Thoughts in Arabic

“Years ago, at a meeting with some Catholic bishops in Islamic countries, the need was pointed out to have suitable cultural tools at our disposal to foster Christians in those lands”, in the consciousness that “Western languages (English and French) would not easily facilitate the inculturation of the faith” in them, said the Patriarch of Venice Cardinal ANGELO SCOLA , in explaining the reasons that led to the creation of “Oasis” in 2005. “Oasis” is the twice-yearly journal of the Oasis International Centre of Studies and Research (www.cisro.org), promoted by the Patriarch himself, by Cardinals Barbarin (Lyon), Bozanic (Zagreb), Erdö (Budapest), Schönborn (Vienna) and Sepe (Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples), and by other bishops and exponents of the ecclesial and academic world. The periodical is published in four bilingual editions (Italian-Arabic, English-Arabic, French-Arabic and English-Urdu). Its objective, explains Cardinal Scola, is to promote “a systematic theological and cultural exchange between Christians (without excluding members of other religions) of the European English-speaking, French-speaking, Italian, Middle Eastern, North African, Arabic and Urdu areas”. The third number of “Oasis” (April 2006) has just been published. It is dedicated to Islamic terrorism and the dialogue between religions and cultures: a wide-ranging debate, of which we propose some excerpts below. DIALOGUE OR MISSION? “Dialogue is often seen as the opposite of mission: either mission or dialogue”, observes Cardinal CRISTOPH SCHÖNBORN, archbishop of Vienna. He poses the question whether “a dialogue between missionary religions” such as Christianity and Islam is possible. To avoid the suspicion of attempted proselytism and at the same time “of not being unfaithful to the missionary mandate”, says the cardinal, we first need to define “what is mission according to Jesus and the Koran” and “what relation it bears to freedom of conscience and religion”. We then need to clarify the question of proselytism, show that “our history of mission does not only have dark, but also great and inspiring pages” and “openly place our mutual concerns on the table”. While Christians, says H’MIDA ENNAIFER , Tunisian theologian and member of the Groupe de recherche islamo-chrétien , “must remember that their conception of Scripture has undergone changes”, “almost all exegesis of the Koran in modern times has refused to re-examine the sense of sacredness of the book, and continues to confuse the sacredness of the source with that of its understanding”. This gives rise to the idea that “the application of the law” is “the panacea to the problems” of the current Islamic world”. This is “a block that endures” and that, according to the theologian, “perpetuates a medieval vision of the world and of man”. ISLAM AND PHILOSOPHY. What has happened in relations between Islam and philosophy? What would happen if the two worlds were to encounter each other again? These are the questions posed by REMY BRAGUE , professor of the history of medieval philosophy at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris. By paying “attention both to its own medieval tradition and the developments that have taken place in the West since the Middle Ages”, argues Brague, Islam could renew itself “by borrowing sources external to it or by drawing on its own internal sources”, reviving, in this case, “past cultural tendencies that had either been suffocated or forgotten”. “It is impossible to imagine any future for Muslims in Europe – warns PAOLO BRANCA , professor of Arabic at the Catholic University in Milan – if they refuse to have relations with their surrounding environment and do not develop a dialectic thanks to which they would be able to give and to receive”. But “the opulent West also has a task”: that of “lending an ear” to the “inner upheaval that is agitating the Islamic world” and that “deserves attention and respect, far from the summary judgements that still today are too often expressed on a cultural world richer and more diversified that is commonly supposed”. STRATEGIES OF TERROR. “Normally we think of war as a finite enterprise, but, explains BRIAN MICHAEL JENKINS , veteran adviser in the Rand Corporation, a Washington think tank, for “the combatants of the jihad war is a perpetual condition” whose objective “is to defend Islam from continuous aggression” and to “recruit the faithful”. In spite of the weakening of al-Qaida, suggests Jenkins, “in the years to come we will have to get used to the idea of cohabiting” with fundamentalist terrorism. It’s a phenomenon against which “military intervention is insufficient and does not produce the expected solutions”, adds JEAN-LOUP FRANCART, director of “Eurodecision-Ais”, a company that deals with strategic intelligence and crisis management. According to Francart, “a return to security is conditional in the first place on the change of the social representations of both sides in the conflict”, so that “the protagonists of violence no longer find active or passive support among the population”, and “at least a part of the leaders themselves who supported actions of violence cease to approve of them”.