"I saw Averroës, the Great Commentator" - this is what it says in Dante's Divine Comedy. The expression of respect accorded to the Islamic philosopher seems rather astonishing in our era of the supposed "clash of cultures" between the West and the Islamic world. An Islamic philosopher in "Limbo", Dante's first circle of Hell, where the virtuous souls of non-Christians are gathered? It's a fact. The great thinker of the Orient is placed on the same pedestal as Plato, Cicero or Seneca, philosophical monoliths of the Western World. Today, few would arrive at that conclusion. Even in courses on philosophy, the influence of non-Christian philosophers on the development of European thought is no longer a compulsory element. Even several hundred years of Moorish rule on the Iberian Peninsula during the middle Ages have been largely forgotten.

Nowadays, most Europeans see Islam as the great unknown, an alien culture that is experienced as threatening. The massive influence exerted on European culture by the Jews is also barely acknowledged. But wouldn't the rediscovery of Europe's cosmopolitan roots facilitate the integration of its non-Christian inhabitants? Last Sunday, the subject of the fifth matinee in the series of discussions entitled "Debate on Europe" staged by the Allianz Cultural Foundation and national daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung focused on this issue. The event at Munich's Residenztheater was sold out. Moderator Andreas Zielcke, leading SZ editor, was joined by Jewish philosopher Almut Sh. Bruckstein, who was most recently a lecturer in Jerusalem and Frankfurt, British Pakistani writer, political campaigner and filmmaker Tariq Ali, and sociologist Nilüfer Göle, who is carrying out research into the relationship between Islam and the modern world in Istanbul and Paris.

Almut Sh. Bruckstein opened the matinee from the Jewish perspective by expanding the horizon. She expressed the hope that Europe would move towards an "affirmation of its cultural diversity", because this would stimulate the peace process between Israel and Palestine. In her view, Israel and the Islamic world in particular need to experience the "Renaissance of their own great cosmopolitan tradition of scholarship". She is convinced that this is the only way to achieve a "constructive subversion of war". The Jewish philosopher recently cooperated with Navid Kermani, expert on Islam, at the Wissenschaftskolleg Institute of Advanced Study in Berlin to initiate the project "Islamic and Jewish Hermeneutics as Cultural Criticism". She concluded that "'Beyond Good and Evil' is by no means a nihilistic argument, but according to Jewish mystics, the secret of reconciliation."

Turkish sociologist Nilüfer Göle put less emphasis on paths to reconciliation through tradition. Rather, she focused on the enlightening and integrative power of conflicts and differences within the Europe of today: "It has taken the issue of Turkey's accession to the European Union to initiate the debate about a cultural identity in Europe!" In her opinion, the bitterly fought discussion about the right to wear headscarves was essentially the result of the proximity of Islam and Europe that has been a fact of life for many years: "In the past, women wearing headscarves never used to leave their homes - today, they're sharing public space with us." According to Tariq Ali, who lives in London, the conflicts between cultures are often insignificant compared with the gulfs that open up within cultures. "The fundamentalists on all sides are the problem!" European integration will only succeed once society accepts that Europe is a "mixed society" of three cultures. "We need to move away from the concept of turning our differences into political tools. Perhaps, the first step we should take is to set up a television channel for the three cultures."

JENS-CHRISTIAN RABE. All rights reserved: Süddeutsche Zeitung