013 - ARABIAN CHRISTIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE

Ed. The School – 12-1996

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It may be useful to remember that Muslims from Arabia settled in the Middle East around 640 AD the Christians instead occupied these lands since the early days of the spread of Christianity.

  1. Arabs: Muslims or Christians?

Can we therefore speak of Arabs or Muslims? Let us first clarify what is meant by the Arabic term. In the West the words Arabic and Muslim are often used interchangeably, almost as if they were synonyms and there was a coincidence of meaning between the two expressions. But things are different. The Arabic term indicates a geographical and cultural area, not an ethnic identity, nor a belonging to a religious confession.

Thus, arabity corresponds to a linguistic, cultural, political and historical belonging. Christians are an integral part of the Arab world and, like Muslims, they are no longer Arabs of Christians, so Christians are no less Arab than Muslims.

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015 - THE ROLE OF LASALLIANS

L’Oasi Agende – pag.  89 – 12-1998

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Lasallians of Arab culture, a dream?

I send you my contribution to the role of the former Lasallians in the context of the opening of the relationship with Libya.

The restoration of official relations between Italy and Libya could open new horizons to the Lasallian movement in terms of dialogue and mutual knowledge of the cultures of the two shores of the Mediterranean sea.

Until not too long ago the educational mission of the Brothers was directed mainly towards the foreign community and more specifically the Italians, in a country of Arab culture, Libya. The living conditions imposed the deepening of the culture of the Motherland while the culture and traditions of the host country were not given the weight they deserved.

The phenomenon of migration is transforming Italy and Europe in a broad sense into a multicultural society, where people of different languages, religions and cultures coexist. Islam, in particular, is an increasingly present reality, although in many respects still little known.

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019 - The Arab world, the Islam and the west

The OASI – pages 40-41 – 12-2001

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West and Islam

It would be wrong to set the West, which is a geographical-political entity, against Islam, which is a religion. It is more appropriate to speak of the differences between the laws (leaving aside the customs and habits) of the West and those of the Islamic states. It would be useful for everyone to illustrate the substantial differences that exist between Italian law and that of the countries of Islam. And it is well known that the Sharia applied in interpersonal relations discriminates against non-Muslims. The ambassadors of the countries of the Arab League represent countries, with the exception of Lebanon, which all have Islamic religious law, Sharia, as the source of their constitution.

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024 - IRAQ NOT ONLY OIL – I

ROTARY- Pag. 24-27 – 10-20

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The speech of the PDG Piero Marcenaro on the n.5 of “Rotary”, May 20 ”, was an incentive for me to deepen the subject and express my thoughts on a situation that does not concern only and exclusively oil. The armed intervention in Iraq has deep and remote roots that I could trace back more than a century ago and concerns the situation of the Middle Eastern Arab world in general. In particular, I refer to some events that have profoundly affected the feelings of the Arab peoples towards the West, the U.S.A. in particular, propitiators of armed intervention in Iraq.

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