For more than thirteen years, we have been involved in real dialogue with a group of Turkish Muslim families living in our city, Ljubljana (Slovenia). It all started quite by chance. I worked as a dentist and one of the first Turkish families to arrive in Slovenia became my patients. From that first meeting, a deep bond grew, which over time extended to other families in the same community. After the failed coup in Turkey in 2016, many people were accused of belonging to a hostile movement and were forced to flee, finding refuge in our country. Since then, the number of families with which we started interacting grew rapidly, reaching around 50 people in just a few months.
We soon realized that it was not a simple cultural exchange but that this bond developed into a relationship of real mutual help: we helped them to learn our language, to handle administrative paperwork, to enrol their children in school and with all the support required for the needs of daily life. In short, a friendship that has gradually become a deep dialogue, including about values and spirituality.

Over time, we had the opportunity to introduce them to the Focolare Movement and its ideal of a united world. This led to discovering of many common points between the Focolare charism and their spirituality.

One of the most significant aspects of this journey was taking part in each other’s religious celebrations. We attended iftar dinners during Ramadan, while Muslim families showed interest in the Christian celebrations. For four consecutive years, we celebrated Christmas together. The Muslim families were initially surprised by the spiritual depth of this occasion as, influenced by Western media, they had seen it mainly as a consumer event.

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From this desire to further deepen this dialogue, the Pop the Bubbles project was born in collaboration with the Association for Intercultural Dialogue and Social Academy, where I work. The aim was to overcome prejudices and barriers between communities, encouraging meeting between Turkish and Slovenian families. The project involved a group of families for a whole year, during which we worked together to identify common values between the two cultures. At the end of this journey, six fundamental values emerged: family, active citizenship, intercultural dialogue, democracy, freedom and inclusion. To conclude the project, we organized two residential camps, one of three days and one of five, in which 73 people participated. In addition to cultural exchange meetings, the project also led to concrete solidarity initiatives, such as helping Ukrainian refugees. This has shown that working together towards a common goal can strengthen the bonds between different communities. In addition, in recent years, I started working in an NGO (Social Academy) that cares for young people and some Turkish families asked me to help look after their teenage children as well, passing on to them those common values we had discovered together. This step was very significant, because it demonstrated the trust that had been built between our communities.

At the same time, an innovative project was born: the creation of an application to promote dialogue between people with opposite opinions – hardtopics.eu. The app works by connecting two people who have responded in a divergent way to a questionnaire on polarizing issues. The system pairs them and invites them to a discussion in a prepared environment, with the aim of overcoming social polarization and promoting a culture of dialogue. This app will soon be used in high schools and universities in Ljubljana. The enthusiasm shown by young people during the testing phase confirmed the value of this initiative.

I believe it is essential to create networks of interreligious dialogue at European level. The journey we have undertaken shows that with patience and dedication it is possible to build authentic relationships based on trust, respect and the shared values.

by Andreja Snoj Keršmanc