CIVIS Dialogues 2009

CIVIS Dialogues 2009 in Vienna
"Democracy, Religion and the Media"

A new series of events provides talking points for the work of the media in connection with the presentation and communication of social conflicts

The debate about the significance of plural religions for modern democracies is in full swing; in particular, the presence of Islam is posing new challenges for Europe. The importance and future of traditional moral concepts for the Western democracies and their secular systems of values are controversially discussed.

The "CIVIS Dialogues 2009" are starting on the initiative of the ORF in Vienna and, in discussions with high-ranking politicians and leading representatives of cultural and religious groups, want to provide new talking points for the work of the media.

Conflicts over Mosques in Europe - Policy issues and trends; Rights: NEF Initiative on Religion and Democracy in Europe

Prof. Dr. Stefano Allievi
Conflicts over Mosques in Europe
Policy issues and trends
Ethnobarometer (Rom)
European Study [PDF]

CIVIS Dialogues - Content [PDF]
Picture gallery CIVIS Dialogues 2009

ORF TV coverage of the CIVIS Dialogues 2009

ORF Radio coverage

On October 7, 2009, at the invitation of Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) together with the CIVIS Media Foundation for integration and cultural diversity in Europe, the Freudenberg Foundation, the Konrad & Ria Groeben Foundation and the Herbert Quandt Foundation, the first event of the new "CIVIS Dialogues" took place on the theme of "Democracy, Religion and the Media" at the ORF-Center Vienna.

Monika Piel requested the media to look closely at the theme, and to act as a critical mediator.

Dr. Reinhard Scolik, ORF and Michael Radix, Executive Director of the CIVIS Media Foundation, welcomed WDR Director-General Monika Piel and Mufti Dr. Nedzad Grabus, President of the Mesihat of the Islamic Community in Slovenia, as well Christian Petry, Executive Director of the Freudenberg Foundation and a member of the Board of the Groeben Foundation, and Prof. Dr. Hermann Schäfer, member of the Board of the Herbert Quandt Foundation, in the ORF-Center.

Prof. Dr. Georg Ruhrmann, Prof. Dr. Stefano Allievi, Ingrid Thurnher, Prof. Dr. Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler, Prof. Dr. Andreas Zick

Within the framework of the information event at the "CIVIS Dialogues 2009", among other things, two new European studies by Prof. Dr. Stefano Allievi on the continuing discussion about the construction of mosques and minarets in Western cities and by Prof. Dr. Andreas Zick and Dr. Beate Küpper on religious prejudices in Europe, were publicly presented for the first time.

New study: Good Conflicts and Bad Conflicts -
Mosques and Minarets

Prof. Dr. Stefano Allievi; Rights: ORF/Thomas Jantzen

Prof. Dr. Allievi highlighted that the building of mosques also affects our own image of Islam.

Prof. Dr. Stefano Allievi, Department of Sociology, University of Padua, investigated conflicts in connection with Islam and Muslims in seven European states and 24 cities and considered the question why such problems were resolved positively in one city, but developed negatively in others under relatively comparable conditions. 11,000 mosques and temples are available to around 18 million Muslims in Europe. The construction and extension of mosques and minarets lead in many places to continuing disturbances of the political climate - in others to clear improvements in co-existence. "In the ongoing discussion it is frequently not so much a question of mosques and minarets per se, but rather about power and symbols of power. In reality, it is all about our general problem with Islam", according to Stefano Allievi, commenting on the results of his study. Despite fundamental negative attitudes towards Islam, Muslims are - that is shown by the new study - in several municipalities better integrated and accepted in the end than they were prior to the conflict. The European study of the "Ethnic Barometer" (Rome) was conducted on behalf of the "Network of European Foundations", the Groeben Foundation and the Freudenberg Foundation.

