Istanbul Seminars discuss the issues of dialogue and civilizations

Editor

The third of the annual İstanbul Seminars were realized between May 19-24 at the Bilgi University with the cooperation of Reset-Dialogue on Civilizations Foundation in Italy. The seminars, bringing together prominent scholars, journalists and activists competent on their areas every year, offered an ambiance of debate and exchange of ideas about the civilizations on the 21st century, dialogue, the consequences of immigration in Europe and the integration of the Muslism into the European communities.

The seminars hosted significant figures of the scholar world  like Alain Touraine, Nilüfer Göle, Fred Dallmayr, İbrahim Kalın and Seyla Benhabib throughout the week.

Important and actuals questions were handled at the seminars. "Can democracy survive globalization? Is democracy about the state or about the civil society? Is Islam compatible with democracy or vice versa? Which role can religion have in democrative society?  Can religious pluralism exist in Muslim societies?" are only some these questions. Apart these, the consequences of immigration in Europe, in other words, the fear of immigration and the issue of visibility of Islam in Europe, brought forward by Nilüfer Göle, prominent professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes (EHESS) in Paris as well as secularism and democracy in relation to Islam and religion, human rights and Islam and freedom of expression were discussed by the world-known scholars.

The debates of the seminars are published every year by the Bilgi University and the publication of this year's seminars are expected for the next year.