The Our Shared Europe project is the British Council’s response to one of the major cultural challenges facing our continent today – the growing mutual mistrust between Muslim communities and wider European society. Our Shared Europe seeks to find common ground, and build shared values, perspectives and behaviours that are based on mutual respect and trust. In particular, it is about how to acknowledge the contribution of Islamic communities and cultures – both in the past but also in the present – to the shaping of contemporary European civilisation and society. This means recognising the rich and diverse roots of our culture and society and using this recognition to build a more inclusive view of the continent that we all share.

Our team in the Netherlands is developing initiatives to create exchanges and an intercultural leadership programme for the next generation of young leaders, bringing together muslim and non-Muslim young people. So far , together with the wider Our Shared Europe team and some external colleagues, we have contributed to a short movie in which we asked young professionals Dennis Alciyan, Jasper de Jong, Serena Fasso, Sultan Gun and Zoe Papaikonomou to discuss the challenges and opportunities offered by a project like Our Shared Europe. The movie is available on You Tube.

For more information about this specific strand of the project, contact Joanna de Jong-Keogh.

To find out more about the project visit www.oursharedeurope.org