Countries in Europe have seen an unprecedented increase in applications for asylum over the past year. As the authorities and citizens in these countries attempt to cope with offering refugees decent housing and support, the potential for interreligious and intercultural tension in the established communities where these refugees are temporarily housed has risen in turn.

In Voitsberg, a small mining community near the city of Graz, Austria, an inspiring interreligious initiative is working to build social cohesion between the community of the town, and the approximately 250 refugees who are currently housed there while their applications are processed. Many of the asylum-seekers are from Iraq and Syria, where growing violence and terror by extremist groups has traumatised and decimated Christian, Muslim, and other religious communities in these countries.

Started by the Lutheran Parish of Voitsberg, with the support of the Roman Catholic Church and other groups, MenschenRechteReligion (Human Rights Religion) is a politically independent, interdenominational initiative which seeks, on the one hand, to provide information for the local population about the culturally random group of “outsiders” they find in their midst, and on the other hand, to support the asylum seekers as they attempt to start a new life in a new country after the trauma they have witnessed or undergone in their home countries.

The initiative offers opportunities for the asylum seekers to learn more about their adopted home, through German-language classes, sport activities, traffic trainings, training in bike repair (the primary means of transportation in the small rural community) and other cultural events. They also organise meetings between the local population and the refugees, with the end goal of integrating the new arrivals into the everyday life of the community.

The organisers find that their efforts are already bearing fruit: friendships and mutual understanding between the local population and the asylum seekers is growing. In many cases the local residents are able to provide help to the asylum seekers as they navigate the administrative procedures of their asylum application process.

The initiative also organised an Eid Al-Fitr feast, held in the garden of the Evangelical church in Voitsberg, to provide the majority-Christian population of the town to participate in this important Muslim religious celebration.

On 12 August 2015, the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) welcomed a group of about 60 young asylum seekers from Iraq and Syria to the Centre for a tour of the building, and an introduction to the Centre’s work in Syria and Iraq. The visitors were also provided a guided tour of Vienna, for an introduction to the rich history of the capital city of their new home.

Waseem Haddad, KAICIID Programme Officer and organiser of the visit, expressed his admiration for the MenschenRechteReligion initiative, and for the fortitude of the asylum-seekers. Many of the asylum-seekers are university educated and were working as engineers, doctors, advocates and other highly specialised fields, before the violence in their countries forced them to flee.

“It is easy  to feel disheartened at the situation. The courage of these asylum-seekers, and the inspiring work of this interreligious initiative, gives us hope.”