europe.
German government recently organized highly controversial “Islam conference” in Berlin which was ignored by the main Muslim institutions in Germany. German government attempted to deal with people like Seyran Ates whom has no representation among Muslims in Germany whatsoever.
“Ignoring the most important Muslim structures and while trying to push forward people who have no representation of Islam is against social realities,” said Erbas. He also pointed out that Muslims are essential part of Europe and excluding Muslims in any process to decide on their own problem will lead to no solution.
The conference members also reacted to Islamophobic broadcast of European media. They call on the such media to drop their destructive attitude towards Muslims by prompting hatred towards Islam.
The final communique also called on European states to protect ethnic and religious minorities.
Diaspora Daily 