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17 September 2024. Short recap of the conference part of the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium ‘Democracy under Attack’ on 14 September with around 80 leading journalists, scientists and representatives of think tanks from across Europe and the USA: What happened that day? What did the participants take away from the conference? What were the topics?
The video was produced by the Agentur Medienlabor.
“There is a belief that a wait-and-see-how-it-goes approach to Russia could be beneficial for a peaceful path ahead,” said Anna Wieslander in her opening speech at the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium last Thursday. “Such a conviction is based on considerations such as: Is there really a danger in hoping for the best, signalling a desire for dialogue and détente, regardless of Russia’s behaviour? Isn’t this simply responsible leadership, an attempt to avoid escalating the conflict, to open up to communication and mutual understanding and to scale back military aspects?
Unfortunately, no. In fact, inaction and hesitation could accelerate aggressive behaviour. In this regard, too, the answer to the question lies in recognising Russia as a systemic threat. Misperceptions or misjudgements can have major repercussions, as the Munich Agreement of 1938 taught us.”
Europe must “develop a long-term strategy beyond the immediate situation. Europe needs to realize that yes, Russia will geographically always be at the border of Europe, but no, it is not inevitably a part of Europe or necessarily included in our security order. Europe should instead balance against Russia.”
You can read Anna Wieslander’s full speech here.
Luai Ahmed, a Yemeni journalist, author and content creator who has been living in Sweden since 2014, gave an impressive keynote address at the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium. In his speech, he described his journey from hating Israel to fighting anti-Semitism and how to defend democracy on social media. He has since become a fierce critic of radical Islam and authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. The article has also been published on ZEIT Online.
My name is Luai Ahmed. I am a 31-year-old journalist and content creator from Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen. Today, I use my platform on social media to fight Islamic extremism, anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia and sexism.
I am a part of an online movement called “Builders of the Middle East”. We have a channel in English, where I am a host, a channel in Arabic, and one in Hebrew. These channels are built to tell stories of humanity, and of human beings. Our team is made up of Arabs and Jews who are tired of extremism, violence and hatred, and we are doing everything in our power to deradicalize the Middle East.
Today, I have Jewish co-workers who I deeply love. I have Jewish friends who mean the world to me. But that wasn’t always the case.
read more “We combat extremism by showing the third narrative”
