Conference program

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The Western World as an Enemy

Al-Quds Day as an Example of Islamist Ideology and Strategy

Conference

Sunday, November 7, 2004
12:30 – 20:00 hrs.
Theatre Hebbel am Ufer (HAU 1)
Stresemannstraße 29, 10963 Berlin, Germany
Subway Hallesches Tor or Möckernbrücke

[View on the city map]

The conference will be held in German.

The attacks of 9/11 and the never ending series of terror attacks ever since have made clear that the US and Israel as well as the Western World in general serve as a “bogeyman” for radical Islamist movements all over the World. The “International Al-Quds Day” in particular is an example of this ideology and its methods of propaganda. Since the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini called for this day in 1979, tens of thousands of demonstrators have been calling for the “liberation” of Jerusalem (Arabic: Al-Quds) every year while shouting anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic slogans – even in Berlin.

2003 marked the first appreciable protests against the „Al-Quds Day“ in Berlin. This year, the counter-activities have been expanded. The organizations Anstoß e.V. and the Alliance Against Anti-Semitism, in co-operation with the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) have invited academics and activists to discuss the following questions:

What are the ideological and societal sources of (political) Islamism and its most radical expressions? Which significance does Anti-Semitism have in Islamism? Which strategies exist to counter anti-Semitic and Islamist movements and strategies?

Discussing these questions we would on the one hand like to take into account the fact that Muslims in Germany are often subjected to racist stigmatization. On the other hand we also wish to acknowledge the existing willingness to idealize the anti-Western and anti-Semitic positions of Islamists as a form of resistance.

Program

12:30 Opening Statements and Introductions - Jochen Müller, MEMRI

Johannes Kandel, Friedrich Ebert Foundation
Marianne Zepp, Heinrich-Böll-Foundation
Deidre Berger, American Jewish Committee
Hamid Nowzari, Association of Iranian Refugees in Germany

When Ayatollah Khomeini called for the “International Al-Quds Day“ in 1979, he was also aiming at a pan-Islamic solution to the split between Shiites and Sunnis as well as an expansion of his model of Islamic Revolution to the entire Islamic “Ummah”. This ideology is bundled with the common objective of the elimination of Israel. It is against this backdrop that the importance of anti-Semitism for different Islamist ideologies shall be examined. The example of the German foreign policy on Iran shall illustrate how much consideration can be seen internationally of Islamism as a political factor.

13:00 History, Background and Present Significance of “Al-Quds Day”. The Iranian Strategy of the “Export of Revolution” and Islamization
Prof. David Menashri, The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv

13:40 Israel as a Concept of the Enemy. The Importance of Anti-Semitism in Islamic Ideology
Goetz Nordbruch, Berlin

14:00 Why the “Critical“-Dialogue between Germany and Iran has Failed: The Example of Iran’s Nuclear Program
Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, MEMRI, Berlin

Discussion
Moderator: Jochen Müller, MEMRI

14:30 Break

Islamism – a Global Ideology?

Apart from an ideological evaluation of Islamism, this panel wishes to compare tendencies of Islamization under different political and cultural circumstances. This should help to asses the strategies which manifest themselves in the worldwide mobilization for Al-Quds Day. Societies with a Muslim majority shall be investigated as well as countries in which Muslims represent a minority such as Germany and France. Based on the French example we wish to show how an objection of increasing tendencies of Islamization is articulated in Muslim communities.

15:00 Panel (three presentations of 15 mins. each)

Islamism in Muslim Countries
Thomas Schmidinger, WADI e.V., Vienna

Islam and Islamist Mobilization in Germany
Ahmet Senyurt, Journalist, Cologne

Muslims protesting Islamist Mobilization in France
Tewfik Allal, Le Manifeste des libertés, Paris

Moderator: Katharina Hudgson-Dorrel, Anstoß e.V., Berlin

17:00 Break

Catering available (at your own expense)

Prospects of Intervention and Practice

In order to counter Islamist strategies successfully, the predominant method of dealing with Islamism in Germany shall be outlined in this panel. The ignorance and lack of interest in Islamism among many politicians is often accompanied by culturalist and racist ascriptions which oscillate between a repressive policy of deportation and a romantization of multi-cultural ideas. The work of the Kreuzberg Initiative Against Anti-Semitism will explain the possibilities as well as the difficulties of the direct intervention into Islamist structures.

18:30 Closing panel: “What is to be done?”

Clueless or No Need for Action? – The Lack of Concepts and Awareness of Islamist Structures in German Politics
Claudia Dantschke, Journalist, Berlin

Out of Sight, Out of Mind? The Discourse of “Hate Preachers”, Deportations and Special Laws – The Externalization of Islamism by the German Majority
Deniz Yücel, Journalist, Berlin

Possibilities of Direct Intervention in Working with Muslim Teenagers
Aycan Demirel, Kreuzberg Initiative Against Anti-Semitism, Berlin

Moderator: Anetta Kahane, Amadeu Antonio Foundation

20:00 Close

Further information about the program and the speakers can be found at www.aktion-november.net, contact: basisvernetzung@yahoo.de

Organized by: Anstoß e.V. Verein für Basisvernetzung, Alliance Against Anti-Semitism [BgA Berlin]. Supported by the Association of Iranian Refugees, Berlin. Sponsored by:
Heinrich-Böll-Foundation
Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation
Amadeu Antonio Foundation
American Jewish Committee (AJC)
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)