{"id":32003,"date":"2013-07-22T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-22T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=32003"},"modified":"2015-05-06T09:00:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T08:00:05","slug":"european-commission-president-meets-religious-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/07\/european-commission-president-meets-religious-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"European Commission President Meets Religious Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSome faiths are more equal than others [\u2026 ] creating an unequal society and citizen,\u201d Bharti Tailor of the Hindu Forum of Europe said at the EU Commission\u2019s High-Level Religious Leaders meeting, including \u201cindigenous people who adopt Hinduism [who are] treated as 2nd class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eighteen senior religious leaders from all over Europe met on May 30, 2013 to discuss the EU\u2019s yearly theme of \u201ccitizenship\u201d hosted by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, President Van Rompuy and Vice Presiden Laszlo Surjan, and organized by the Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA) headed by Katharina von Schnurbein.<\/p>\n

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that many of the facets of the EU community are being taken care of by the religious communities. Religious organizations are crucial communities of the EU cultural landscape and the EU is making its attempts to showcase this fact through open dialogue with the top religious leaders of Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cReligious leaders to contribute to the debate on the future of Europe\u201d was the headline of the press release. Despite the lack of presence of Hinduism as an officially recognized religion in Belgium, the EU Commission president has made it a point to re-invite the Hindu Forum of Europe\u2019s (HFE) President Bharti Tailor (UK) and her guest Mahaprabhu das Secretary to the Hindu Forum of Europe.<\/p>\n

Bharti was clearly visible in the very important group photo, standing up front and center. Bharti specifically asked to be put in the front; owing to her 5.1 feet (1.5 meter) stature, she was hidden standing in the back row of last year\u2019s photo.<\/p>\n

Bharti was also clear in making a statement about inequality of Hinduism in Europe on behalf of the European Hindu communities including their feelings of inequality and being unrecognized formally in society.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrust will not be easily established from the groups who are not engaged or seen as equal in the first place,\u201d she said, \u201cby those who feel the state has not, will not and does not want to change the historical disparity that exists on the ground of religion, even in the light of equality legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

However the status of inequality of Hinduism in the EU, all were pleased by the event. The EU Commission President, and Vice President of the European Parliament, along with Herman Van Rompuy the EU Council President received a Ramayana book (BBT Press) gift from Bharti and Mahaprabhu. This particular Ramayana book is the first large scale, digital art rendition, made by Italian ISKCON member Parama. Parama\u2019s unique genre of classical and modern art bring to life the ancient story of Hinduism in a fresh way that the Barroso, Surjan and Van Rompuy are sure to notice.<\/p>\n

The HFE organization, now in its seventh year of operation, is becoming the voice for the Hindu communities across Europe, as its mission aimed to do. Last year the HFE held a conference on \u201cThe Contribution of Hindus and Hinduism to Europe\u201d, at the EU Parliament. This year it is planning for a conference on a sensitive but important topic: \u201cIs the Wearing of Articles of Faith a real threat to Europe?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Surjan,<\/a>

Surjan, VanRompuy, Bharti and Barroso with the BBT Ramayana gift<\/p><\/div>\n

The Religious Leaders meeting was established in the 1990\u2019s by a former EU Commissioner as \u201can open exchange of views on pertinent EU policies\u201d. \u201cUnfortunately there many other parts in the world where this kind of gathering would not be possible, and I want to underline that point”, said President Barroso. Although a valid topic to discuss, in a democratic society such as the EU that is struggling with religious intolerance, some may question if that such a vague statement is really substantial enough for such a potentially insturmental meeting.
\n_______________________<\/p>\n

Kumari Kunti Sherreitt is the Hindu Forum Europe Executive Secretary.<\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 iskcon.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eighteen senior religious leaders from all over Europe met on May 30, 2013 to discuss the EU\u2019s yearly theme of \u201ccitizenship\u201d hosted by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, President Van Rompuy and Vice Presiden Laszlo Surjan, and organized by the Bureau of European Policy Advisors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}