This exhibition is not a work of circumstance. It has been included in the programme of the Museum of Europe since its origin, seventeen years ago, and has continued to haunt the minds of members of our association.It also addresses a fundamental concern – the study of European relations, taken as a whole, both internally and externally, and takes its place in a series bearing the statement “It’s our history”: “Europe, it’s our history”, “America, it’s our history”, and now Islam. “Islam”, with a capital letter since this term not only denotesa religion but also a civilisation. It turns out that our exhibition comes at a very relevant time in history when the meeting between Europe and Islam is witnessed by citizens from the continent in all its tragic manifestations – massive and chaotic waves of immigration, senseless terrorist violence, feelings of alienation, incomprehension and hostility. Should we cancel it or at least postpone it until happier circumstances? Definitely not, we believe. It is precisely because the timing is tragic that it is important to show our contemporaries the extraordinary richness of this history, which has helped to make us what we are. We should not hide what is wrong any more than relativize it, but place it a centuries- old history, which has much more to it than just this. After all, do we imagine a history of Europe reduced to wars between its nations?