New study: Dangerous religion - endangered believers

Prof. Dr. Andreas Zick; Rights: ORF/Thomas Jantzen

Prof. Dr. Zick presented a much-discussed thesis: The more religiousness, the more xenophobia.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Zick and Dr. Beate Küpper from the Interdisciplinary Institute for Research into Conflict and Violence, University of Bielefeld, focused in their study on the question as to how tolerant, humanistic or hostile, religious people, who describe themselves as religious, express their feelings about others and how non-religious people behave. The largest empirical study of prejudices in Europe to date analyses causes and results of prejudices like the devaluation and exclusion of people for reasons of their group membership. The study shows that religious people on average are significantly more xenophobic than those who are non-religious and accordingly are more likely to adopt such attitudes which emphasize the inequality of other religious groups, but also other ethno-cultural groups. "34 percent of Europeans who belong to a specific religion agree to a claim of superiority for this religion, whereby the percentage increases with the general religiousness and is even greater in the predominantly Catholic countries", according to Prof. Dr. Zick when presenting the results. "All those who raise a claim to the only true faith for their religion, particularly frequently also have deprecative attitudes towards women, homosexual persons, Jews or Muslims".

Prof. Dr. Georg Ruhrmann; Rights: ORF/Thomas Jantzen

Prof. Dr. Georg Ruhrmann: There is a bipartite media scene in Germany

The fact that there is a bipartite media scene in Germany with regard to the treatment of integration-specific as well as other political topics, was underlined by Prof. Dr. Georg Ruhrmann from the department for Media Communication and Media Effect at the University of Jena. While the public service broadcasters were extending their reporting in these areas, he said that the contrary trend is to be observed among the independent broadcasting companies.

"CIVIS Dialogues 2009" at the Hofburg Vienna

Chief Rabbi Prof. Paul Chaim Eisenberg, ORF Director-General Dr. Alexander Wrabetz, WDR Director-General Monika Piel, Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer, ORF TV presenter Ingrid Thurnher, Cardinal Dr. Christoph Schönborn and Mufti Dr. Nedzad Grabus.

Plenty of material for the high-profile discussion groups which gathered in the early evening with the Austrian Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer in Vienna's Hofburg to exchange ideas on "Religion, Democracy and the Media". Under the direction of ORF presenter Ingrid Thurnher, Federal President, Dr. Heinz Fischer, the Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the CIVIS Media Foundation, WDR Director-General Monika Piel, ORF-Director-General Dr. Alexander Wrabetz, the Archbishop of Vienna and Chairman of the Austrian Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Dr. Christoph Schönborn, the Chief Rabbi of the Israelite Cultural Community Vienna, Prof. Paul Chaim Eisenberg and the President of the Mesihat of the Islamic Community in Slovenia, Mufti Dr. Nedzad Grabus, discussed the theme. The discussion was subsequently extended to involve the audience in the course of the evening.

Michael Radix; Rights: ORF/Thomas Jantzen

CIVIS Executive Director Michael Radix: Islam presents Europe with new challenges

During his welcome address in the ORF-Center, the Executive Director of the CIVIS Media Foundation, Michael Radix, had already made it clear that Islam presents Europe with new challenges. He said that culture and religion are not static but subject to a permanent process of change. "Is that sufficiently reflected in our media, do we present this development adequately?" he asked.

Dr. Heinz Fischer; Rights: ORF/Thomas Jantzen

Austria's Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer was of the opinion that the multi-denominational situation must be taken into account in Europe.

The Austrian Federal President, Dr. Heinz Fischer, also emphasized the great responsibility of the media. There were repeatedly tendencies on a political level to attempt to profit from the contrasts between religious communities. "Under no circumstances should the media allow themselves to become the instruments of politicians or individual interest groups", demanded the head of state.

Austria has already legally regulated the state recognition of all religious communities living in the country since 1912. Already, it must be noticed that a multi-denominational situation has arisen from the largely mono-denominational situation in Europe in the middle of the last century. However, further progress in the dialogue of the religions will only be possible through confidence-building measures which must have the objective of naming conflicts as such, recognizing differences, but also promoting solutions. Responding to the question as to whether Austria can serve as a "model for Europe" in its handling of different religions, the Federal President was somewhat hesitant: "Today the situation in this respect is "more difficult than ten years ago" and nobody knows what the situation will be in five years time.

