R005 - BIBLIOTECA ALEXANDRINA REFUSES BOOK

2009

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Dear dr.Serageldin:
During your speech at the university of Geneva you encouraged native Egyptians to contribute with their works to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The mission of the Bibliotheca, you stated, is dedicated to recapture the spirit of openness and scholarship bringing the Mediterranean Together for a free circulation of ideas and enrichment of the culture. Your impressive international professional history gave me the final impulse to do so.

Offer of books
From that perspective, as a contribution to create a cultural bridge over the two sides of the Mediterranean, I offered two of my books; Offer accepted on April 23, 2009, with many thanks.
Only one book however has been acknowledged “L’Islam: Storia, Fede, Cultura. Editrice la Scuola di Brescia,1996” a leading publishing house in Italy for scholars, I received a nice thank letter.

(altro…)

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R014 - Arabic school in Milan. Why?

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Letters to the Corriere of 3/09/2005 and 23/10/2005

Back in Europe: 20 or 30 years ago the European citizen did not know of the existence of Islam other than vaguely.  For the past thirty years, Islam has been established in Europe with good or bad manners, helped in this by some of our political forces for reasons that I do not know and that I would like to know. I would like to understand their motivations.

Voices coming from our country have warned about the clash 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. We even protected people sought after in their own countries for undermining the stability of their states.

Dear Director, you are certainly aware that the majority of Muslims in Italy are of Middle Eastern origin, that is, Arab culture; they have found in our Democracy, a guarantee and a freedom that they did not have in their own countries. One wonders: do they want to live in the West importing customs, traditions and worship as practiced in Arab countries? Obviously a distinction must be made between official Islam, Muslims and fundamentalism.

(altro…)

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R017 - Arab School in Milan: Ten Reasons for a NO!

16/10 – 2016

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In the globalised world, national schools have emerged outside national borders, mainly as a result of multinational companies for the children of their employees moving abroad for a temporary period. This is the reason why there are American or Italian schools in the main cities of the world, but not yet Egyptian schools, due to the lack of diffusion of Egyptian companies outside the national borders, at least not in Milan where there is, instead, a Libyan school for employees of Libyan companies present in the country.

I understand that all the students at the proposed school are from Egypt. I would like, however, to remind the “leaders” and our politicians that you cannot use indifferently the term Arabic and secular school, Arab tout-court, Egyptian or Islamic, thus demonstrating ignorance of the underlying cultural diversity.

I participate with the feelings of solidarity expressed by various parties, despite this, I explain the reasons for a NO to this school in Milan:

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R019 - Europe: the fear of Muslims is born from that our lost identity

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Corriere – Ideas & opinions – 2/12 – 2009

Dear Giulia, I’m giving you some insight to help you make an informed decision.

IDENTITY

THE MUSLIM IMMIGRANT FROM NORTH AFRICA

The fact that more illegal immigrants are Muslims from North Africa and have the characteristics listed above should not be overlooked, because they bring with them a cultural level and a set of traditions and habits that, in addition to being very different from ours, are a sort of glasses through which, at least in the first instance, they see and judge Western society. This difference in cultural level is already expressed in the impact with the forms of political organization of our states. In fact, all Arab countries with a Muslim majority are governed by systems that are not at all comparable to European democracies.

Therefore, when young Muslims arrive in Europe, contact with a mentality that is completely new to them leads them to suffer a strong psychological shock. This is a risky situation in which, if we do not prevent non-Europeans from being marginalized and left to their own devices, misunderstandings and frustrating attitudes can develop.

(altro…)

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