L’Oasi Agende – pag. 89 – 12-1998
Lasallians of Arab culture, a dream?
I send you my contribution to the role of the former Lasallians in the context of the opening of the relationship with Libya.
The restoration of official relations between Italy and Libya could open new horizons to the Lasallian movement in terms of dialogue and mutual knowledge of the cultures of the two shores of the Mediterranean sea.
Until not too long ago the educational mission of the Brothers was directed mainly towards the foreign community and more specifically the Italians, in a country of Arab culture, Libya. The living conditions imposed the deepening of the culture of the Motherland while the culture and traditions of the host country were not given the weight they deserved.
The phenomenon of migration is transforming Italy and Europe in a broad sense into a multicultural society, where people of different languages, religions and cultures coexist. Islam, in particular, is an increasingly present reality, although in many respects still little known.
The depth of civilization that accompanies the Muslim religious tradition is of such a breadth as to reach full visibility even in the minority condition in a land of immigration where mosques and Islamic centers coexist with a majority Christian population.
The fascinating scenario that looms in our eyes is that of the outcomes to which the relationship between Western culture and the culture of Muslim immigration, mainly Arab but not exclusively, will come. Clearly, everyone e would like the results to be positive and constructive; but, for these to occur, nobody denies the need for a strong work of preparation and promotion.
A former student of the Saint Marc College of Alexandria in Egypt, I believe that the Lasallian alumni of our generation, the one with gray hair (or without it as in my case), have a service objective towards the host country profiting our ability to create a bridge between the two shores of the Mediterranean, that is, between the Arab world and Europe; Brothers so close but who don’t know each other.
The common ideal lavished in the “des Frères schools” is the fuel or spirit that will inspire those who want to drag their companions towards a goal that they themselves will set for themselves.
We hope to bring Islam to Europeans without prejudice and without romanticism, in its reality, in the awareness of the fact that Islam is a religion that helps man to live in society with others. For us Christians it is not a revealed religion but it has its own greatness that deserves to be known for itself, without the comparison with Christianity with which, we must admit, there are also critical nodes, not overcome and which have been highlighted in the book that I point out *.
It is important to point out the role of information that we can play in view of the growth of mixed Islamic-Christian marriages and that Christianity is unknown in the Muslim world or has a distorted vision. Within this framework, the new role that the Brothers in Libya could play in the near future I hope: to promote the Lasallian spirit and teaching methods in favor of the development of indigenous students, in this case Libyans, forming a generation of Lasallians of culture Arab with cultural openness to the world around them.
With friendship.
Giuseppe Samir Eid
* Islam: History, Faith, Culture. Publisher of the Brescia School, Authors: Crespi-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 comes. 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.