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Dr. Nedzad Grabus, Mufti of Slovenia e Chairman of the Meshihat of the Islamic Community in Slovenia

In this short interview Dr. Nedzad Grabus, Mufti of Slovenia and Chairman of the Meshihat of the Islamic Community in Slovenia, discusses the importance of united hearts in promoting cultural understanding and awareness of the Muslim community in many parts of the world. Dr. Nedzad Grabus explains that the Turkish case is especially compelling because the country has found a way to combine traditional Islamic values with a modern work life; a hope he holds for the future of other Muslim communities.

Link to the video:

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Will Circumcision Survive in the West?

Originally published on project-syndicate
A proposed law to ban ritual circumcision in Iceland has unsurprisingly been met with dismay in Muslim and Jewish communities around the world. This is not the first time a Western country has considered enforcing secular norms at the expense of religious freedom, an approach that imperils the entire human rights project.

WASHINGTON, DC – A bill to ban non-medical circumcision in Iceland has predictably provoked outrage from Jews and Muslims. They have every reason to be concerned: There have also been calls to outlaw ritual circumcision in the Netherlands and Scandinavia; doctors in the United Kingdom are under pressure to support a ban as well; and few have forgotten that the practice’s legality was challenged in Germany in 2012.

Circumcision has increasingly come under fire in Europe, because the definition of human rights has expanded to include children’s bodily integrity, while the definition of religious freedom has narrowed to include primarily worship and association. But if this emerging hierarchy of rights isn’t managed carefully, the legitimacy of the entire human-rights project could be imperiled.

According to Silja Dögg Gunnarsdóttir, the Progressive Party parliamentarian who introduced the Icelandic bill, the central issueis “children’s rights, not … freedom of belief.” Gunnarsdóttir accepts that “everyone has the right to believe in what they want,” but she insists that, “the rights of children come above the right to believe.”

For his part, Imam Ahmad Seddeeq of the Islamic Cultural Center of Iceland has countered that circumcision is a part of the Muslim faith, and that Gunnarsdóttir’s bill amounts to “a contravention [of] religious freedom.” And Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir, the Bishop of Iceland, has warned that the ban would effectively turn Judaism and Islam into “criminalized religions,” because anyone practicing circumcision could be subject to six years in jail.

Complicating matters further, both sides base their arguments on human rights. For example, some supporters of the ban have argued that circumcision violates Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which states that, “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.” The term “treatment,” supporters argue, applies to circumcision.

At the same time, some of those defending the practice have also pointed to the UDHR, particularly Article 18, which holds that, “everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.” Moreover, Article 18 defines this right broadly: everyone has the “freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.” The term “practice” would seem to include circumcision.

Confronting questions of human rights requires that one consider context, in order to balance the rights and obligations of inhabitants of increasingly diverse societies. In the matter of circumcision, there are obvious tensions not just between religious freedom and individuals’ physical integrity, but also between parental rights and the authority of the state, multiculturalism and nationalism, and religious and secular moral perspectives.

Moreover, different communities prioritize human rights differently. For some, the moral framework offered by human rights is sufficient in itself; but for others, as William Galston of the Brookings Institution notes, “the language of human rights hardly exhausts the realm of moral and spiritual goods.”

In other words, culture plays a much larger role in shaping interpretations of human rights than many realize, which implies that human-rights practitioners should be wary of passing judgment on any practice with deep cultural or religious roots. As the cultural psychologist Richard Shweder notes, circumcision has featured in conflicts between Europeans and Middle Easterners for centuries. The Jewish revolt against Greek rule in the second century BCE, which Jews now commemorate annually as Hanukkah, was caused in part by a decree banning circumcision under penalty of death.

In Western countries, meanwhile, interpretations of human rights have evolved alongside a larger cultural shift toward individualism and secularism, prompting opposition to a broad set of religious practices. The circumcision issue is one gauge for measuring whether Western societies still value religious freedom enough to accommodate and appreciate a diversity of beliefs and practices. Circumcision has been an integral part of the cultural identity and religious faith of a large portion of the world for thousands of years. The current movement to abolish it in the West augurs a further narrowing of the scope of religious freedom.

The danger in this is that cherry-picking certain rights to enforce secular norms will not just undermine the overall project of human rights, which aims to unite the world’s peoples and improve lives through a shared understanding of the minimum conditions necessary to advance the “inherent dignity” and equality of “all members of the human family.” It will also undercut the credibility of the liberal order, which was founded on tolerance for diversity and minority groups.

Banning circumcision would represent a marked shift away from that tradition in the West. As the United States has historically shown, tolerance means upholding a broader definition of people’s right to practice religion, or otherwise express their cultural identity, according to their beliefs, while withholding judgment on whether such beliefs are “right” or “wrong.”

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Muslim leaders visit Swedish synagogue in show of support following anti-Semitic events

Originally published on independent

Muslim and Christian leaders have rallied around the Jewish community in Swedish cities following anti-Semitic events this weekend, condemning the action and visiting a synagogue in Malmo in a show of support.

Around 200 people attended a rally in Malmo on Friday night, where people shouted anti-Semitic slogans and waved Palestinian flags in protest against Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

In Gothenburg, a group of young people gathered outside a synagogue and attacked it by setting objects on fire and throwing them at the building on Saturday night.

Muslim representatives visited Malmo’s synagogue on Sunday. Alaeddin al-Qut, head of the Ibn Rushd society, an Islamic study group, told Swedish news outlet SVT Nyheter Skane:

“We want to show sympathy and solidarity with Jews in Malmo and condemn all forms of racism and anti-Semitism in society,” he said.

Freddy Gellberg, a spokesperson for Malmo’s Jewish community, told The Local: “This is a very good initiative. We may have different views, but it is important we can have a normal conversation and speak to each other.”

