The election results give our council reason to congratulate Chancellor Angela Merkel on being able to maintain the position of the ruling CDU party together with the other two coalition partners CSU and SPD.
Mrs. Merkel, as leader of the German Government, has over the past period shown to be a true ally of the Muslim and Jewish communities in their constant battle to fight racism, islamophobia and antisemitism.
That the right wing populist and Eurosceptic AfD (Alternatve für Deutschland) became the third largest political party in the German Federal Republic is of great concern.
However, we do trust that the German people will act responsibly. The German governments over the past seventy years have shown to treasure democratic values and will not allow racial sentiments to re-enter the German political arena.
We invite the German Muslim and Jewish communities jointly to support our council’s effort in working for an united Europe where there is no place for racial hatred or exclusion of groups of citizens from whatever background, religion or conviction.
The result of this election shows once more the great need for awareness against islamophobia and antisemitism for which our council of European Muslims and Jewish Leaders was founded.
Vienna, 25th September 2017 / 4 Muharram 1439 / 5 Tishri 5778
The European Muslim Jewish Leadership Council (MJLC)
Mufti Nedzad Grabus, co-chairman, Ljubljana
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, co-chairman, Moscow
Rabbi Lody B. van de Kamp, coordinator, Amsterdam
Imam Yahya Pallavicini, coordinator, Rome
The European Muslim and Jewish Leadership Council was founded in the Austrian capital Vienna on the 12th December 2016 by fourteen European religious leaders - 7 Jewish and 7 Muslims- in order to serve the need, more urgent than ever in today’s Europe, to free religious people, and religions from prejudice, false claims, attacks, and violence.
The mission of MJLC is to renew in Europe a culture of respect and appreciation of religious identities, specifically Judaism and Islam, beginning with the awareness of the essential patrimony which religious Traditions represent for every society and civilization.
The MJLC is facilitated by KAICIID.