Religion and Tolerance in Germany | 7/5/15 | Berlin

    The Federal Foreign Office of Germany invites experts and officials from all over the world to Germany to talk about “United in Diversity – Religion and Tolerance in Germany”. The program lasts from July 5th to July 10th. The participants discuss freedom of religion, the relationship of religion and the state, current challenges in Germany and the Luther Decade 2015 amongst other things.

    Among the speakers of the program are Sven Speer (Open Religious Policy Forum) and representatives of the Protestant Church, the Commissariat of German Bishops, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the Central Council of Muslims in Germany and the Alevi Community Germany/AABF.

    The program is organized and implemented by the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, (ifa).

    Dr. Sven Speer is Founding President of the Open Religious Policy Forum (FOR) since 2011. As staff and with presentations and expert report he advises governments, members of parliament, religious congregations, and NGOs on the relation between state and religion - e.g. in Berlin, Jerusalem, Beirut, Cairo, Washington, D.C., Houston, and Salt Lake City. Speer has studied political science and history and has investigated government regulation on religion at the Cluster of Excellence 'Religion and Politics', the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies.