2 - Reflections, Islamic cult centers and Mosques, Christians in the arabic world

R024 - Afghan Women, Kabul

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Mrs Isabella Bossi Fedrigottì

From : Giuseppe Samir Eid

Your  denunciation in the Corriere di Domenica 13 is acute and it comes spontaneously to wonder why the great medias silence everything that concerns certain aspects of the Middle-Eastern world. Just to mention a few cases: the events of recent years Lebanon, intifada, Gulf War. The press has highlighted biased news; there have been cases of children being snatched from their mothers under the pretext that they refuse to convert to the religion of their Muslim husband, daily discrimination in the name of religion, etc.No campaign has denounced these situations  and the ones who did were immediately silenced.

No campaign has denounced these situations unless they are immediately silenced. Why?

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2 - Reflections, Islamic cult centers and Mosques

R026 - MILAN AND ISLAM

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FAX 06/ 2000

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To:  Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi

From: G. Samir Eid

Object:  Milan and Islam

I see your scheduled presence at the conference Milan and Islam at the “Stelline”. In this regard, I would like to offer some ideas on the issues between us and Islam

  • Religious faith

It is praiseworthy that the Islamic centers in Milan can increase the religious faith of the faithful, but it is criticizable when the center intends to apply to our society, customs, traditions and dictates of foreign origin in the name of Islam. The question then arises: of which Islam? The one practiced in Cairo, Beirut, Tunis, or Mecca, Karachi or the desert of the seventh century?

  • Human rights

What rights will be discussed? In my opinion, dealing with the truth is an undeniable value.

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2 - Reflections, Islamic cult centers and Mosques, Islam and prescriptions

R038 - Infibulation: yes or no?

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Reflections – 30/1/2004

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Giuseppe Samir Eid

Emma Bonino is making a silent revolution from within Arab societies through women, but she is only half right when she says that at the Cairo Conference she took away all alibis from those who justify the practice on religious grounds.  In the Conference itself, in fact, Gad El Hak, the then head of Azhar, justified the practice as a religious duty. The fact is that the voices are still discordant and they must be taken into account. Going back to Italy, I agree that our country must adopt strong principled behaviour without leaving room for compromises and ways out, taking away any credibility from the values to which the country has adhered.  A parallel action of conviction must be taken towards the centers frequented by immigrants, including religious ones:  to make the difference between a request to adhere to a religious imperative, unanimously recognized as such, and others that concern customs and traditions prevalent in the Islamic world, and more precisely the Arab one, the main source of Muslim immigration. Coexistence must be based on values and certainties, and if we hide the foundations of our culture, what integration can we hope for? A clear willingness to accept the rules on the part of those arriving from abroad is certainly necessary, but if the host society does not have a clear idea of its identity it will not be able to integrate, on the contrary, it will be frightened by the new in which it sees a threat to its own security.

In my opinion, only if an initial “hard core” is guaranteed, can foreign communities amalgamate, integrate with the founding elements. There is a basic identity which cannot be ignored in order to plan new forms of society. Brava Emma Bonino to whom I hope to find effective support from both Italian diplomacy and the European Community.

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.

2 - Reflections, Islamic cult centers and Mosques, Political Islam

R039 - Which Islam?

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Reflections – 2011

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  1. It is essential to ask the Arab world to work on education, the media, and textbooks in schools and even to invite them along this line of education and peace. Imams and preachers have the formidable instrument of preaching in mosques, where it would be appropriate to proclaim also the verses of the Koran which underline God’s will towards religious pluralism and the commitment to compete for good in God’s Mercy.
  2. I believe that it is essential to ask the Arab world to work on education, the media, textbooks in schools and even to invite to this line of education and peace those imams and preachers who have in their hands the formidable instrument of preaching in mosques, where it would be appropriate to proclaim also the verses of the Koran that underline God’s will to religious plurality and the commitment to compete for good in God’s Mercy. Rather, implement a strategy to aim for this result.
  3. According to one of the 138 Muslim theologians, the main extender of the response to the Pope, the Koran should be read in its entirety, it would be wrong theologically speaking to extract and quote a verse in its own right and comment on it without taking into account the text as a whole. In fact the Meccana part is different from the part following Medina: So what is the “thought of Koranic GOD or rather of ALLAH”? This explains the difficulty of defining what the true Islam outside of stereotypes is.

In practice today as today the definitions coming from the strong powers of the petrodollars are valid. A political Islam against which a divided Christianity (Catholics, Orthodox etc.) proves to be weaker as an opposing force. In my opinion, the redemption must start from changing the hearts of men with the services and all the means available.

 

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.