On February 25, 2025, His Excellency Dr. Musabeh Alketbi attended the Conference on Religious Freedom in Europe in the Twenty-First Century, at the Seminary of Dámaso University in Madrid, that was attended by more than five hundred people, including thinkers, ambassadors, guests representing religious and community institutions, a number of monastic students, and media professionals. The three invited lecturers spoke:
On the Jewish side, Joseph Y. Love, who spoke about genetic freedom in Europe and stated that Europe now lives between two religions, secularism and Christianity, but secularism has swept over and has a trinity, which is human rights, democracy, and the welfare state. Europe is also now living in a period of fear of Christianity because they have banned all religious symbols in Europe from being present in official institutions. Then, this fear turned into ignoring and forgetting Christianity. Now, people hate Christianity, but they do not know what they hate, according to him. He stressed that Europe must take into account its Christian religious roots and respect this religion.
As for the Christian side, the lecturer Luis María Diez-Picazo Giménez, President of the Third Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court and a Catholic Christian, spoke about this and stated that he agrees to a large extent with the Jewish speaker, but he wants to clarify what concerns secularists, that not all of them hate religion, and we also know that Catholics have different doctrines and convictions, and while he sees acceptance in this approach, he believes that the state should not be hostile to religion, but rather accept religion and accept religiosity.
Finally, the lecturer urged Mr. Cobo, Bishop of Madrid, where he said that we live in Europe in a pivotal stage regarding religion and major transformations, but we must take into account the point of view of religious people and religion. The religion is among the components of European societies and therefore we must not neglect it and take into account that many people believe, and for that reason we must not despise this type of belief. If people want to be secular, then let them be, but we must leave the right to religion to religious people.
The speeches of the three lecturers ended without opening the door for discussions or questions, and perhaps it would have been better not to open this door because it was clear on the faces of many of the attendees that they did not agree with the proposals of some of the speakers, especially those who represented the Jewish religion.
At the end of the conference, His Excellency Dr. Musabeh Alketbi presented the Foundation’s Medal as an honour to Dr. Nicolás Álvarez Las Asturias, Dean of Damaso School University, for organizing this conference and inviting the Foundation to attend this conference.