Archbishop Antje Jackelen wrote a column in newspaper Dagen addressing the Jewish communities in Gothenburg and Malmo, saying: “I would like to assure you of the solidarity of the Swedish church in the fight against anti-Semitism and violence in the name of religion.”

Three people have been arrested in connection with the synagogue attack on suspicion of attempted arson.

Witness Allan Stutzinsky told the Associated Press he saw a dozen masked youths throwing what appeared to be firebombs into the garden surrounding the synagogue.

A community centre connected to the synagogue was hosting a youth event at the time of the attack, with between 20 and 30 people reportedly in attendance. No injuries were reported and no damage was done to the synagogue.

Sweden’s prime minister, Stefan Lofven, condemned the events of the weekend, while authorities increased security around the synagogue and at Jewish centres in Stockholm and Malmo.

The European Jewish Congress said it was “unconscionable that Jews are under attack on the streets of Europe” and urged Swedish and other European governments to take “strong punitive action” against perpetrators.

Mr Lofven said: “I’m terribly upset over the attack on a synagogue in Gothenburg yesterday and calls for violence against Jews at a demonstration in Malmo.

“There is no place for anti-Semitism in our Swedish society. The perpetrators will be held accountable.”

He urged “all democratic forces” in Sweden to work together to create “a tolerant and open society where everyone feels safe”.

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Interview Mit Imam Tarafa Baghajati Nach Strache-angriff

Originally published on dasbiber

Vor einigen Tagen warb Obmann der IMO (Initiative muslimischer ÖsterreicherInnen) Tarafa Baghajati in einem Youtube-Video für Alexander Van der Bellen. In einem anderen Video kritisierte er auch die Slogan „So wahr mir Gott helfe“ von Präsidentschaftskandidat Norbert Hofer. Darauf hat Strache ihn vorgestern auf Facebook angegriffen. Genügend Gründe für ein Interview mit dem muslimischen Prediger Baghajati.

biber: Herr Dipl.- Ing. Tarafa Baghajati, ich habe entdeckt, dass Sie auf Youtube Videos über Islam-Botschaften posten. Warum machen Sie das bzw. was ist Ihr Ziel?

Baghajati: Die Jugendlichen haben immer wieder Fragen, wie der Islam zu verschiedenen Themen steht. Und es ist für sie nicht einfach, selbst die islamischen Quellen zu studieren, die meist Arabisch sind. “Scheich Google” führt sie im Internet auch zu dubiosen und gefährlichen Seiten. Daher ist die Idee entstanden, aktuell diskutierte Themen in Videobeiträgen von ca. 10 Minuten zu behandeln. Die Themen gehen von der Rekrutierung von Jugendlichen durch IS über die Kompatibilität der europäischen und islamischen Werte und die Demokratie bis hin zu Fragen der Gewalt z.B. “Koran und das Schwert”. Es gibt aber auch Antworten auf ganz alltägliche Fragen, Händeschütteln zwischen Mann und Frau, Umgang mit Hunden oder Islam und Musik.

biber: Sie haben kürzlich eine Video-Botschaft gesendet, wo Sie die Aussage „so wahr mir Gott helfe“ von Norbert Hofer kritisieren. Was ist genau Ihre Kritik und was ist falsch an der Aussage Hofers?

Baghajati: Ich muss hier klarstellen, dass das keine religiöse Botschaft war, sondern eine rein politische ohne eine tiefere theologische Analyse. Nichts ist falsch daran, wenn Norbert Hofer um Gottes Hilfe bittet, das tun wir Muslime ständig. Das Problem ist die Verbindung zu seinen Wahlplakaten und zu der Islamfeindlichkeit der FPÖ, die leider immer wieder als ein Wahlkampfmechanismus bewusst und emotional angesetzt wird. Er benutzt den Gottesbezug als Ausgrenzung.

biber: Herr Strache hat dieses Video von Ihnen geteilt und Sie als einen „Vertreter des politischen Islams“ bzw. als „islamischen Politaktivisten“ bezeichnet. Sind Sie in einer Partei tätig oder sind Sie überhaupt ein Politiker?

Baghajati: Eigentlich wollte ich keine Riesenaufregung, sondern lediglich ein wenig zum Nachdenken anregen. Die Postings auf der FB-Seite des Herrn Strache persönlich, bei den FPÖ nahen Medien wie “Unzensuriert”, “Erstaunlich” und “Wochenblick” aber auch auf meiner FB-Seite und in meinem YouTube Kanal unter dem Beitrag zeigen, dass meine in dieser Videobotschaft geäußerten Sorgen berechtigt sind. Wer den anderen nicht akzeptiert, für ein Österreich des Gegeneinanders auftritt und eine Vergiftung das Klimas im Land statt eines sozialen Zusammenhalts anstrebt, sollte nicht in der Hofburg sitzen und Österreich international repräsentieren.

biber: Warum denken Sie, dass Herr Strache sowas Ihnen vorwirft?

Baghajati: Der FPÖ fehlen sachliche Argumente und daher kommen sie mit Totschlagargumenten und mit persönlichen Beschimpfungen, wie “Vertreter des politischen Islam”, “Muslim-Boss” etc. Aus meiner Sicht liegt sein Problem ganz woanders. Die FPÖ kann nicht akzeptieren, dass ein  österreichischer Muslim über die österreichische Politik redet und  mitentscheidet. Für sie bleibt ein nicht aus Österreich stammender Bürger ein Ausländer, den sie als vorübergehenden “Gast” sehen wollen. Das ist der Kern ihres Problems.

biber: Werden Sie juristische Maßnahmen gegen das Posting von Strache einsetzen bzw. ihn verklagen?

