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.
- Why create ghettos for Muslims and thus discriminate against non-Muslims?
- Why want to create an Islamic institution? Does the secular state renounce its prerogatives towards its citizens?
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.