CORSERA – 2015

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Dear Doctor de Bortoli:

The latest issues of the Corriere report editorials that call for mutual respect and not to offend one’s neighbor (the Muslims). I quote Baroness Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, “We must not fall into the trap that extremists and terrorists are setting for us”, “We must resist those who would like to make religion a cause of division. The best response to extremism is to create a united international front based on universal standards of freedom of belief and religion. The European Union will not look away. It is a laudable campaign that should be echoed by such an attitude on the part of the Islamic World Order. For information purposes only, I also enclose an example of how the Koran can be used to foment hatred and violence or respect and coexistence (attached for information purposes).

I would like to suggest Western politicians and rulers the most appropriate actions to ask Islamic countries that feel offended to apply in their societies the same respect they demand of us. As chance would have it, the major violence happens on Friday when the mosques leave. Violence attracts more violence to the point of self-destruction and poverty, not for nothing in the last twenty years have three hundred million Arabs produced only 171 international patents; Korea alone 16328; enormous amounts of imported technology but little is produced locally.

The fine-sounding declarations must be followed by incisive actions in the field of education both in the West and, above all, in the Arab world. In this regard, the Ambrosian Centre for Religious Documentation invited European politicians to monitor educational material in Arab countries so that incitement to violence would make room for mutual respect.

Let’s the hope that these reflections brought to the public may inspire what are the most appropriate means for dialogue and coexistence in the globalized world, a theme anticipated by Cardinal Martini in his letter “Noi e l’Islam”  published in 1990  ahead of the globalization and the Internet revolution.

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.

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This is an issue that is often discussed. I would not like to create a confessional state; I would rather talk about dialogue with citizens without differentiating religious adherence.  The dangers of wanting to identify “one Islam” representing a million Muslims are obvious and have already been pointed out in the Corriere.

1. Why create ghettos for Muslims and thus discriminate against non-Muslims?
2. Why want to create an Islamic institution? Does the secular state renounce its prerogatives towards its citizens?
3. Many Muslims have chosen Italy for its non-discriminatory laws and its way of life: why disappoint them by recreating a social model from which they fled?
4. With what logic would the state or the municipalities want to finance centres of worship for Muslims with the money of all citizens? At least that the centre remains the property of the institution with the right of control in management.
5. Muslims don’t mean Arabic: why not favour the management of Italian centres? Monitor foreign preachers?

I ask you instead a question to which I cannot give an answer:

20 or 30 years ago, the European citizen did not know of the existence of Islam, if not vaguely. In the last thirty years, Islam (Muslims and, in their wake, in various centres) has been established in Europe, helped in this by certain of our political forces for reasons that I do not know.

Some local voices have warned against the contrast of cultures that could arise from the arrival of millions of people with customs and traditions clearly in conflict with European legislation, not least, Cardinal Martini in 1990, Us and Islam.

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.