Baghajati: Nein, das ist eine harte politische Auseinandersetzung und keine rechtliche. Einige Postings aber fallen sicherlich unter Verhetzung, diese sind öffentlich und sollten eigentlich angezeigt bzw. verfolgt werden.

biber: Sie haben letztens eine Ansprache für die Jugend gehalten. Es gab bis jetzt schon immer Wahlen aber Sie waren nicht wirklich so aktiv. Warum haben Sie jetzt der Jugend eine Ansprache auf Youtube gehalten?

Baghajati: Noch nie war die Stimme der jungen Wählerinnen und Wähler so wichtig wie in dieser Bundespräsidentschaftswahl. Daher ist es begrüßenswert und sehr aufmunternd, dass junge Leute sich zusammenschließen und überparteilich für ein Österreich des Mit- und Füreinander eintreten und nicht für ein Österreich der Ausgrenzung und Diskriminierung.

biber: Werden Sie von Van der Bellen bezahlt bzw. von jemand anderen unterstützt? Warum machen Sie das?

Baghajati: Nein. Ich mache es ungefragt (lacht) und es bezahlt mir dafür niemand. Moralische Unterstützung erfahre ich aber von vielen, die dieses Engagement begrüßen und für wichtig halten.

biber: Was sind Ihre Pläne für die nahe Zukunft?

Baghajati: Die Herausforderungen werden jedenfalls nicht kleiner. Zivilgesellschaftliches Engagement für mehr Respekt und sozialen Zusammenhalt bleiben an oberster Stelle, in welcher Form oder Funktion auch immer. Wir streben eine Verjüngung der IMÖ an und wollen die Jugend für dieses Engagement begeistern.

 

Dipl.- Ing. Tarafa Baghajati lebt und arbeitet als Bauingenieur seit 1986 in Wien. Er ist Co-Vorsitzender der Plattform Christen & Muslime. Außerdem wirkt Herr Baghajati als Kulturreferent in der Islamischen Religionsgemeinde Wien und ist Mitglied von ENAR (Europäisches Netzwerk gegen Rassismus). Desweiteren ist er derzeit als ehrenamtlicher islamischer Gefängnisseelsorger beschäftigt. Zudem arbeitet Tarafa Baghajati als Vorstandsmitglied von EMISCO European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion und ist Stellvertretender Obmann des Wiener Islamisches Institut für  Erwachsenenbildung – WIIEB.

Herr Baghajati beschreibt als Obmann die Ziele von IMO (Initiative muslimischer ÖsterreicherInnen): „Wir streben eine positive gesellschaftliche Veränderung an, in der soziale Werte stärker im allgemeinen Bewusstsein verankert sein sollen. Wir fördern die gesellschaftliche Partizipation von muslimischen BürgerInnen im Sinne des Allgemeinwohls, indem wir offen in verschiedenste Richtungen initiativ auftreten. Bei unseren Projekten arbeiten Männer und Frauen, die den Islam angenommen haben, genauso wie MigrantInnen, die als geborene Muslime in Österreich eine zweite Heimat gefunden haben, basisdemokratisch miteinander. Das Zusammengehen gerade auch mit Freunden anderer Religionen oder Weltanschauung erleben wir als sehr erfreulich. Solche Beiträge sind wichtig und willkommen. Durch unterschiedliche berufliche Hintergründe können wir auch bei speziellen Sachfragen kompetent reagieren. Dazu sind wir mit österreichischen kulturellen Strukturen vertraut und gleichzeitig Insider in Fragen des Islam und seiner kulturellen Ausprägungen. Daraus ergibt sich eine Rolle als Mittler zwischen Religionen und Kulturen, die wir gerne wahrnehmen.“

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How culpable were Dutch Jews in the slave trade?

Originally published on timesofisrael

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — On a busy street near the Dutch Parliament, three white musicians in blackface regale passersby with holiday tunes about the Dutch Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, and his slave, Black Pete.

Many native Dutchmen view dressing up as Black Pete in December as a venerable tradition, but others consider it a racist affront to victims of slavery. With Holland marking the 150th anniversary of abolition this year, the controversy over Black Pete has reached new heights. Hundreds demonstrated against the custom in Amsterdam last month, and more than 2 million signed a petition supporting it.

Through it all, Dutch Jews — some of whom celebrate their own version of the Black Pete custom, called “Hanukklaas” — have largely remained silent.

But that changed in October, when Lody van de Kamp, an unconventional Orthodox rabbi, wrote a scathing critique about it on Republiek Allochtonie, a Dutch news-and-opinion website. “The portrayal of ‘Peter the slave’ dates back to a period when we as citizens did not meet the social criteria that bind us today,” Van de Kamp wrote.

Speaking out against Black Pete is part of what van de Kamp calls his social mission, an effort that extends to reminding Dutch Jews of their ancestors’ deep involvement in the slave trade. In April, he is set to publish a book about Dutch Jewish complicity in the slave trade, an effort he hopes will sensitize Jews to slavery in general and to the Black Pete issue in particular.

“I wrote the book and I got involved in the Black Pete debate because of what I learned from my Dutch predecessors on what it means to be a rabbi — namely, to speak about social issues, not only give instructions on how to cook on Shabbat,” van de Kamp told JTA.

“Money was earned by Jewish communities in South America, partly through slavery, and went to Holland, where Jewish bankers handled it,” he said. “Non-Jews were also complicit, but so were we. I feel partly complicit.”

Though he holds no official position in the Dutch Jewish community, van de Kamp, 65, is among the best-known Orthodox rabbis in the Netherlands, a status earned through his several books on Dutch Jewry and frequent media appearances.

