Religion is a natural part of most societies worldwide. For many individuals and communities religion serves as a central pillar of their lives providing them with a sense of purpose and enriching their overall quality of life. However, history has also shown that religion can be a source of conflict and grievances.

In democratic societies the freedom to believe and the right to choose and practice one’s religion are fundamental rights. At the same time, certain beliefs can be perceived to clash with universally recognized human rights principles.

This creates a tension field that can be both demanding but also greatly rewarding to explore.

Recent global developments have underscored the role of religions communities in various conflicts. Recognizing this, we consider it to be highly important to seek to facilitate a dialogue among representatives with differing views.

The Kristiansand Conversations is an initiative aiming to bring together religious stakeholders from all faiths across Europe to the City of Kristiansand during the Democracy Week. This event takes place annually in May and provides a platform for discussing the contemporary issues at the intersection of democracy and religion.

The Kristiansand Conversations is built upon two existing projects, the Muslim European Empowerment Program (MEET) and The Kristiansand Interfaith Dialogue. While these two projects will continue to operate independently, they will also be closely interconnected, because many of the people within our audience express an interest in participating in both endeavours. The Kristiansand Conversations is meant to be an overarching organization managing and facilitating the two projects.

MEET was established in the fall of 2021 and held its first conference on May 6, 2022, at the University of Agder. On May 3, 2024, the MEET project will host is third conference in Kristiansand, once again at the University of Agder.  

The Muslim European Empowerment Programme (MEET) is an important initiative to promote intra-faith and interfaith dialogue, raising capacity and capabilities of key stakeholders to address the challenges facing Muslims in Europe and to celebrate the achievements and contributions being made to European life.

The Kristiansand Interfaith Dialogue is gearing up for its second conference scheduled for May 4, 2024. This project has evolved from last year’s interfaith conference which took place on May 3, 2023, at the University of Agder. The group of partners and collaborators that created the first conference, have now expanded into a larger pool of partners. They aspire to establish an annual Interfaith Dialogue in Kristiansand during Democracy Week. We are particularly delighted to welcome the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB) as a partner in The Kristiansand Interfaith Dialogue.