01/15/95
1. Demographic gap
Italy and Europe are transforming themselves, due to the migration phenomenon, into multicultural contexts, where people of different languages, religions and cultures live side by side. Islam is a reality increasingly present in our cities, although in many ways unknown.
One of the reasons for immigration to Europe is the strong population growth that occurred on the other side of the Mediterranean. The population of the North, at the end of the Second World War, was about twice that of the South of the Mediterranean basin. 50 years later, North Africa and the Middle East have bridged the gap with Mediterranean Europe: the proportion is currently 1 to 1.In the southern Mediterranean, demographic development has not been accompanied by as many economic improvements. In addition, the European population, richer but also older, has offered space for the peaceful invasion of people from countries that are geographically and culturally distant. These immigrants, who grew up in countries where there is no conception of separation of religion and state, where, as in nations of Islamic culture, freedom of religious choice is severely limited, and if allowed it is only in a unilateral sense, will inevitably end up to cause serious cohabitation problems. And the flow from South to North seems destined to grow again.
The temptation of the West, faced with this massive immigration, is to raise a barrier of protection, formulated in laws, which removes the worry of having to think of a common destiny in the name of peace and justice. It is wrong for those who believe that serious police checks are needed to defuse the mind of indiscriminate immigration, with its social consequences. What is needed instead is the ability and willingness to interact, transforming the cultural diversity into a mutually beneficial relationship..
Technological evolution allows even the most distant peoples to weave relationships at every level. On the other hand, it is difficult for a society to experience the rapid changes in which it finds itself without any repercussions. This is why the management of these processes of change is particularly delicate and cannot be left to the improvisation of individuals, cannot be oriented solely by the search for an economic return. It is therefore the responsibility of the governments of the countries bordering on the Mediterranean to establish coordinated policies that make it possible to transform mutual knowledge and collaboration into a positive resource.
2. Recent immigration
The life of the Arab Christians in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa with a Muslim majority, as we saw earlier, is not at all easy today. On the one hand there is the constant push towards Islamization, on the other the urgency of economic subsistence that often forces emigration to the West. For opposite reasons, Muslims in Europe and Christians in the Middle East find themselves experiencing situations of conflict within the social context in which they are immersed. However, the fact that the Muslim presence in Europe is recent and in Italy dates even a few decades should be taken into account. Instead, Christians have been in the Middle East since the very birth of Christianity, seven centuries before the advent of Muslims. Only around 638-641 did the Muslims settle in the region thanks, in part, to the reception of Christians which was proven to be badly reciprocated. This historical perspective must be kept in mind to understand some situations that are otherwise indecipherable.
3. Non-EU citizens
Bachelor, male, Muslim, very low level of education: this is the identity of the “extra-community” as it is often presented by the press and television. This is a young man looking for the job he could not get in his home country. Usually, this is a desperate undertaking, unless he knows a specific trade. These immigrants from the South find themselves on the margins of the world of work, forced to live by expedients. Some end up swelling the ranks of petty crime.
Immigrants from Eastern Europe are arriving more and more in our cities. But their presence does not substantially change the problem: the greater flow of immigration is still that coming from North Africa. Of these immigrants, many illegal immigrants, the vast majority is Muslim. This is a fact that should not be overlooked in considering the phenomenon of immigration. Each brings with it its own cultural baggage made of traditions and customs. Islam and the culture it expresses is, essentially, a prismatic lens with which it looks at the world. It is through this lens, however unsuitable, that Islamic immigrants judge Western society. One of the first realities, the Muslim encounters is that of the legal and political organization of our states because all predominantly Islamic countries are governed by systems that are absolutely not comparable to Western democracies. For this reason, except for a few exceptions, Islamic immigrants are not prepared for the exercise of freedom.