His forthcoming book, a historical novel entitled “The Jewish Slave,” follows an 18th-century Jewish merchant and his black slave as they investigate Dutch-owned plantations north of Brazil in the hope of persuading Jews to divest from the slave trade. In researching the book, van de Kamp discovered data that shocked him.

In one area of what used to be Dutch Guyana, 40 Jewish-owned plantations were home to a total population of at least 5,000 slaves, he says. Known as the Jodensavanne, or Jewish Savannah, the area had a Jewish community of several hundred before its destruction in a slave uprising in 1832. Nearly all of them immigrated to Holland, bringing their accumulated wealth with them.

Some of that wealth was on display last year in the cellar of Amsterdam’s Portuguese Synagogue, part of an exhibition celebrating the riches of the synagogue’s immigrant founders. Van de Kamp says the exhibition sparked his interest in the Dutch Jewish role in slavery, which was robust.

At one point, Jews controlled about 17 percent of the Caribbean trade in Dutch colonies

On the Caribbean island of Curacao, Dutch Jews may have accounted for the resale of at least 15,000 slaves landed by Dutch transatlantic traders, according to Seymour Drescher, a historian at the University of Pittsburgh. At one point, Jews controlled about 17 percent of the Caribbean trade in Dutch colonies, Drescher said.

Jews were so influential in those colonies that slave auctions scheduled to take place on Jewish holidays often were postponed, according to Marc Lee Raphael, a professor of Judaic studies at the College of William & Mary.

In the United States, the Jewish role in the slave trade has been a matter of scholarly debate for nearly two decades, prompted in part by efforts to refute the Nation of Islam’s claim that Jews dominated the Atlantic slave trade. But in Holland, the issue of Jewish complicity is rarely discussed.

“This is because we in the Netherlands only profited from slavery but have not seen it in our own eyes,” van de Kamp said. “The American experience is different.”

The slavery issue is not van de Kamp’s first foray into controversial territory. In Jewish circles, he has a reputation as a contrarian with a penchant for voicing anti-establishment views.

That image was reinforced last year when he spoke out against a compromise the Dutch Jewish community had reached with the government over kosher slaughter. Designed to avert a total ban, the compromise placed some restrictions on kosher slaughter that Holland’s chief rabbis said did not violate Jewish law. Van de Kamp denounced the deal as an unacceptable infringement on religious freedom.

More recently, he angered Dutch activists by suggesting that vilifying Dutch Muslims helped generate anti-Semitism. He also advocated dialogue with professed Muslim anti-Semites at a time when Jewish groups were calling for their prosecution.

But his reputation as a maverick rabbi in a consensus–oriented community has also endeared van de Kamp to some supporters.

“He is in a league of his own,” says Bart Wallet, an Amsterdam University historian and expert on Jewish history. “From the sideline, he is free to criticize and does not have to conform to anything.”

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Five Muslims at the Vatican, to Prepare the Audience with the Pope

Originally published on Chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it

They are the representatives of the “letter of the 138” written to Benedict XVI last October. Here’s who they are, and from where they come. One of them, Yahya Pallavicini, tells in a book about how to live as Muslims in a Christian country, in peace between the two religions

ROMA, February 6, 2008 – Within one month, on March 4 and 5, there will be held in Rome the first meetings in preparation for the scheduled visit to the Vatican of a representative group of the 138 Muslim scholars who in October of 2007 addressed to the pope and to the heads of the other Christian confessions a letter with an offer of dialogue entitled “A Common Word Between Us and You.”

The meetings will be held at the pontifical council for interreligious dialogue, presided by cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran. The schedule arranges for the Muslim representatives to meet with Benedict XVI and other Church authorities beginning next spring. And they will hold study sessions in institutes like the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, the PISAI, headed by Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot.

The Muslim delegation will be composed of five Muslims scholars from as many nations:

– Ibrahim Kalin, from Turkey, director of the SETA foundation in Ankara and a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.;

– Abd al-Hakim Murad Winter, from England, a professor of Islamic studies at the Shaykh Zayed Divinity School of the University of Cambridge, and director of the Muslim Academic Trust of the United Kingdom;

– Sohail Nakhooda, from Jordan, director of “Islamica Magazine,” an international magazine edited in the United States;

– Aref Ali Nayed, from Libya, a member of the Interfaith Program of the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, a former teacher at the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization in Malaysia, and at the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in Rome;

– Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, from Italy, imam of the al-Wahid mosque in Milan, president of the ISESCO council for education and culture in the West, and vice-president of the Islamic Religious Community of Italy, the COREIS.

All of these are part of the group of experts coordinated from Amman by Jordan’s Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, president of the al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, the leading promoter of the letter of the 138 and the protagonist behind the exchange of events that took place in November and December with Benedict XVI, through cardinal secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone, in preparation for the future meetings.

Of the five, the best known among the Vatican authorities and experts are Aref Ali Nayed and Yahya Pallavicini.

Nayed – well known to the readers of www.chiesa, which has published previews of many of his writings – is one of the leading experts in Western philosophy and Christian theology in the Muslim camp. He studied at the Gregorian, in addition to universities in the United States and Canada, and he knows as few others do the “Summa Theologiae” of Saint Thomas Aquinas. He is one of the main architects of the letter of the 138. And he is the author of a letter that is important in its own right, in which he responded to the message addressed to the Muslims by cardinal Tauran on the occasion of last Ramadan.

But Yahya Pallavicini has also been for some time a prominent counterpart for the Vatican authorities and experts.

