MILAN 2 News – page 6 – 1/05 – 2015
Thanks to freedom of thought and our democracy, our children have grown up open to know the meaning of the customs handed down through the centuries by the elders; they have acquired a rich identity that comes from the knowledge of their history without remaining caged in it. Our Western media often refer to the universal values that draw their source from The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948 published by the UN; a Declaration unfortunately not recognized by 57 countries that are part of the OIC Organization of Islamic Cooperation of Islamic States that instead apply the sharia law that draws its source from the Koran and applies its principles.
Organization of Islamic Cooperation ICO
Our public opinions question certain ways of thinking, of acting in many populations that are the source of immigration to Europe; there is a problem of understanding each other and, finally, of dialogue. These well-manipulated misunderstandings give rise to violent reactions which are channelled towards the West; especially towards those countries of Europe which had colonised a large part of Africa and Asia, continents where almost all the countries which have joined the OIC, in particular all the peoples of the Arab League, are to be found. The Arab League is a formation that brings together countries of Arabic language and culture with Islam as the state religion (with the exception of Lebanon) applying Sharia law to its citizens in a diversified way. A relatively homogeneous people with a precise and recognizable identity based on Muslim ethnic and religious cohesion. The countries of the League are located along the southern part of the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, therefore, can be considered our neighbours. Neighbours from which attacks on Europe start, attacks inspired or perpetrated by bodies that have escaped the control of the governments of UN member states.
Economic, cultural and demographic divide
The strength of these bodies, which we shall call Jihadists, lies in the poverty in which these peoples live. After the Second World War, African countries embarked on a strong campaign of demographic development with the result, over a period of fifty years, of tripling the number of their inhabitants and only thriving in general impoverishment. During the same period, Europe grew economically with an older population that did not adequately guarantee generational change. The wide availability of means of transport and communications has facilitated the emigration to Europe of young Arabs from countries governed by laws that privilege Muslim citizens over adherents of other religious beliefs. All this has given rise only to mental prejudices in young people coming to Europe where fair rights and equality between peoples prevail. Citizens of the Arab world raised and educated in states where there is a distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims, legally privilege Muslims. Such discrimination is very similar to our remote fascist regime: the discrimination towards Jews. To the demographic, economic and cultural gap is added the religious one.
Identity, citizenship and religion.
Notwithstanding the modesty of Westerners to speak of religion, we must take note that religion and civil status of the Mediterranean peoples are inextricably linked to the identity of the person; the Arab citizen feels his religious identity as a priority over his political loyalty. Despite the distancing of the main religious authorities, the disorder makers and today the head cutters in the Middle East use certain verses of the Koran to justify their actions with a religious imprint. Poverty, ignorance, revenge against former colonizers, and lack of integration into society: they are all ingredients to become prey to violence.
Until recently, there was not this range of crossbreeding of cultures that we find today in a given territory. In fact, until the Second World War, the regions of the globe were inhabited by peoples in a given territory, relatively homogeneous, linked by a common denominator: culture, religion, belief, habits. Countries of Arabic language and culture with majority Islamic beliefs, Christian Europe and the West, etc., each one fairly uniform within itself, lacking the drive for revolutions caused by diversity as was the case with the Armenians in Turkey. It can be said, for example, that the unifying element of the Arab populations appears to be the religious one, that is, the common Islamic religion within which some differentiations are inserted. I am not aware of Arab populations without a belief, without religion.
Internet, free movement, emigration
The ease of travel and the free movement of ideas through the internet, television, media and the like have driven many strata of people to Europe in search of economic improvements and political stability. Technologies have created proximity of very different peoples and it is not surprising that freedom of expression, belief or opinion will always find some body that considers itself offended and justified in us
ing violence to impose its vision. It is with deep regret that these retaliations are almost always directed against Western citizens or institutions in the name of their religion. On the other hand, we must note that there is no retaliation against Islamic states where the faiths of non-Muslims, their freedoms, opinions, are always discriminated against in the name of identity and religious beliefs. These opposing situations must give us pause for thought, and only after we have objectively recognised the problems will we be able to reason with their solution. This was recently called for
by the Egyptian President before the Azhar Ulemas assembly in Cairo. In fact the current teaching in the faculties of Islamic theology starts from a reading of the Koran that is literal according to which the sacred text of Islam is not simply inspired but dictated by God to Mohammed “descended upon him from heaven”.
These are reflections that I offer to reason on the true nature of the challenge and what remedies to agree upon. It is clear that the best response to extremism is to create a united international front based on universal standards of freedom of belief and religion, an integral part of the identity of the individual.
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.