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“Religions, spirituality, ‘laicity’: factors of tolerance and brotherhood, or factors of division or exclusion?” On this question the representatives of various religious confessions met together in the Parliament in Brussels on 25 September for a colloquium organized as part of the programme of events marking the Day for peace to be celebrated in 7 October. “Religions said Msgr. Jozef De Kesel, auxiliary bishop of Brussels are situated in a cultural and social context that goes beyond the religions themselves”. And Philip Grollet, president of the central Council of non-confessional philosophic communities in Belgium, added: “ No human concept as much as religions has been taken as a pretext in history for hatred and war“. To demonstrate how mistaken this interpretation is, the representatives of various religions intervened at the meeting. Albert Guigui, grand rabbi of Brussels, recalled that Judaism may be summed up in the maxim: “Love your neighbour as yourself”, demonstrating the fundamental importance of the human person for Jewish ethics. Nordin Maloujahmoum, president of the executive of Moslems in Belgium, challenged the identification of Islam with a “barbarous and retrograde” religion: on the contrary, it is religion of liberation and opening to the world, that has many aspects in common with Christianity: respect for pluralism and diversity, the search for a juster society, the pacification of man with God, with his fellowmen and with the universe as a whole”. The Moslem representative also affirmed that he “firmly believed in a multicultural future, that may be able to go beyond mere co-existence and open dialogue in cooperation. A future he stressed in which Islam’s message of peace will have an important role to play”. The task of drawing the conclusions of the colloquium was entrusted to Angelo Passaleva, vice-president of the region of Tuscany and delegate for social policies, according to whom it is necessary to prepare a terrain on which “all of us, believers and laity alike, pledge to seek and maintain the right balance not only with the lay values but also with the traditions of our countries, including those so strong in Europe – that draw on the transcendental and religious dimension of Christian culture”.
