The position of 'peoples' whose identities are denied;
The dialogue between the Islamic world and the West.
At the background of the first subject stands the predecessor of IDF, the Research Institute of Oppressed Peoples (RIOP). The establishment in 1989 of RIOP should be understood as a reaction on the then prevailing view on the homogenous and irreducible nation state, what leaves in the theory and practice of international relations little room for an understanding of the aspirations of peoples like the Kurds, the Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Papuans in Indonesia. During that period, RIOP organised conferences and published reports on the situation of these peoples. The focus on the position of these peoples still is one of the pillars of the program of activities of IDF.
The general position on these issues of IDF is the recognition of the importance to strengthen the cohesion of the existing nation states, but only on the basis of the recognition of the rights of their citizens to decide for themselves on how they want to develop themselves. An important consideration is that they should have the opportunity to participate in the political decision-making on issues like the access to the national resources in the areas that are traditionally inhabited by them.
In the early 90's, the period that the growing importance of political Islam in its different manifestations in countries like Iran, Sudan, Turkey and Indonesia became apparent, IDF decided that more than any other subject the relationship between the West and Islam deserves a dialogue. It was the period in which discussions were influenced by phenomenonís like the clash of civilization concept, the Rushdie affair and growing uneasiness among large sectors of the European societies on the change of the composition of their populations by the immigration stream from Muslim countries. In 1994, IDF organised a conference Islamic Revival and the West, which was chaired by Professor Dick Mulder and Abdul Rahman Wahid, who was at that period chairman of the Indonesian Islamic mass movement Nahdlatul Ulama. Prominent experts like Dr. Gilles Kepel, Fahmy Howeidy, Dr. Mehmet Aydin participated in the discussions.
During this conference, the participants decided on a programme of dialogue conferences: Common values, common goals. Within the context of this programme in 1997 the conference Family Relations in Changing Societies dealing with the position of women in Islamic and Western societies took place in Amman under the patronage of HRH Princess Basma. Further there were meetings of the Open European New Parliament in which young migrant and non-migrant people, as well as young people form Arab countries participated. Meetings of the Open European Parliament took place in Istanbul 1995, The Hague 1996 and Bonn 1998.
This programme paved the way for what later became the European Arab Dialogue conferences.