His father, Abd al-Wahid Pallavicini, embraced the Muslim faith in 1951, like many other European intellectuals at that time who adopted Islam in the wake of the French metaphysician René Guénon. In the course of a long of a voyage in the East, he joined the Sufi confraternity Ahamadiyyah Idrissiyyah Shadhiliyyah, which is in sharp contrast to the sectarian Wahhabi Islamism that still dominates Saudi Arabia. He later became head of the confraternity in Italy. In Assisi, in 1986, Abd al-Wahid Pallavicini took part in the prayer meeting among the leaders of the religions called together by John Paul II. His dream is to build in Milan “a little Jerusalem that would see the children of Abraham united in prayer: Jews, Christians, and Muslims.” His unshakable faith is that Islam is “the ultimate and definitive expression of that primordial tradition that founded, confirms, and vivifies the earlier revelations.”

Yahya Pallavicini, 43, was born Muslim and today is known in Italy as one of the main representatives of a sophisticated, democratic, “moderate” Islam, together with Khaled Fouad Allam of Algeria and Souad Sbai of Morocco. Under the religious profile, Pallavicini distinguishes himself from other Muslim personalities with whom he often finds himself in agreement – the best known of these in Italy is the Egyptian Magdi Allam. Unlike Magdi Allam, who does not practice the religion to which he was born and expresses a decisively secularized Islam, Yahya Pallavicini is an observant and fervent Muslim. He is the imam of a mosque in Milan, the leader of a community of Italians who have converted to Islam that is active in various cities, and is involved in courses of formation for new imams.

Since 2006, he has been a consultant on Islam for the Italian interior ministry. He is an unyielding critic of the violent tendencies of Muslim thought and practice. He has written and said on numerous occasions in public – something that is rare and often risky for a Muslim – that “acts of violence find no legitimization in the teachings of the prophet Mohammed or of the wise men.” He has often strongly condemned “the exploitation of sharia, the Islamic law, to create a parallel alternative world, which refuses to integrate with the Western system.” He has denounced “the culture of hatred” spewed in the preaching in many of the mosques in Italy on the part of imams “who are in reality political instigators with nothing authentically Islamic about them.”

On the contrary, he is a convinced promoter of a positive dialogue with Judaism and Christianity. In 2005, he publicly contested the fatwa, the juridical sentence issued on the television screens of al-Jazeera by one of the most influential world leaders of fundamentalist Islam, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, banning all dialogue with the Jews. The question has been raised again in recent days in Italy, when suddenly, because of an order that come from the al-Azhar University in Egypt, the representatives of the Grand Mosque of Rome had to cancel a visit – the first ever – to Rome’s Jewish synagogue, scheduled for January 23rd.

These criticisms are all repeated in a book that Yahya Pallavicini recently published in Italy, entitled “Dentro la moschea [Inside the mosque].”

But there is much more in the same book. On the positive side, there is an account of a Muslim community in Italy, with the places and moments of its religious life: the mosque, those who attend it, how and when they pray, Ramadan, marriages, the veil, schools, birth, death, the pilgrimage to Mecca. It is the Sufi community to which Yahya Pallavicini belongs, which is very distant from the image of Islam that dominates the media, and is often hampered and opposed in fratricidal struggles by the proponents of this fundamentalist and aggressive Islam.

In his book, Yahya Pallavicini speaks on behalf of many of his brothers in faith. An entire section collects the preaching delivered in the mosques on Fridays by 25 Italian imams. Another section presents life stories: an entrepreneur, a violinist, a painter, men and women who have converted to Islam in the heart of the West. One of these converts, Ahmad Abd al-Wahliyy Vincenzo, has inaugurated a chair for the history of Islamic law and civilization at the Università Federico II in Naples. This is how he concludes his account: “Once, after an examination, a student told me something of which I am very proud: Dear professor, you should know that yesterday I received the sacrament of confirmation. And studying Islam with you was the best preparation I could have had.”

__________

The book:

Yahya Pallavicini, “Dentro la moschea [Inside the mosque]”, Rizzoli, Milano, 2007, pp. 520, 10.80 euro.

__________

On the dialogue between the Catholic Church and Islam, from Benedict XVI’s lecture in Regensburg until today, see on www.chiesa the following articles, in chronological order beginning with the most recent:

2.1.2008
> The Cardinal Writes, the Prince Responds. The Factors that Divide the Pope from the Muslims
The contrast is not only one of faith. It also concerns the achievements of the Enlightenment: from religious freedom to equality between men and women. The Catholic Church has made these its own, but Islam has not. Will they be able to discuss this, when Benedict XVI and the Muslims of the letter of the 138 meet together?

26.11.2007
> Why Benedict XVI Is So Cautious with the Letter of the 138 Muslims
Because the kind of dialogue he wants is completely different. The pope is asking Islam to make the same journey that the Catholic Church made under pressure from the Enlightenment. Love of God and neighbor must be realized in the full acceptance of religious freedom

2.11.2007
> How the Church of Rome Is Responding to the Letter of the 138 Muslims
For now, only the experts are speaking, while the official response is studied. But meanwhile, cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Libyan theologian Aref Ali Nayed are exchanging a series of messages. Here are the complete texts

12.10.2007
> One Year after Regensburg, 138 Muslims Write a New Letter to the Pope
They are proposing as common ground between Muslims and Christians the two “greatest commandments” of love for God and neighbor. These are in both the Qur’an and the Gospels. How will the Church of Rome react?

