"The hope of Islam lies in Europe. Unless a European Islam is born, fights will go on. Europe might help the dialogue with and integration of Muslims if only it could rediscover its own Christian culture". This was said in an interview with SirEuropa, online at agensir.it, by father Samir Khalil Samir, an Egyptian Jesuit, one of the greatest experts in Christianity and Islam. "The tragedy of the migrant - explains the Jesuit - is that of looking back to the past, but if one has chosen to live in a different culture or country, then one had better look ahead, learn and accept the laws that rule it, otherwise one had better go back home. I am European, not because I was born in a European country, but because I chose to be, because I experienced that". Instead, "for Muslims in Europe, European means foreigner". "It is up to Europe to fraternally help Muslims separate religion from politics. A Christian can help a Muslim reconcile these two identities", so that "one can be a good Muslim of German, French, Italian or any other nationality. It is a hard feat", and the West can do it partly "by helping to curb those fundamentalist claims that have been put forward in Europe about the headscarf, allowed meat, freedom of Islamic lessons and mosques, which hide political claims behind a religious appearance".

News by SIR