055 - CURRENT AFFAIRS AND IMMIGRATION

ROTARY – pages 58 – 10/2015

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The challenge of taking the opportunity for mutual enrichment.

In Italy, as in the rest of the Western world, there is a strong immigration from countries with a large Muslim majority, especially from Africa and the Middle East. There are several causes that push people to leave their country: wars, expulsion, political instability, demographic and economic imbalance, flight from unemployment towards economic survival and others. This phenomenon, in the face of which our unpreparedness and disorientation manifests itself, certainly causes discomfort at various levels. But, if managed in the most appropriate way, uniting all the voluntary forces, it also offers the opportunity for a confrontation between different religions and cultures that can lead to mutual enrichment. Knowing the other, his historical, sociological, cultural, religious reality is one of the fundamental aspects for the realization of a peaceful coexistence and for a good management of the phenomenon of immigration. However, it must also be considered that these refugees live in a condition of inferiority both on the socio-economic and on the communication level. In fact, they are still people who find themselves living in a country other than their own, where a language that is unknown to them is spoken. For this reason they tend to close themselves off in their own reality, creating small ghettos distinguished by origin, language, culture, tribe, religion or religious brotherhood.

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060 - THE MIGRATORY MOVEMENT

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IS IT AN UNSTOPPABLE PHENOMENON?

ROTARY, OPINIONS – pages 42-43 – 1/KNOWLEDGE TO CONVIVE AND BUILD PEACE – 2015

Is the movement of peoples from Africa and the Middle East unstoppable?

The emigration to the Western world, of Muslims and Christians, tends to increase irreversibly; the disastrous social situation is knowingly exploited by organizations that have set up a real trafficking of human beings.

It had not always been like this

Between the 19th and 20th centuries, millions of Europeans migrated to Africa and settled there, contributing substantially to the economic and cultural development of African countries; without taking root in the social fabric, they found themselves expelled and returned to their countries of origin. After the Second World War, African countries embarked on a strong campaign of demographic development with the result that over fifty years they tripled the number of their inhabitants, causing a growing impoverishment. In the same period Europe grew economically with a richer, older, stable demographic population; a gap that young Africans are trying to bridge exposes the Western Christian population to a “peaceful” invasion by peoples who are very far away culturally with different customs and traditions.

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061 - REFUGEE RECEPTION- THE EUROPEAN CROSSROAD

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ROTARY, THE EUROPEAN CRUISE – page 25 – 1/To – 2016

Reception of refugees in Europe

Mercy and integration of Muslims in Europe

We want to build a society of equal rights and duties for citizens. In the formation of citizens, we need to reiterate that violence on behalf of religion is intolerable, to make everyone understand that they are equal. It is good to remember that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948 published by the UN has not been recognized by the Islamic states that apply Sharia law, which draws its source from the Koran and applies its principles. It follows that peaceful coexistence requires adherence to common and universal values, and respect for the principles adopted by the United Nations in school curricula. Cultural integration cannot be considered a secondary problem to that of material assistance. The two aspects must be co-presented; otherwise the risk is that refugees will falsely interpret the reception centres as places which, in exchange for the assistance provided, actually aim at proselytism. The question of dialogue between different civilisations and mentalities cannot, however, be left exclusively to volunteers.

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062 - WELCOMING CAUTIOUSLY

11/2016

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The increased availability of means of transport and communications is facilitating the emigration to Europe of young Arabs of Islamic faith from countries where discriminatory laws prevail against citizens of different faiths, generating mental prejudices in them. Reception in the economic fabric of our country should be completed by including cultural and religious aspects, through a campaign of mutual understanding, both in Europe and in Africa. In order to create an inclusive welcome it would be indispensable to ask the Arab world to work on education, the media, textbooks in schools and even to invite to this education path and peace, Imams and preachers who have in their hands the formidable instrument of sermons in mosques, where it would be appropriate to proclaim also the verses of the Koran that underline God’s will towards religious plurality and the commitment to compete for good in God’s mercy.

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.