We welcome some clarification from Giuseppe Samir Eid, a Christian of Arab origin, on the terminology and current concepts cited in his book on Islam. Islam: Indicates total submission, the will of Allah, to be supreme, (Akbar, without associates) and acceptance of his decrees. Some Islamic schools claim that the God known to Christians, namely the Tri- nity, is not the same God worshiped by Muslims. Sharia: is the totality of the orders ex- tracted from the Sunna t of the Koran and any other laws deduced from these two sources of jurists from the VII to the IX centuries AD and which were crystallized thereafter. Koran: the word of God tran- smitted to the prophet Mohammed. Sunnah: the collection of what Muhammad said, did or accepted, his example of life. Madrassa or madaress: it is the place of teaching of the Koran, generally attached to mosques. This teaching still continues very often ‚to teach a traditional religion which conceives that the western way of life (assimilated to Christianity) is contrary to Islam and therefore proposes an Islamized West. The effect of this teaching on millions of people is intuitive.
022 - How to modernize the Arab world BOCCONI UNIVERSITY
Bocconi – 12-20
In the name of God: war or peace?
The answer to the question I was asked: How can we modernize the Arab world? Its answer would require a dedicated debate. I will try to synthesize. The action could be directed towards several ways:
In Europe:
- towards Muslim preachers
- towards the Muslims immigrants in Italy
- towards Europeans:
- towards the Institutions
In Arab countries:
- Women and human development
- politically
- at the level of international organisations
- By taking advantage of their thousand-year experience of the Arab Christians.
023 - The importance of the dialogue between Christianity and Islam
Ethnoland News – pag. 40 – 7-20
Discovering the points of possible contact, as well as the conditions for better mutual acceptance: For a concrete commitment.
Giuseppe Eid
The presence of Islam is now visible in Europe: it is the consequence of the migratory flows, which affect the main Western countries, including Italy. It is, therefore, opportune to approach the Muslim Arab culture to overcome stereotypes and avoid misunderstandings. Only from an adequate and reciprocal knowledge can the premises for a peaceful and fruitful coexistence emerge.
Few people know that in the Eastern Mediterranean, together with one hundred million Muslim Arabs, live about twelve million Christian Arabs, who have always played an important role in the life of their countries over the centuries, and that in the future they could play a decisive role as a “bridge” between the two civilizations, in order to contain the increasingly pressing – and sometimes worrying – contrasts between the two shores of the Mediterranean.
024 - IRAQ NOT ONLY OIL – I
ROTARY- Pag. 24-27 – 10-20
The speech of the PDG Piero Marcenaro on the n.5 of “Rotary”, May 20 ”, was an incentive for me to deepen the subject and express my thoughts on a situation that does not concern only and exclusively oil. The armed intervention in Iraq has deep and remote roots that I could trace back more than a century ago and concerns the situation of the Middle Eastern Arab world in general. In particular, I refer to some events that have profoundly affected the feelings of the Arab peoples towards the West, the U.S.A. in particular, propitiators of armed intervention in Iraq.