Brussels is to hold an EU summit with atheists and freemasons in the autumn, inviting them to a political dialogue parallel to the annual summit the bloc holds with Europe’s religious leaders.

While the EU is a secular body, the three European presidents, of the commission, parliament and EU Council, alongside two commissioners, on Monday met with 24 bishops, chief rabbis, and muftis as well as leaders from the Hindu and Sikh communities. The annual dialogue, which has taken place since 2005, is for the first time this year made legally obligatory under Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty.

Under pressure from Belgium, which constitutionally protects and financially supports humanist organisations as well as churches, the EU has been forced to hold a mirror-image summit, but of atheists, scheduled for 15 October.

However, in a move that perplexed and annoyed humanist groups, the EU atheist summit will also welcome under the rubric of ‘non-religious groups’, the Freemasons, the secretive fraternal organisation, according to commission spokeswoman Katharina von Schnurbein.

“I find it rather odd,” David Pollock, president of the European Humanist Federation, told EUobserver. “Some of the Grand Lodges are secularist organisations, and strongly for separation of church and state, but they also retain all sorts of gobbledygook and myths such as the Great Architect of the Universe.”

While the fictional story lines about conspiracy and the Catholic Church in “The Da Vinci Code” caused an uproar among some Catholics and drew censure from the Vatican, a senior representative of the Freemasons in Australia called “The Lost Symbol” the work of a “terrific novelist.”

“We are very pleased, there is nothing in this book that will offend my organization. It does give us the opportunity to open it up a bit,” said Greg Levenston, Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory for the Freemasons.

With Dan Brown’s newest novel, The Lost Symbol, hitting bookstores Sept. 15 — much of it rumored to revolve around Masonic myths — the Masons are in pre-emptive damage-control mode, Religion News Service reports.

Small wonder, since The Da Vinci Code — which Brown claimed to be historically accurate — was full of errors.

Stodgy lodges, traditional initiations and secret handshakes would seem to be the antithesis of punk rock.

But a diverse group of Hub rockers are embracing centuries-old fraternal ideals to become the new face of the Freemasons in Boston.

The Masons are a secret society — and they’re totally open about it.

As such, Masons would fall under the protections of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), the landmark law that says government may not infringe on religious buildings without a compelling interest.

The Masons, the storied fraternal order whose members have included Mozart, George Washington and John Wayne, has become entwined across the Deep South with the remnants of another tradition in these parts: strict segregation.

The Freemasons are not giving out the secret words that members are supposed to say to get into meetings. But the Masons are giving public tours of the New York Grand Lodge Headquarters.

In its US incarnation, Freemasonry is primarily a social and philanthropic organisation.

The role of Masons in public life won the backing of a High Court judge, who yesterday dismissed claims that the order’s secretive ways made Freemasonry an unhealthy influence on officialdom.

He is believed to be the inspiration for the hero of Dan Brown’s bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, and is credited with revealing the secrets of Rosslyn Chapel on which the cult book is based.

After centuries of obsessive secrecy and medieval rituals, Freemasons have turned to the modern arts of public relations and advertising for an unprecedented recruitment campaign in America.

Using secret hand signs, wearing royal regalia and speaking in Old English are just some of the unusual practices of the Freemasons.

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. — They still greet each other with secret handshakes and use rituals that date to the Middle Ages.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - A bomb blast at a building housing a Masonic lodge killed at least two people and wounded five others Tuesday, police said. News reports blamed at least one suicide bomber, just months after four deadly terror strikes in this city.