Title: Why Europe must engage with political Islam
Description: This is the fifth in a series of ten papers published jointly by the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) and the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) which aim to address ten critical topics for Euro-Mediterranean relations. The papers have been commissioned with a view to formulating policy options on a set of issues which are central to achieving the objectives set out in the 1995 Barcelona Declaration and the Paris Declaration of 2008, as well as defining new targets for 2020 in the political, economic and social spheres. This fifth paper focuses on the way Europe approaches the issue of Islamic political movements in the Middle East and North Africa. The key message that emerges from the report is that it is time for Europe to engage with political Islam in this region. Both authors of the main chapters in this report-- one from the Arab world and the other from Europe-- eloquently make the argument that there is no prospect of a credible democratic transformation of the Arab world without the full integration of Islamist movements into the political mainstream.
Subjects: Foreign relations, Islam and politics, Democracy
Places: Europe, Islamic countries, North Africa, Middle East