” ““I immediately feared and actually saw the West withdrawing into itself out of fear, and this five years after what happened: the power of fear”.
This is how the 5th anniversary of September 11 has been commented by Jean-Arnold De Clermont, president of the Conference of European Churches who is in Assisi over these days for the meeting of the religious leaders, in the wake of the one established by John Paul II in 1986. “Nevertheless adds the president of the Evangelical Churches taking part in the meetings in the ‘Assisi spirit’ means to cultivate the ability to negotiate: a priority, not least to better explore our own identity. Therefore the West must send out bolder signs”.
“A triad that should be accomplished is the urgent response we must give to the history that is coming after September 11 commented Mohammed Esslimani, an Algerian Muslim theologian freedom, justice and peace are indissolubly connected. The young eastern men who consciously share the same fate and are dangerously wild like the lava of an active volcano are Islamic and Christian. As to this – concluded Esslimani the West can do a lot, without hesitations: its action is essential to fulfil the young people’s aspiration to democracy”.
