“Mirrored” peoples

“Jointly protecting and ensuring the rights” of ethnic and religious minorities in Europe and across the Mediterranean shores, “notwithstanding problems of coexistence and integration”. The subject was broached at the international conference organized by CIPMO (Italian Middle East peace centre) and was held at the ‘Circolo dei Lettori’ in Turin on the theme “Ethnic and religious minorities in the Mediterranean”. Panel lectures by Imams, representatives of the Armenian, Coptic, Kurdish, Roma and Berber communities were delivered during the two-day meeting. In many Southern Mediterranean countries – the promoters explain – “minorities are viewed as a presence that must be tolerated and controlled, and as a factor that could undermine various public institutions”. The minority groups mentioned during the conference represent a majority population on the opposite shores of the Mediterranean. “It is therefore deemed necessary – the promoters explain – to compare the experience in Europe with the situation of Southern Mediterranean countries, voicing the claims of minorities as well as those of majority groups, thus ensuring thorough, articulated reflections”.Mirrored populations. The question of minorities, that has always been a thorny, multi-faceted issue, bears significant topical relevance, considering the democratic revolutionary movements’ upheavals across the Mediterranean region. “It is not incidental – said CIPMO chairman Janiki Cingoli – that the turmoil in Egypt was triggered by the Copts’ demonstrations ensuing the deadly New Year’s bombing at the Coptic church in Alexandria”. And it is not incidental that “the most active opposition against Ben Ali, which determined his abdication, was sparked off in the Berber quarters of Tunisia”. The ethnic and religious minorities in Southern Mediterranean regions witnessed the denial of their identity and of their very existence, while in Europe a more articulated and complex stand gradually took grounds, according to which minorities “are a factor promoting the potential enrichment – and not of weakening – of the various national chapters”. Hence CIPMO’s proposes “to enable the members of minority and majority groups living in those countries to see themselves reflected in others”. “It can be defined as a mirroring effect: Christians are a majority in Europe but they’re a minority in Arab countries, conversely to the situation of Muslims. Jews, a minority both in Europe and in Arab countries, are a majority in Israel, which has a strong Arab minority. Turks, suspicious of their Armenian and Kurdish minorities, are present with strong minority groups across European countries”.The situation of the Jews. “Only when a minority is given the possibility of expressing itself at its best – said the president of the Jewish Community in Turin Tullio Levi -, can it provide a rich contribution to the Country in which it lives. But if it is oppressed and the conditions for the minority’s self-expression fail to exist, then the same minority group could become a problem”. “Jews – Levi said – are the paradigm of the a minority situation in Europe across the centuries”. However, despite their condition, Jewish communities in the course of history have greatly contributed to the progress and growth of the Countries in which they were granted hospitality. Tullio Levi recalled the example of Spain, and for the 150th anniversary of the unity of Italy, “Jews’ contribution to the building of the Country, of the academic environment, along with their contribution to science and to politics”. This has been possible since “Jews were granted equal rights”. But the concession of rights – added the representative of Turin’s Jewish community – go hand in hand with “duties” and with “two undeniable conditions: the respect of democracy and of the Constitution”. “Of this the Jews – he concluded – stand out as examples of loyalty”.Muslims’ condition. “Western societies and Europe have become the mental universe that brings together Muslims living in Europe, whose third and fourth generations are living European countries”, said Tareq Oubrou, imam of the mosque in Bordeaux, a prominent representative of French Islam, president of the Association of the Imams of France. Oubrou said he believes that “today it’s possible to be totally Muslim and totally European”, but he also noted, “the presence of Muslims in contemporary Europe is a presence we continue being afraid of”. Europe has therefore the task of showing the “solidity of its universal values, by promoting the inclusiveness of Muslims on its territory”. Muslims are tasked with “adapting our religious visibility to the cultural reality in which we live”, a road that must be undertaken. In fact, said the Imam “in the course of the centuries Islam has integrated a number of different cultures, why shouldn’t it do the same with European culture?”.