Tunisia: ‘Islam, Modernity and Europe’

Tunisia: ‘Islam, Modernity and Europe’

Via Malta Indepdent:
Malta’s Ambassador in Tunisia, Vicki Ann Cremona, implicitly expressed agreement with September’s French decision to ban the burka, the Muslim veil which covers women’s faces fully, when she addressed an international forum on ‘Islam, Modernity and Europe’.

The forum was organised by the Tunisian news weekly Réalités, with Dr Cremona taking part in a round-table discussion on the subject ‘Is a European Islam possible?’

She told the discussion, according to the Department of Information, that “participation in European society (also) means accepting not only the laws, but the habits and customs of the country in which one has chosen to live. Perceptions of Islam in Europe are not always very clear and are at times the result of wrong or hurried judgements.”

Other panellists included, among others, Souheib Bencheikh, former Grand Mufti of Marseilles and researcher in religious sciences; Hele Beji, university professor and writer; Mgr Maroun Lahham, Bishop of Tunis; Férid Memmiche, Tunisian intellectual; Isabelle Schaffer, lecturer at Humboldt University, Berlin; Antoine Thomas, Ambassador of Belgium to Tunisia; and Najib Zerouali Ouarith, Ambassador of Morocco to Tunisia.

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