15 Jan 2017 Clearly however, there is a cleavage between Muslims and non-Muslims almost everywhere. And even though the vast majority of the 1400 million Muslims in the world are peaceful, law-abiding citizens, there undoubtedly developed in the last thirty to forty years or so, some strong currents of religious fanaticism that are bigoted and exclusionary. These currents have shifted the center of gravity of Muslim communities towards a more conservative posture. Even more, in same period we have seen militants take over established movements and sects, and the resurgence of the Sunna/Shia split has become more pronounced. But confronting them will require actions on many levels, and returning the center of gravity towards the more liberal, open and rational Islam of old requires that we confront ideas with ideas and change the religious discourse, the historical narrative and the public discourse in our societies. So this session will review what is happening in the Muslim world generally, and more specifically its impact on the Muslim communities of Europe. Hisham El-Sherif ,  Taher Masri ,  Abdel Moneim Said ,  Naseem Ahmad Shah ,  Farida El-Choubachy