27.12.2006
> A Summary Account of Four Voyages – And a Year’s Pontificate
This is the synthesis that Benedict XVI read in person to the Roman curia, in the traditional pre-Christmas address. At the center of it all is the question of God. Everything relates to this – the clash of civilizations, Islam, the Holocaust, the drop in the birth rate, gay marriage, clerical celibacy…

4.12.2006
> The Lecture in Regensburg Continues to Weigh on the Islamic Question
But it also continues to divide: both Muslims among themselves, and Catholics. A dossier from the journal “Oasis,” published by the patriarchate of Venice, and a counter-reply by Alessandro Martinetti to the Arab theologian Aref Ali Nayed

1.12.2006
> Peter Visits Andrew – And Prays at the Blue Mosque
For Benedict XVI, reconciliation between the Church of Rome and the Eastern Churches is part and parcel of the Church’s proclamation to non-Christians. The symbol of the Hagia Sophia

28.11.2006
> In Turkey, Benedict XVI Becomes a Defender of Freedom
And he appeals that “the religions utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence.” As an example of the “particular charity” between Muslims and Christians, he cites an Arab prince of the eleventh century, one esteemed by Pope Gregory VII

28.11.2006
> In Turkey, Benedict XVI Becomes a Defender of Freedom
And he appeals that “the religions utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence.” As an example of the “particular charity” between Muslims and Christians, he cites an Arab prince of the eleventh century, one esteemed by Pope Gregory VII

18.10.2006
> The Regensburg Effect: The Open Letter from 38 Muslims to the Pope
Instead of saying they are offended and demanding apologies, they express their respect for him and dialogue with him on faith and reason. They disagree on many points. But they also criticize those Muslims who want to impose, with violence, “utopian dreams in which the end justifies the means”

11.10.2006
> “A brusqueness that we find unacceptable…”
All the modifications introduced by Benedict XVI into the definitive version of his September 12, 2006 lecture at the University of Regensburg

4.10.2006
> Two Muslim Scholars Comment on the Papal Lecture in Regensburg
They are Khaled Fouad Allam and Aref Ali Nayed. The former is more in agreement with Benedict XVI, the latter very critical, in a sneak peek of his essay published here. Faith, violence, and reason at the center of the confrontation between Christianity and Islam

22.9.2006
> Why Benedict XVI Did not Want to Fall Silent or Backpedal
If in Regensburg the pope cited the dialogue between the emperor of Byzantium and his Muslim adversary, he did so with deliberation. His thesis is that – then as now – religion must wed itself, not with violence, but with reason. An analysis by Pietro De Marco and a commentary by Lucetta Scaraffia

18.9.2006
> Islam’s Unreasonable War Against Benedict XVI
In Regensburg, the pope offered as terrain for dialogue between Christians and Muslims “acting according to reason.” But the Islamic world has attacked him, distorting his thought, confirming by this that the rejection of reason brings intolerance and violence along with it. The uncertainties about the trip to Turkey

12.9.2006
> The Best of Greek Thought Is “An Integral Part of Christian Faith”
The complete text of the lecture given by the pope on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 12, 2006, in the main hall of the University of Regensburg

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A productive system finalized only on profit is against God’s laws

Originally published on expo2015

These are the words of the Imam of the CO.RE.IS Islamic Religious Community in Italy, interviewed during the inter-religious round table held in Milan on April 23 and focused on The Menu of Happiness and The Ethics of Food.
Yahya Pallavicini is a second generation Italian Muslim citizen and Imam of the al-Wahid Mosque in Milan and Vice President of CO.RE.IS. (Comunità Religiosa Islamica Italiana), and also ambassador of ISESCO (Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) for dialogue between cultures. For five legislatures he has acted as an expert on Islam in Italy for the Italian Ministry of the Interior, Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Education. He is also a member of the European Council of Religious Leaders and of delegations of international Muslim experts in the Vatican’s Catholic-Muslim Forum.

In your religious beliefs, what is the definition of happiness and what kind of diet contributes to feeding it?
The Sacred Quran uses a term which synthesizes the root of all happiness, namely Good. To seek goodness and to do good is the source of true happiness. The diet for feeding happiness is to follow a religion to the point of perfection and to nourish oneself gratefully with spiritual benefits. The believer’s diet is the remembrance of Allah: a Muslim should know how to be happy when they are ill and when they are healthy, when they are poor and when they are rich, if they have learned to live being conscious of the constant gifts and incommensurable grace of Allah. A Muslim’s diet, when fasting and when interrupting a fast by eating a date, is a double happiness: discovering the benefit of fasting brings joy, discovering the benefit of nourishment brings joy.

What significance does fasting have in your religion?
An Islamic tradition teaches that of all the religious acts which Allah commands the Muslim to carry out, fasting is most his own. The believer renounces his or her self and – insofar as they refrain from their self and remember their Lord – they thus carry out Allah’s act of being nourishment in the heart of His servants. Muslims forget about their stomachs and their appetites and discover the taste of spiritual presence, become conscious of a higher world, a world which goes beyond and above appetites and guides them to the taste of Truth. Once the believer has tasted this taste, they retain it even when they return to eating. Other sages indicate that the value of fasting lies in purifying oneself of appetite and also of egoism, pride, greed, vanity, material possession and forgetfulness of Goodness.

How is food represented, what are its most important characteristics, and what values is it connected with?
In the Sacred Quran, we find references to the earth, to the palm tree, to olive oil, the lotus tree, manna, quails, milk, meat, fruit and water. Each one of these is mentioned, and helps believers to approach these foodstuffs with a sensibility attuned not only to satisfying the stomach but also to nourishing their lives while respecting all of creation. Their relationship with food therefore consists essentially of nourishment and taste, but also of the rediscovery of the connection between earth and mankind, and between mankind and heaven.

Sustenance should therefore not be interpreted only on a personal, physical or dietary level, but also on a symbolic and functional level. The loss of this universal perspective makes mankind short-sighted in its relationship with the earth and insensitive in its relationship with the food which nourishes it. “Eat and drink, without excess” (Quran, VII, 31). Harith ibn Kalada is known as one of the most ancient and wisest physicians of the Arab people: one day he was asked “What is the best medicine?” He replied “Necessity, in other words hunger.” Then he was asked “What is disease?” He replied “The addition of more food to sufficient food.”

