On March 3, 2015 the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
and its Novi Pazar-based youth group organized a public debate
titled “Religion Instigates Dialogue” at the Novi Pazar Cultural
Center. Professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences
Dragan Veselinov, sociologist of religion Srdjan Barisic and
Director of the Balkan Centre for the Middle East Ivan Ejub Kostic
raised the issues of radical Islam, the freedom of expression,
religious freedom and multiculturalism in today’s Europe. What is
radical Islam? What freedom caricatures conquer? What are the
reasons behind religious radicalism and battling for it? These were
some of the questions the panelists addressed. Moderator of the
debate was Anel Grbovic, coordinator of the Novi Pazar Youth Group
of the HCHRS. Mayor of Novi Pazar Meho Mahmutovic also addressed the
audience.
Professor Veselinov pointed out that Europe had to stand for
secularism because religions could only be equal in a secular
society. The dialogue about it had been opened long ago, he said,
but need to be constantly improved. Ivan Ejub Kostic emphasized that
the term “radical Islam” itself was most subjective: radical can
only be different interpretations of Islam but not Islam as such. He
also spoke about various reasons for radicalization of a certain
group of Muslims, pointing out the complexity of this topic as it
involves various socio-economic reasons. Srdjan Barisic talked about
the clash between two fundamental human rights in the case of
Charlie Hebdo (freedom of expression and protection of religious
feelings) in the judicial context. “A secular state is responsible
for all of its citizens and therefore must protect religious rights
uncompromisingly,” he concluded.
Panelists motivated the participants to take a stand on all these
topics. This dynamic debate attracted numbers of citizens of Novi
Pazar, including many young people. The debate itself was staged
within the project “Reach out Sandzak II” realized with the
assistance from the US Embassy, Belgrade.
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