Email to Paolo Mieli – 30-05-2002
Sent by Samir on Thursday, May 30, 2002
23:10-Time 2002
To Antonio Socci: copy of what was sent to Paolo Mieli
From: Giuseppe Samir Eid
SUBJECT: The newly persecuted
I hope you had time to take note of the index of the book I gave you at the end of your speech: Christians and Muslims around 2000, published by the Paulines.
Despite your many commitments, I ask you to read page 27 that I wrote eight years ago; I believe that Muslim centres are bombs that one day or another will explode if Italians and public authorities will not rediscovering their identity and apply the Law without hesitation.
In the long term, these are dangerous centres, not because they are Muslim, but because of the identity of the financier, the undeclared agenda, and the kind of people who follow them. It took Jewish personalities to bring up the subject!
Without presumptuousness, here is my view on the questions asked to the public that evening; the opinion of a Christian Arab emigrated from Egypt to Italy:
1st Question: Why did the Church not intervene?
Answer:
Although Catholic Christians in the Middle East are a small minority, all of them, Protestant and Orthodox Catholics, reject interference from abroad, to avoid being identified with the West and thus increase the discrimination in place (p.93 of the book).
2nd Question: Why are the media not talking about it? Public opinion, the authorities…
Answers:
- Frankly, Italians do not speak much about religion, or about professing their faith to others; even many priests and religious are fearful and have no missionary spirit.
- The TV transmissions are deleterious: I remember those of Santoro who enjoys putting the Muslim on the pedestal in terms of moral and religious qualities, while contrasting them dissolute to Christian characters, with the cross well in sight. I had complained about the fact with Cardini, when he sat on the RAI board of directors, but without results.
- Economic interests prevail over the rest. Muslim leaders do not dissociate religion from economic negotiations, while our rulers are not interested in it: the void is interpreted by the Muslim interlocutor to be in the truth.
- The most famous intellectuals are left-wing and consequently pro-Arab and pro-Islam: the disinformation was evident during the last war in Lebanon.
I thank you for your intervention in favour of the Arab Christians with the hope that the seed will flourish and bear fruit.
Best regards,
Giuseppe Samir Eid
ANNEX:
There is no shortage of practical examples of discrimination in the Arab world:
⦁ the construction of a Church must be authorised by the President of the Republic.
⦁ renouncing the Islamic faith is punishable by death.
⦁ A Muslim woman can’t marry a Christian man.
The civil rights of women are halved compared to men’s in the Personal Status Act: Testimony, inheritance, repudiation, chosen polygamy of the groom, unable to marry a non-Muslim, in their freedom of movement (permits to visit, passports, etc.), in the practise of certain professions, such as being a magistrate: because a woman is less than a man, she cannot judge him.
Other constraints to equality between citizens at the dawn of the 21st century are: the prohibition to non-Muslims to teach Arabic language and literature and to graduate in gynaecology, the access to public offices, (in Egypt, out of 300 central P.A. 400 dir. generals of public companies, only 15 are C.).
Prohibition of freedom of interpretation of the Shariah (Hesba case underway in Egypt) to testify in court against a Muslim
Even if it is not the case to detail all the differences between Islamic teaching and Christianity, these are some examples that we find in Islamic teaching, also in Italy.
- The Torah and the Gospel are accused of being falsified.
- Judas died on the cross in place of Christ.
- Christians are Polytheists because of the Trinity.
- Islam is the best religion, source of law and socio-political order. The Koran contains all the knowledge related to religion, to the relationship with God; they refuse to refer to other sources.
- They do not conceive: Incarnation, Redemption, and Trinity.
- They do not accept mediation between man and God.
Dear Eid, you reveal with delicacy and without animosity the fig leaf with which cover the ignorant and imbecilic superficiality (of which Santoro is the unsurpassed champion) of the dominant mentality that informs a large part of our media (not excluding our “Christian families”). We are at the catastrophe of education and reason, in every sector of civil life. But let’s not despair. We know that, also thanks to suffering and in the atrocious martyrdom of our Arab Christian brothers on Muslim soil, there is the dawn of a new civilization. Yes, we are the empire at the end of decadence, the seed of Christ’s victory in the world. Victory that, as our beloved persecuted brothers and sisters show, wins needs no sword, no violence, no prevarication. For in our flesh He, our dear joy, shows His Lordship over reality.
Que viva el pueblo cristiano!
European Community
Corriere – 13-12-2002
EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
Turkey’s entry in the EU.
Great publicity is underway to prepare public opinion for Turkey’s entry into the United Europe. Little has been said about the fate inflicted on Christians in general, and Armenians in particular, a century ago. The European Community should verify that the situations that favoured the crimes of the last century no longer exist. What matters is that no genocide should be forgotten and underestimated: for the respect of the dead and for the honour of humanity. Turkey should take the first step.
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.