CEJI course ends

Robin Sclafani, CEJI Director, speaking at the Town Hall

The CEJI course on combating religious discrimination finishes tomorrow – what a blast.  An extraordinary bunch of people involved in so many different organisations, groups and movements.  We shared tagine and couscous after a certification ceremony at the local Town Hall in Brussels.

CEJI and our course is based in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode/Sint-Joost-ten-Node, which describes itself as:

The smallest commune in Brussels also happens to be the most densely populated.  Although small, this commune is full of striking contrasts. The international-class hotels on Place Rogier/Rogierplein, the tower blocks of offices on Place Madou/Madouplein and the little Manhattan of the North rub shoulders with neighbourhoods where the mainly Turkish population has recreated the chipper, bustling atmosphere of an Eastern city.

Ruth on the last evening

The Mayor’s representative reminded us of Martin Niemoller’s poem – and particularly of our responsibilities as educated people and intellectuals to keep raising awareness and to keep fighting injustice and discrimination.  In our privileged position we cannot say we didn’t know.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

There are always hopes at the end of weeks such as this that people will stay in touch and be able to support each other, but a reality check means that this takes time and effort and people quickly get caught up with their lives back home.

My hopes include exchanging ideas and resources on Faith Literacy UK with those who are involved in other countries.

Europeans from four countries

I’d also like to keep in touch with one of the participants who is keen to develop links between the academy and local communities – just as Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network is doing with the Open University and (funding permitting) University College London.

Mark and Adrian

Maxine & Luc

Best of all, it would be good to meet up with people again.  There are plans for a summer conference in Switzerland which sounds unusual – I’m up for that.

Ruth and Luc, the wonderful people guiding us through the material, have somehow managed to keep a very disparate group together and learning from one another all week.  Dank u wel & merci bien.

Arrived

The best laid plans  .  .  .  no wi-fi at the motel, but I have an hour’s free time now in central Sarajevo and have found an internet cafe: Bosnian keyboard (not quite qwerty and lots of extra accents).  Central Sarajevo is buzzy and feels like a petite Paris or Vienna – warm sunshine, lots of cafes and smart shops, stylish young people, a river, cathedrals.  Extras include small, Ottoman-style mosques, powerful one-shot turkish coffee and some mortar and bullet damage on the buildings.  One of our hosts over lunch told me about three families (Serb Orthodox, Bosniak and Croatian Roman Catholic) sharing a small block of flats during the siege who took it in turns to go to the water pump each day (risking sniper fire) to get water for all the families.  The history, particularly C20th, inevitably comes up a lot.  Getting directions to this cafe I was told, “near the assasination point”.  The houses on the outskirts of town are like Swiss chalets – large, detached, not in rows and with balconies and pitched roofs.  Inside: IKEA no, solid wooden unpainted furniture yes.

At the moment we are trying both to get to know one another (we are five Muslims and seven Christians from the UK – although it isn’t obvious at a glance who is what) and also to start meeting Bosnians and learn about what’s happening here.

Over half of Europe is right out of my comfort zone – the iron curtain had a much more profound effect on my understanding than I’d realised.  I’m far better informed about countries with colonial & trading links to the UK, with a bit of western Europe thrown in.

Having visited Andalusia, I was fascinated to meet a Jewish woman from the Sephardic tradition here whose family was thrown out of Spain after the reconquista.  But just like the shocking events in Salonica, the Jews from here were also put on trains to the extermination camps.  There was an island off the Dalmation coast which had a concentration camp.  And it was people from two countries within my comfort zone, Italy and Germany, who were responsible.

We met Serbian Orthodox, Croatian Roman Catholic and Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) religious leaders at the Inter Religious Council this morning.  Building civil society, and how religious groups can support that, is a challenge.  I was interested, with my faith literacy hat on, to hear about the Council’s booklets and activities designed to inform the different communities about the variety of religious customs in Bosnia.  Information certainly helps and I wonder whether the telling of personal stories about our heritage and values, as we do, might add to the experience of understanding one another.  There was some discussion on the merits of confessional and information-only teaching of RE in schools. A very formal meeting.