CONFERENCE "ISLAM IN BOSNIA AND GERMANY" STARTED IN SARAJEVO

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (November 20.2007) - Islam as practiced in Bosnia may be a good example for Islam in the rest of Europe, a conference in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo heard yesterday.

The two-day conference, Islam in Bosnia and Germany - Exchange Of Experiences And Cooperation Possibilities, was organized by Germany's Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Faculty of Islamic Theology from Sarajevo.

The conference gathered more than 30 representatives of theology faculties from Bosnia and Germany.One of the goals of the conference, as Bosnian media quoted a member of the German Bundestag, Lale Akgun of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), is to use the experiences of Sarajevo's Faculty of Islamic Theology in educating imams in Germany.

"Germany, with some 3.5 million Muslims, needs imams educated in the spirit of advanced Islam," Akgun said.

"We know that the experiences here are very good and based on good scientific knowledge. Those experiences are very important and we in the rest of Europe can learn something from them," Akgun said.

The German Ambassador to Bosnia, Michael Schmunk, said that Islam as practiced in Bosnia could be a good Bosnian export.

"Islam in the Bosnian way,would fit very well into current social relations in the rest of Europe," the German Ambassador to Bosnia Michael Schmunk said.