Young Muslims coming to Europe come into contact with a completely different mentality. The strong psychological shock causes a state of disorientation, which can produce misunderstandings, frustrations and provoke the creation of a risky situation if the host state leaves immigrants in a situation of material abandonment and even worse of cultural psychological abandonment. This is why it is important for these people to have precise points of reference. It is in this context of existential difficulty that the spread of Islamic centers is inserted in our cities. For many young people the Muslim religion becomes the only clear point of reference in a society whose contours they struggle to understand. The Western mentality confuses young immigrants and disrupts the Muslim man. Religion, on the other hand, forges a strong personal identity and creates solid social cohesion.
4. Islamic centers
The first reaction of a “non-EU” Muslim, especially when he is left to himself, is often one of rejection of everything he considers the fruit of Western mentality and culture. Misunderstood hospitality, the lack of a sense of welcome, or different customs and practices create misunderstandings, provoke a feeling of rejection in the Muslim faithful. These are attitudes that do not favor inclusion and integration. On the other hand there is difficulty in understanding the purpose of the assistance service of Christian organisms if it is provided without clarification on the purpose of gratuitousness.
In this situation of confusion it is natural that Muslims find refuge and comfort in the Koran, which is for them the source of laws and truth. Hence, the flourishing of institutions such as Islamic centers, which allow Muslims to express their adherence to Islam. But which Islam?
A recurrent aspect of the Islamic centers’ activity is to emphasize the superiority of the Muslim religion over all the others. Islam is presented as the only faith pleasing to God and those who do not profess it are destined to lose on judgment day. In addition, Muslims are often invited to be wary of Christian charitable associations, which would only aim to proselytize in exchange for a piece of bread. In Italy, clandestinely, there are audio cassettes containing real anti-Christian sermons, often at the limit of contempt. There are also several publications that deal with domestic and foreign political problems with a language of holy war.
In Milan, public spaces have been granted in the name of a welcoming center to an Islamic center that has requested it. Thus in a Social Center of the municipality, a library was opened and cycles of conferences are held. In fact, the library is managed exclusively in an Islamic (and often anti-Christian) key, with Arabic books praising Islam and which, due to their anti-Western content, certainly do not favor integration. The conferences held at the center are in fact, very frequently, real lessons in Islamic morality with strict discrimination against women.
Tahar Ben Jalloun, one of the greatest Moroccan writers, recognizes that Islam in many cases becomes a totalitarian political ideology, a formidable lever in the hands of those who are determined to do anything to get power.This exploitation runs the risk of reproducing itself even within Islamic centers which, with their followers, end up constituting real enclaves in the host countries.
Yet Islamic centers, in addition to their religious function, could, if desired, be a precious bridge between the reality of the country of origin and the new society in which the immigrant finds himself living. The convergences between the two religions are numerous. Christians and Muslims believe in the one God, in resurrection, in universal judgment, in heaven and in hell. They practice, albeit with different times and methods, fasting, pilgrimage, almsgiving to the poorest, daily prayer. The Koran bears witness to the closeness between Christians and Muslims, so there is no motivation, let alone a religious one, to harbor hostility.
Would it be utopia to believe that one day Islamic centers can collaborate with Christian charitable associations, the Church, public institutions to solve problems related to immigration?
In a world where communications increasingly put people in contact with each other, the choice between dialogue and confrontation is a choice between life and death. In this context, Islamic-Christian dialogue is of primary importance for the future of humanity. One can imagine the role that the Christians of the East can play in this field, starting from their communion of faith with the Christian West and from their cultural communion with the Muslim East.
5. Europe, land of Islamic mission
It is the common opinion of many Islamic apologist in the secular and university world that friendship and faith in God are indispensable prerequisites for initiating the resolution of problems among men. Fundamentalism, according to them, is only the result of poverty, ignorance and constant disappointments as well as the Palestinian question that has inflamed the minds of Muslims throughout the region. In essence, the government according to them are unable to attend to the needs of Muslims
Consequently, they seek certainty of the future in the Koran and the answers to those problems that political institutions have not been able to find.
Although the position expressed is on the whole moderate, these intellectuals look favorably on the emigration of young people to the West. Although the motivation is essentially economic, they still consider them important pawns in Islamic expansion in Europe. Mixed marriages with Christian girls are welcome provided they are the first step towards the Islamization of the European family.
