With the two shores of the Mediterranean communicating, hundreds of thousands of Africans are pouring into European states. Migrants have grown up with little freedom of expression, less rights for women, deep religious identity, high unemployment and, above all, with little means of subsistence. All this contrasts with the television images of the opulence and freedom in which their peers in Europe live. Mostly of the Islamic religion, Cardinal Martini in his letter “We and Islam” pointed out that “Islam is not only personal faith, it is a very compact community reality, a watchword launched by some authoritative voice can recompose and lead back to tight unity”.
We are honoured to have saved thousands of human lives on the run. But we are not given to know how the social, religious, cultural aspects of the newcomers are managed in respect of their human dignity, in equal measure and in parallel, with the economic aspects, to ensure that the new migrants are factors of coexistence and not of division and conflict. For example: the acculturation to the principles of our civil society, the distinction between religion and state, religious freedom, equal rights and duties among citizens. What will be the answer when the millions of young people will apply for family reunification under current legislation?
Public opinion deserves adequate answers.
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.