  Muslims:
political cultural and symbolic power.
This project is designed to facilitate
the public debate in Romania of various aspects of Muslim
cultures and religion regarded from the perspective of
the currents debates and evolution of the war against
terrorism.The debate addresses the issue of Romania's
position regarding this war, the different aspects of
Muslims, Islam in America, Islam and it's accomodating
with other major religions. The project involves an interactive
event and a mobile exhibition and it is supported by the
Cultural Services of the American Embassy in Bucharest.
The creation, in the first room, of a space for interactive
communication, where people might find out about the Muslim
religion and diversity of cultures, through an exhibition
of objects reproducing the symbolistic of Islam and it's
variety of culture: books, flags, emblems, inscriptions,
rugs, music (previously recorded prayers will be played
periodically), photographs (Islam in America exhibition)
etc and discussions with key Muslim representatives who
will be present to provide relevant explanations.
The presentation, in the second room, of the political
background of muslim countries: descriptive elements of
their geographical location (maps), contemporary political
doctrines of Islam, an analysis of the political and social
conflict sources, a world map showing the areas where
Muslims are a majority, to evidence the dimension of the
issues at stake, elements of military identiry, photos
and press cuts relevant for the Islamic civilization.
This will provide the Romanian public and particularly
the mass media with accurate information that is more
consistent than usually available on the Moslem community
in Romania and the manner in which the Afghan war is perceived
in Romania.
The organization, in the third room, of book, documentation,
presentations and round table. One of the books chosen
to sustain the event is "Return of the Islam in the
Former Russian Empire", written by the French politologist
Patrice Karam after years of in-depth research in Arab
and Central Asian countires. Other books will include
recently published papers and documentation on the issues
of Islam and political culture. The space will be arranged
so as to allow efficient communication and wide participation
in a free dialogue. The guests' table will be disposed
in a semicircle and the journalists will sit on its open
side, so that they could follow each speaker. They may
propose topics for discussion pertaining to the issue
at stake, given that publications are interested in different
problems, depending on their target audience.
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Objectives
The event proposed by
IDEE Association has three main goals:
A.
To provide Romanian institutions and public
with wider access to first hand information
necessary for a better understanding of the
political and cultural diversity of Islam
B. To deepen the
debate of Islam's role as a political, military
and symbolic power, given that Muslim states
are often regarded exclusively from the perspective
of their political conflicts and too rarely
from that of the social and symbolical dimensions
of the public discourse the Muslim world.
C. To provide the
Bucharest public with direct access to some
of the Muslim symbolic universe and stimulate
their interest in it.
D. Eventually to
be replicated further on in other cities and
towns.
There
are also secondary objectives that might be
attained through this project:
· To encourage similar events
· To raise awareness on the problems
of the refugees coming to Romania from Muslim
countries
· To stimulate the ecumenic dialogue
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The event is justified from three main
points of view:
The war in Afghanistan has involved,
one way or another, the entire world into something
that not everybody fully understands and that raises
many uncertainties. The public discourse is full of
simplistic interpretations based on the conflict of
civilizations and the solving of the terrorist issues.
Such events, which provide the public
and the mass media with the opportunity of a direct
contact with sources and key elements of the muslim
cultures are absent.
3. Representatives of the authorities and of the small
minority communities often have communication difficulties.
This is particularly true about the Muslim community
in the current circumstances, when they might suffer
a process of increased cultural and social marginalization.
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Mass media: 