In Arab countries the number of Christian women married to Muslims is growing. Marriage in many cases occurred in Europe; later the woman followed her husband to her home country. The condition of these women, in a context dominated by Islam, is often problematic. Even in Italy, with the increase in immigration from North Africa and the Middle East, mixed marriages and de facto unmarried marriages have increased, which in many cases generate unexpected problems for the Western spouse even when he is not a practicing Christian. For this reason, those who plan to undertake a marital experience with a Muslim, it is good to find out about the laws in force in the partner’s country of origin.
In Arab or Islamic countries, however, the law is always on the side of the Muslim at the expense of the non-Muslim. The legal constraints with the state, concerning the marriage, particularly, towards the children: everything is for the benefit of the Muslim citizen. Naturally the juridical position of the Christian spouse improves after his/her conversion to Islam and the abandonment of the original religion.
This legal disparity is even more serious when the non-Muslim spouse is a woman. For those who decide to marry a Muslim, it becomes objectively difficult to continue to profess one’s faith. And yet the Christian testimony, while discreet, in the context of the Islamic family could create new opportunities for dialogue, favoring mutual knowledge and respect among the believers of the one God. Certainly, a work of support is needed towards these Christians, especially women , who find themselves immersed in the Islamic reality.
At a legal level, France first reached an agreement with Algeria to try to mitigate the inferior situation in which it ends up by finding itself the Western spouse in mixed marriages. The agreement provides for the matrimonial law of the country where the marriage took place.
6. Muslim students in the West
There are now many young Muslims who come to the West for study purposes. Once they have graduated, not everyone returns to their country of origin. Indeed, most of them settle in Europe, where they undoubtedly find more job opportunities. Almost always the integration of these young people into Western society is successful, so much so that some become established professionals. This is a phenomenon which, on the one hand, arouses admiration, on the other it cannot but provoke regret: how many missed opportunities to improve relations between the Islamic world and the Western world!
These young Muslims, after their years of study, thanks to their experiences and familiarity with Western culture, could play a very important role at home: to become a “bridge” between Western and Eastern civilization, transmitting the cultural baggage acquired in respect of one’s cultural identity. Paradoxically, those who settle in the West end up taking the culture uncritically, losing their identity. In short, often Muslims, in contact with the culture of the West, experience the two opposite attitudes: approval or rejection, with consequent fundamentalist closures.
Certainly immigration, especially when it is massive, causes different problems in the host countries. But it also represents a stimulating factor: the testimony of faith of Muslims can help to overcome the excessive individualism of our society; at the religious level it can help to reverse the course of a devastating secularization.
Through collaboration, Christians and Muslims can contribute to the development of those countries in the world that suffer from conditions of underdevelopment, the same that underlie the phenomenon of migration. Technology alone is not enough to create development. Change within a society occurs when the cultural conditions exist for it to be fulfilled. For this it is necessary to work together for an integral development. Muslim immigration in the West is recent, as we have seen, but are at risk of not being able to grasp the factors that could favor the development of their respective society of origin while at the same time maintaining their own cultural identity. In this sense the closure and the stiffening of the Islamic communities present in Europe are a source of concern.
7. Believers: a renewed presence
The secularized West can become an important training ground of faith: a place to start interreligious dialogue between Muslims, Jews and Christians in view of peace and religious revival. This is a challenge that John Paul II has repeatedly mentioned in his pontificate.
First of all, Christians must overcome every inferiority complex towards Muslims, taking the figure of Massignon as an example, whose life is marked by a substantial optimism of faith. The rediscovery of the teaching of this great Islamologist can undoubtedly help us to grasp the profound Muslim religiosity and the spiritual ties that exist with the Gospel. The work of Louis Massignon, an academic from France, is all about inter-religious dialogue. Distinguished in his studies of the Muslim world to the point that he was called to be a member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo, Massignon was struck by Muslim mysticism, above all by the figure of Ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, the crucified and burned soufi master alive at the Porta of the Baghdad Arch in 922.