Dr. Alexander Wrabetz und Monika Piel; Rechte: ORF/Thomas Jantzen

Dr. Alexander Wrabetz and Monika Piel: Democracy, religion and the media are central future themes

"Only the public service broadcasting corporations handle the topic of integration in a comprehensive manner", emphasized ORF Director-General Dr. Alexander Wrabetz during the "CIVIS Dialogues 2009". "With its extensive offer of information and religion programmes, its programmes for the Austrian ethnic groups and also its fictional programmes, the ORF provides plenty of scope for the theme of integration". Through the communication of information, social questions should be focused on as a theme after the day-to-day political discussion and, as a result, fears lowered, he said.

"Religion, democracy and the media are central future themes. This was also underlined by the two studies presented within the context of the event. The "CIVIS Dialogues" should provide approaches for the handling of this theme in the media", said WDR Director-General Monika Piel, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the CIVIS Media Foundation. She said that the media had a duty to provide intensive journalistic coverage of the developments in the "return of the religious" in the medial world. Journalists should be mediators without ignoring the existence of conflicts, but also observers while maintaining a critical distance. It would be a good thing, on the other hand, to have more journalists with a migration background in the media. German broadcasters were trying, she said, but frequently met with prejudices due to the poor professional image of journalists among immigrants.

Cardinal Schönborn, Mufti Grabus, Rabbi Eisenberg; Rechte: ORF/Thomas Jantzen

Cardinal Schönborn, Mufti Grabus, Rabbi Eisenberg discusses in Viennas Hofburg

In Vienna's Hofburg, the representatives of the religious communities emphasized that a large part of people's rejection of representatives of other religions is based on ignorance. The Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Dr. Christoph Schönborn, Mufti Dr. Nedzad Grabus, President of the Mesihat Islamic Community in Slovenia and Chief Rabbi Prof. Paul Chaim Eisenberg, Israelite Cultural Community Vienna, were convinced that bridges of dialogue could be set up in numerous places, if only people were prepared to approach the respective other faith without prejudices. "We must invest in bridge-builders. The ignorant ones are the problem, the people who do not understand their own religion - and then, of course, also not the other religions", Mufti Dr. Grabus was convinced. The highest-ranking Muslim leader of Slovenia emphasized that many conflicts had no religious cause whatsoever. Bridge-building required "a strong pillar on one's own side", explained Chief Rabbi Prof. Paul Chaim Eisenberg. What is necessary is to stand up for one's own belief without laying claim to being in sole possession of the truth.

"CIVIS Dialogues" in the Archiepiscopal Palace

At the subsequent joint dinner for the participants of the "CIVIS Dialogues 2009" in the Archiepiscopal Palace, Cardinal Dr. Christoph Schönborn emphasized that the inter-faith dialogue may not be allowed to become a dialogue between the "dissenters" on both sides. It was rather much more about a dialogue from the "heart of the orthodoxies". Agreement on a "smallest common denominator" would not be sufficient. The new presence of Islam is, on the one hand, a challenge in Europe for devout Christians, however, it also works as a "catalyst", so to speak, emphasized the Archbishop of Vienna. In the course of the Islam discussion, the liberal society recognizes that it must accept religious people as part of the society.

CIVIS Dialogues 2009 in Vienna "Democracy, Religion and the Media"

New study: Good Conflicts and Bad Conflicts -Mosques and Minarets

New study: Dangerous religion - endangered believers

"CIVIS Dialogues 2009" at the Hofburg Vienna

"CIVIS Dialogues" in the Archiepiscopal Palace

CIVIS Dialogues 2009 in Vienna
"Democracy, Religion and the Media"

New study: Good Conflicts and Bad Conflicts -
Mosques and Minarets