From Swissinfo via swisspolitics.org, with thanks to Ali Dashti:
The woman behind the forum, Saida Keller-Messahli, told swissinfo there were many moderate Muslims in Switzerland, who have had limited opportunity until now to voice their opinions.
According to Keller-Messahli, there are currently many religious Muslim organisations in Switzerland but no associations for those who do not necessarily practise their religion. …
Interesting. So moderate Muslims are those who don’t necessarily practice their religion?
One of the goals is to tackle controversial topics, such as draconian punishments meted out to criminals under Sharia law.
“We want to show that Islam can be interpreted in a way that is compatible with human rights,” stressed Keller-Messahli.
As a sign of the forum’s progressive nature, five of the seven executive committee’s members are women and not all are Muslims.
They include an Islamic scholar, journalists and Keller-Messahli herself. One of the members, Karl Gruber, is a Catholic and a member of Zurich’s constitutional assembly.
I will be most interested to see how they interpret Islam in a way that is compatible with human rights, especially since the Islamic nations that signed the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights felt compelled to add some caveats later, withdrawing support for some of the Declaration’s statements regarding freedom of conscience, women’s rights, etc.