Massignon wrote: “There is a people that nobody really loves, because nobody really knows, and that nobody really knows because nobody really loves. This people is the Muslim people. I feel the duty to dedicate my whole life to make it known and loved by Christians “(P. Giulio Basetti Sani OFM, Louis Massignon 1883-1962, Alinea Editrice 1985, p.73). He then asked for the recitation of the Angelus at the same time as Muslims, five times a day, and call Christian to dedicate themselves to Koranic prayer. Louis Massignon had succeeded in making his friends grasp the importance of the testimony of Eastern Christians in the land of Islam. In short, the conviction that Christians and Muslims belong, albeit with reciprocal differences, to the same Father and Lord of the universe must be clearly emphasized. The Christian must firmly affirm that God is not the monopoly of anyone, but is the God of all men: to whatever race, culture or people they belong.
Finally, the commitment in the field of culture, an activity that encompasses various aspects, cannot be weakened. Knowledge of the Eastern cultural heritage must be disseminated in the West; revitalize the cultural riches inherited from the civilizations that preceded us. One of the key points is that of mutual understanding: hence the importance of grasping the different nuances and different cultural attitudes. The Eastern mentality struggles to grasp some aspects of the West and vice versa. Hence the need to deepen and explain.
What we must avoid is the scenario that Gilles Kepel puts forward in his book” La revanche de Dieu:” the conflict between Jews, Muslims and Christians for the conquest of the world. In all, the conviction that God is of every man must be made clear. If we believe in the God of all men, no faith can claim the exclusivity of God.
8. The Italian bishops
The words of cardinal Biffi:
Sensing the need for a serious reflection on Islam and immigrant Muslims Cardinal Biffi in his Pastoral Note in 1992 declared: “Help them (the Muslims who came among us) – and help them unconditionally, without blackmail – to find food, shelter, work , we are required by our faith to pay effective attention to whoever is in need, whoever it is, but for itself it is not a statutory task of the Christian community as such: it is the task of the society of coviles. (…) No fear of being accused of proselytizing can freeze our apostolic drive: proselytism, which we firmly reject, consists in not respecting the free autonomy of people to decide or to give in to the temptation to walk to Christianize the ways of violence, cunning, undue psychological pressures “(Bulletin of the Archdiocese of Bologna.LXXXIII, 1992).
The words of cardinal Martini:
On the cultural problems that the presence of Islam gives rise to in our Western world, cardinal
Carlo Maria Martini on the feast of St. Ambrogio, patron saint of the city of Milan, December 6 1990 stated : considering with esteem and attention the values of the Islamic faith, the homily, then published in a booklet entitled “ We and Islam” intended also to offer precise indications to the Christian communities about the duty of welcoming, while not eluding the problematic issues that hinder a more fraternal relationship with Muslims.
The cardinal Martini recalled the situation of Christian communities in Muslim-majority countries, hoping for “equality and fraternal relations, and for this we insist and insist that the laws and customs in force in Muslim countries with regard to Christians also conform to these relations, because we have a right to reciprocity.
He recalled how the search for a common goal of respect and mutual acceptance requires overcoming prejudice, strongly rooted in the Islamic mentality, according to which non-Muslims would in fact be non-believers.
The archbishop then underlined the need to make the Muslim communities understand that in Europe relations between the state and religious organizations are profoundly different from their country: “If religious minorities have among us those freedoms and rights that belong to all citizens , without exception, it is not possible to appeal, for example, to the principles of Islamic law to demand specific legal spaces and prerogatives “.
Beyond the problems of a social nature, the cardinal has not failed to emphasize Islam’s religiosity: “It is a faith that having great religious and moral values has certainly helped hundreds of millions of men to render to God an honest and sincere cult and together with practicing justice “. And he continued: “In a Western world that loses its sense of absolute values and no longer succeeds in attaching them to a God the Lord of everything, the testimony of the primacy of God over everything and its need for justice makes us understand the historical values that Islam has brought with it and that can still testify in our society “.
Will religious leaders be able to grasp the phenomenon of migratory flows as a factor of communion, and not of division, so that the Kingdom of God, Unique and common to all, may take place on earth?
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 comes. 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.