EXCHANGE VIEWS, ROTARY – 2014
I reflected on some of the concerns raised at last night’s meeting: war or peace, dialogue, the positivity of religion, how a religion is identified is a label of belief common to a group of people or something else.
Until the Second World War the regions of the globe were inhabited by people in a given territory, a country, linked by a common denominator same culture, religion, creed habits and the like for example: countries of Arabic language and culture with a majority Islamic creed, Europe the West, India and Pakistan, Japan, China, etc., each fairly uniform within itself without the drive of revolutions caused by diversity. See the case of the Armenians in Turkey. It can be said, for example, that the unifying element of the populations is the religious one, that is, the common Islamic religion. I do not know of populations without a creed, religion even atheism after all is a label similar to a religious creed discriminating against those who believe.
There was not this range of crossbreeding of cultures that we find today in a given territory. An invasion of populations attracted by economic pressures, ease of movement, the internet, the media and the like that put us in front of a fait accompli. They bring the cultural and sentimental baggage that has come to them through the teaching of their religion through the education they have received in their families and schools.
For example, what would happen in a city or territory where various ethnic groups are concentrated, each one with its own habits and beliefs, each one wishing to impose favourable or separate laws to allow a given category to survive the social life of the country of origin, can also create tensions and competitive situations. This may be the seed that would lead to war if there were not common glue that cannot be laws derived from a specific religion but I would recognize that I am inserted in the context in which it operates.
To overcome this danger of religious warfare the host country should take care to offer glue that unites all the components around a common project with a policy of inclusion that makes the population feel at ease. Find a common denominator that discourages drifts. Inclusion cannot mean moving a bit to make room for the other, for any other. It means building with reason a framework of human values, a framework of the common good, and within this framework making room for those who share it, even if of different religion or culture. Without this, there is no true inclusion. This task is eminently political, and politics, if it were to be exempt from it, limiting itself to welcoming without inclusion, would not play its role.
At international level the same concept can be applied to relations between countries. If a war should persist or break out, religion is not the cause, but rather the instrument for imposing power. And here I quote Baroness Ashton: “The best response to extremism is to create a united international front based on universal standards of freedom of belief and religion. »
2014:
Dear Monsignor, dear Raoul
Immersed in the peace of a pine forest far from Milan I reread what I wrote on the subject, finding the cue to expose some situations that in my opinion give a different light on some of the points you made about wars of religion. Not all wars labelled religious wars are referred to specific religious teaching and not all religions are equal to each other both in teaching and in practice. The fact remains that religions are considered “ways” to respond to man’s deepest longings. I write concisely so as not to sound like boring rhetoric while I turn the spotlight on facts that seem to have gone into oblivion following the saying “The world is dangerous to live not so much because of those who do evil, but because of those who watch, let go and remain silent”.
- The Crusades so called religious wars have been successive to:
- The conquest of Sicily in 827 by the Muslim Arabs, continuous acts of piracy and kidnapping until the sacking of Rome and St. Peter’s Basilica in 846.
- Blockade of pilgrimages to Jerusalem by the new occupants, the Seljuk Turks. How would the Muslims react today if, for example, the Americans occupied Mecca and prevented the Muslims from making a pilgrimage?
- Back in the distant year 1076, 20 years before the First Crusade, Pope Gregory VII wrote without acknowledgement to the Governor of Algeria, El Nasser: …We believe in the same One God even if in a different way, we raise our prayers and venerate Him every day…and he referred to Abraham’s spiritual descent and faith in a One God.
2- The Christian evangelization of the last hundred years, 20th and 21st century is done by example, works, charity without the obligation of conversion, nor by sword or coercion. And a proclamation by example at most creates in Christian citizens a mentality different from the majority with the risk of being discriminated against if the laws do not respect freedom of religious choice.
3-Enlightenment and peacemakers in inter-religious dialogue: most have been eliminated from the Muslim public scene, assassinated or simply ignored even Taha Hussein famous minister of culture and education in Egypt in the 1950s and other distinguished men of letters have been opposed by the Azhar cast aside or forced into exile.
4- Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948: it has not been recognized and is not applied in the 57 States adhering to the Conference of Islamic States that refer to Sharia law.
5- The root of evil is found in our hearts: It is true as long as it is fed by sermons, textbooks in schools that we praise the victory (always conquest) of a certain ideology called religion.
6- Extenders of the historic letter from 138 Muslim theologians to Pope Benedict XVI: most have a university chair in the Western world with little grip on the people within the Islamic states.
7- Today the majority of the massacre wars and the like in the world refer to the Muslim “religion” and have their foundation in the parts of the Koran that lead to discrimination between men similar can be said to the fascism that provoked the wars of the 20th century. The economic aspect may be the undeclared reason, but the driving force behind such actions remains always the teaching in the name of Islam addressed to people from a younger age. Since there is no single authority representing the Islamic religion, similar to the Christian Churches Pope or Patriarchs, they are the strongest centres of power that give voice to the Islam of the 21st century without fear of protest. Naturally, the lack of an extended middle class encourages the contagion and spread of such messages.
Finally: Allow me to quote an excerpt from the message of the Ambrosian Centre of Documentation for Religions-CADR- addressed in 2011 to Italian and European parliamentarians to promote an attitude of young Muslims towards non-violence of hearts:
At the political level it is important that the West, in technological or market exchanges, knows how to unite or subordinate cultural exchanges with criteria of reciprocity, especially for the people’s base, to the effective promotion in the country of the values of civil and religious freedom for all without any discrimination and that, in this regard, there is intense monitoring. “To ask the Arab world to work on education, on the media, on textbooks in schools and even to invite to this line of education and peace, the imams who have in their hands the formidable instrument of sermons in mosques, where it would be appropriate to proclaim also the verses of the Koran that underline God’s will towards religious plurality and the commitment to compete for good in God’s mercy”. It just so happens that the biggest violence happens on Friday when you leave the mosques. The best response to extremism is to create a united international front based on universal standards of freedom of belief and religion.
And so, inter-religious dialogue remains a commitment reserved for the elites. On the other hand, ways should be found to make this heritage pass through – modest as it may be, but it exists – from summits to the street and especially in the field of teaching – in schools, universities – to administration and the formulation of laws.
Thank you,
Giuseppe Samir Eid
Free web translation from the original in Italian
The published articles intend to provide the tools for a social inclusion of the migratory flow, shed light on human rights and the condition of life of Christians in the Islamic world from which the author come from. Knowledge of the other, of cultural and religious differences are primary ingredients to create peace in the hearts of men everywhere, a prerequisite for a peaceful coexistence and convinced citizenship in the territory.