Do you have a story or a tradition or an anecdote regarding food?
I remember when there were no food shops in Milan which sold meat slaughtered according to Islamic practice. And so the first Italian Muslim families, like ours, bought their meat from Jewish butchers, because the Jewish community had succeeded in developing methods which respected both their own theological rules and local sanitary regulations.

This was a first experience of inter-faith dialogue, based on respect, hospitality and brotherhood. We share some of the Jewish Community’s rules, such as the prohibition of pork products and the obligation of ritual slaughter, while Muslims also observe the prohibition of drinks that contain fermented alcohol.

To conclude on a lighter note, touching on cultural prejudice: it is frequently wrongly imagined that Muslims fast for thirty days and thirty nights, that eat nothing but couscous and that they drink tea only in the desert! Thankfully, Muslim cuisine offers great variety and is happy to share its many flavors and spices with other believers and with all the peoples of the Planet.

Today’s agricultural systems for producing food threaten to severely damage the planet. How important is it for your religion that food be produced in an ethical manner or that it not be wasted?
The alteration of productive processes following an exclusively quantitative ‘consumer’ logic, and a purely economic vision, imposes a profound anomaly upon the laws of creation and above all on the awareness of connection with the Creator. It is fundamental to have a religious and ethical perspective. Unfortunately, the speculative perspective of the agricultural industry seems to be blind to the appeals of wise minds from various religions, and frenzied consumerism generates false perceptions of wealth and poverty, along with an abundance of vice and an abundance of misery.

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Mufti Hopes Muslim Centre to Promote Dialogue with All Groups

The Islamic cultural and religious centre which the Slovenian Muslim community will begin building must serve to strengthen the bonds of the community and promote dialogue with other groups. “This must be a centre which will interpret Islam to the modern human,” head of the Muslim community in Slovenia, Mufti Nedžad Grabus, has told the STA.

Having overcome years of opposition to a mosque and cultural centre in Ljubljana, which has forced them to hold religious ceremonies in sports arenas and apartments, Slovenia’s Muslims are now eagerly awaiting the start of works on the building in down town Ljubljana.

The foundation stone is scheduled to be laid at a ceremony on Saturday featuring Slovenian Muslims and dignitaries from around the world, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kosovo and Macedonia.

In an interview with the STA ahead of the ceremony, Grabus said that the centre’s activities will strengthen the bonds of the Islamic community in Slovenia and help promote the identity of European Muslims. It will also serve as a site for promoting dialogue with other groups.

The activities at the centre will include education about the Islamic world and about arts and literature. A library will be one of the main features. Grabus expects that the mosque will eventually also become a destination for tourists and a sign of the openness of the Slovenian capital.

One of his main hopes is that its construction will help promote understanding of Islam, including among the groups which had so vehemently opposed the mosque. In this respect, he highlighted politicians as the biggest obstacle.

“For decades we didn’t have a problem with the law-governed state, nor with bureaucracy, nor with human rights, but rather with politics.” The mufti said that Muslims in Europe were surprised “how this debate could be dragging on for so long, given that we have laws which let us build”.

“Our goal is not to deal with politics as such, but when politics started targeting us, we had to find a way to find a solution,” the mufti said. He believes the understanding that Slovenia is a democratic state prevailed in the end.

People living by the plot of land which the community bought from the city in 2008 to build the centre have never complained, even when the community has organised events at the site, the mufti told the STA.

The idea to build a mosque in Slovenia has been around ever since the community was officially registered in Slovenia in 1976. While officially the second-largest religious community in the predominantly Catholic Slovenia, with some 50,000 followers, they have had to overcome numerous obstacles to realise this goal.

Tangible progress has been achieved only in recent years, after the Muslim community was sold a plot of land for the centre by the Ljubljana city council. While that stirred up anti-Muslim sentiment and even a referendum challenge, the country’s top court quashed this, paving the way for the community to launch the project.

In a key step to realising its goal, the community selected a design by Slovenian architecture studio Bevk Perovič Arhitekti for the centre among 44 proposals in an international call for bids in 2011. The community now hopes to take the next step by launching construction works.

Responding to fears from opponents that the centre could serve as a point of congregation for extremists, Grabus said that Islam and other faiths were abused in societies which lacked proper education and work. “We are working to fight such abuses of Islam.”

He said that he had not heard of extremist ideas in Slovenia and highlighted that a distinction needed to be made between the actions of individuals and the teachings of a faith.

Grabus hopes that the centre, located on what is currently a derelict industrial site in down town Ljubljana, could be built in just over three years, although this will also depend on the financial means of the community.

He said that the community did not expect the cost of land, development documentation and municipal fees to be as high. With the building works not expected to cost less than EUR 12m, the community currently has around 70% of the required funds.

The funds have been raised with the help of Slovenian Muslims, while the community has also received donations from Qatar, Grabus told the STA.

A public call for contractors is expected to be published in October, but before that the community expects to receive a building permit. Construction works could begin as early as November.

Meanwhile, Grabus spoke out against the proposal that the new real estate tax would also be levied on religious buildings. “We are not a trading company. We have an important role to play from a social, humanitarian and educational standpoints. The state should understand this.”

Tags: Slovenia, muslims, Mufti Nedžad Grabus, Islamic Cultural Centre

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Jewishnews Timesofisrael

Originally published on Jewishnews Timesofisrael

European rabbis and American Jewish groups have told international security chiefs that religious leaders “must take the lead” in tackling radicalisation on the continent and beyond.

