“Whoever kills ” “a human being is as if he had killed the whole of humanity”:” “so says the Koran” “” “
The fear is that the attacks on the Twin Towers may unleash “a second war” in Europe: a war waged not with bombs, nor anthrax strikes, but with generalized mistrust and indiscriminate reprisals. And the aim of terrorism is precisely this: that of fomenting clashes between the civilizations in the world. That’s why the meeting between exponents of different religious faiths and the promotion of cultures more open to dialogue with others are so important. This is the view that strongly emerged from our conversations with various representatives of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic communities, gathered in Rome in recent days for a meeting organized by the “Agire politicamente” association. The first to express his alarm was Mohamed Nour Dachan, Syrian-born president of the Union of Islamic communities and organizations in Italy (UCOII). “The terrorists he says – want a clash between civilizations. That’s why the religions, by meeting each other in the name of the God of us all, may defeat the terrorists’ intentions at their roots”. But how on earth can anyone commit such monstrous acts? “You need to ask the psychologists that replies the Moslem representative . Only they can make us understand how a human mind can kill 8,000 people in Srebrenica, or demolish the Twin Towers in New York. Only sick minds can go so far”. Nour Dachan recalls that only a few hours after the terrorist attacks on the United States, the UCOII put out a press release in Italy to point out that there is a sentence in the Koran that is at the very basis of justice in the world: “ whoever kills a human being is as if he had killed the whole of humanity“. “We were sure he adds that someone could have profited from the grief that struck the population of the United States to conduct a personal war of his own elsewhere. And that’s just what happened”. In circles in which interreligious dialogue is common practice, one thing is certain: whoever planned the terrorist attacks on the United States belongs to “atypical groups”. Thomas Michel, secretary for interreligious dialogue of the Society of Jesus, is also convinced of this. “The overwhelming majority of Moslems he says do not identify with such groups and condemn terrorism”. In the Koran, Father Michel adds, “the killing of innocent people is forbidden, and the workers who happened to be in the Twin Towers at the time were innocent. Those who committed such acts are not genuine Moslems. Rather, they are terrorists who have distorted the Islamic faith”. What we now need to do is to “seek alternatives together to ensure that no further violence occurs in the future”. To combat terrorism, the Americans have done well to work at the diplomatic level to form as wide a coalition as possible. But diplomacy in itself is not enough. What is also needed says Giorgio Gomel, founder of the group “ Martin Buber Jews for Peace” is a far more strenuous commitment “that may recall the responsibility of everyone”. Jews do not flinch from this task. “We have the advantage explains Gomel of living in the diaspora. The Jews have developed a greater capacity than other peoples for living in the midst of other cultures. In essence Jewish culture is a complex amalgam of religion, people, civilization, ethnic identity that has been sedimented through the centuries and developed in interaction with other peoples”. In a world in which immigration and forms of diaspora are proliferating, the Jews have something to say because “they have been able to preserve their own cultural and religious identity despite living in the midst of other peoples and closely interacting with them”. Amos Luzzatto, president of the Jewish communities in Italy, also warns of the risk of “generalizations”. “The diffusion of a certain stereotyped way of classifying others he adds favours the impossibility of dialoguing together”, and “creates the presuppositions that prevent compromise from being reached or scope for dialogue from existing”. Of the same opinion is the Italian biblical scholar, Battista Pansa, according to whom “doubt” and humility are excellent antidotes “to all those who wherever they are and in the name of whatever revealed truth, are intent on bending the immeasurable mystery of God and of man to the reasons of economic or political power, and who by their dogmatism foment the various forms of fanaticism that generate monsters, hatred and war”. Maria Chiara Biagioni
