” ““Those civilisations that lose their true identity and their historical memory have no future. This is the great risk of today’s mankind: out of the logos, of the word, of the culture, of dialogical respect, there is only the savagery of the arms”. This the belief of philosopher Gaspare Mura (università urbaniana), who, in a note, online from tonight, on old.agensir.it, as he commented the reactions to the lectio magistralis held by Benedict XVI at Regensburg University, wonders whether, as well as the West, Islam too is “losing its religious and cultural tradition”. According to Mura, “the great meaning” of the Pope’s lesson is to “give back to Islam its genuine face, made of high intellectuality and true religiosity, releasing it” from its “being hostage” to political purposes that are alien to its culture, as has been denounced on several occasions by Islamicist Mohammad Arkoun. And this, continues the philosopher, so that “Islam may offer its precious and essential contribution to the cultural and religious growth, not just of the Arab countries, but of the western countries as well, which are withdrawing from the dimension of the sacred”. This, concludes Mura, “is the message of the Lectio which they failed to understand or did not want to understand”.
