The colloquium, titled "Law and Religion in the Mediterranean”, organized by the Institute for the Mediterranean, of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO), in cooperation with the Mediterranean Laboratory of Public Law on Thursday May 26 concluded its works with the speeches of the two former Greek Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Evangelos Venizelos and Dora Bakoyannis, who stressed that the Islamic sharia should cease to be applied in the Greek Muslims living in the region of Thrace.
Dora Bakoyannis, MP of “Nea Dimokratia” political party, stressed that "we are the only country in the Western world who still apply the Sharia law for a part of the population " adding that "this is an anachronistic institution".
The former Deputy Prime Minister Mr Evangelos Venizelos mentioned that it is very important to tackle the issue of Sharia law by applying the Hellenic Constitution and the European Convention of human rights. He wondered , why the High Court does not indeed, apply the Constitution and the Convention in this case.
He also referred to the international and European treaties and stated that one cannot enforce a religious law to a Muslim citizen, unless they agree to it.
The colloquium opened with speeches of Prof. Spyridon Flogaitis, Director of the EPLO, Mr. Nikolaos Sakellariou, President of the Council of State and Prof. Mathieu Touzeil-Divina, from the University of Toulouse.
Two panels of discussions followed:
- Religion in the Mediterranean. The Moderator for this discussion was Ioannis Gravaris, Vice-President of the Council of State, while the speakers included: Professor Dr. Refaat al-Said, former Member of the Senate, Egypt, Prof. Elina Moustaira of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Prof. Panagiotis Mantzoufas, Associate Professor, Aristotle’s University of Thessaloniki.
- Law and Religion in Greece: The Moderator was Prof. Stavroula Ktistaki, Maitre des Requêtes, Council of State and speakers included Prof. Ismini Kriari, Dean, Panteion University of Athens, Georgia Sakaloglou, Judge, Court of Appeals of Thrace and Kyriakos Nikolaou-Patragas, Chargé de Cours of Islamic Law, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