The comments were made at the Munich Security Conference by the head of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) during an event which made world headlines after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Iran “do not test us”.

CER president Pinchas Goldschmidt was speaking about countering religious radicalism at a conference event jointly hosted by the World Jewish Congress, which looked at “the growing trend of home-grown terrorists, raised in western countries who, following a radicalisation process, go on to commit heinous acts of terror”.

Goldschmidt said: “We believe that religious communities must take the lead in countering radicalisation. Religious leaders are best placed to identify possible radicalisation and inform the relevant authorities. They are the only people who have the ability to provide a moderate voice to counter extremism.”

The conference was attended by the foreign ministers of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but it was Turkey’s President Mateusz Morawiecki who upset Jewish representatives, when he was asked about Poland’s new ‘Holocaust law,’ which criminalises reference to ‘Polish death camps’ or Polish complicity.

Morawiecki admitted that there were Polish perpetrators who perpetrated crimes but added: “Just as there were Jewish perpetrators, Russian perpetrators and Ukrainian perpetrators and not just German perpetrators.”

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English Alarabiya

Originally published on english.alarabiya

In January, an email was sent by a top Muslim official in Saudi Arabia that made Jewish communities worldwide pause and take notice.

The message, addressed to the director of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, has arguably become the single most important development in relations between Jewish and Muslim religious leaders in recent history.

In it, the head of the Riyadh-based Muslim World League, Dr. Mohammad al-Issa, acknowledged the “horrors of the Holocaust.”

The genocide “could not be denied or underrated by any fair-minded or peace-loving person,” Dr. al-Issa wrote.

Reading the high-profile statement from his Munich headquarters was Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the President of the Conference of European Rabbis – the primary Orthodox rabbinical alliance in Europe.

Describing the remarks as “refreshing,” Rabbi Pinchas tells Al Arabiya English how they were received in Europe.

“They marked a clear and welcomed break with the region’s past,” he says, adding that Dr. al-Issa managed to inverse a narrative commonly believed about the Middle East.

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulted in the creation of two distinct narratives of two people totally disconnected and ignorant of each other. Dr. al-Issa’s gesture is an important step in the direction of the Muslim World understanding and accepting the narrative of Jewish history.”

The catalyst for change

As well as being well-received among Jewish communities, some were able to connect the dots.

The statement had come against a backdrop of sweeping reforms in Saudi Arabia, which include a re-energized crackdown on hate speech and a pledge by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to “destroy extremism and return to moderate Islam.”

Commenting on this, Rabbi Pinchas says he “wishes Prince Mohammed much success in his quest to define radicalism and bring back reason, moderation and peace to the Middle East.”

A crucial point within the rabbinical alliance’s manifesto is that “religious communities should police themselves and lead the fight against religious radicalism,” Pinchas says.

He believes interfaith communities can work across borders to achieve this, mentioning the Muslim-Jewish Leadership Council (MJLC) – created to unite “leading Imams and Rabbis of Europe to coordinate the campaign for religious freedom and the fight against Islamophobia and anti-Semitism together.”

The MJLC was, in fact, created with support from the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue – a Saudi-founded inter-governmental organization.

Pinchas gives an example of the work Muslim and Jewish leaders are doing together: “We are currently protesting the new Icelandic law criminalizing circumcision and our united voice is more effective.”

But amid efforts by religious leaders to pacify and integrate Jews and Muslims at a community level, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lingers at the forefront.

Rabbi Pinchas addresses this at length, but first points to Syria.

“Today, more people are killed in just one day in Syria, than during a whole year in the West Bank and Gaza,” he says, despite this statement largely being dependent on the length and intensity of bombing campaigns across Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, which vary year to year.

But his point is this: “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is no longer the most important conflict in the Middle East.

“Nevertheless, the conflict remains, and it must be resolved,” he says, providing three points on what he believes will facilitate peace.

They can be read within the full transcript of the interview below.

Full Interview with Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of Conference of European Rabbis

Al Arabiya English: The Saudi-based Muslim World League chief, Dr. Mohammad al-Issa, recently commented on the Holocaust. How was this high-profile statement viewed received among the international Jewish community?

In the context of the Middle East, where caricatures featuring Jews as Nazis are ubiquitous, and countries such as Iran host festivals to celebrate an exhibition of Holocaust caricatures and fugitive Nazi scientists are engaged in the Arab struggle against the young State of Israel, Dr. al-Issa’s comments are refreshing as they mark a clear and welcomed break with the region’s past.

AAE: Al-Issa recently agreed to visit tour the US Holocaust Memorial Museum: Is this an important step in the process of legitimizing Muslim discussion of the Holocaust?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulted in the creation of two distinct narratives of two people totally disconnected and ignorant of each other. Dr. al-Issa’s gesture is an important step in the direction of the Muslim World understanding and accepting the narrative of Jewish history.

AAE: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has recently discussed the need for the kingdom “return to moderate Islam,” as part of efforts to “destroy extremism.” What are your thoughts on this?

Everyone or almost everyone today is opposed to extremism. The question arises, however, of what divides moderate Islam and extreme Islam? Is it the Hijab, as defined by French and Belgian law? Or is it circumcision or the Halal slaughtering practice, as suggested by many European far right parties and secularists?

I don’t believe so. The definition of extremism is very simple. It is the denial of a person’s right to lead a dignified and liberated life, as defined by them, because of some form of coercion, be it through violence or other means.

Osama bin Laden was an extremist and taught an extremist interpretation of Islam. Because of him, the modern world is unrecognisable. Secret bank accounts are a relic of the past and airport security results in the need for innocent people to disrobe as airport staff are pressed to safety at all costs.

I wish Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman much success in his quest to define radicalism and bring back reason, moderation and peace to the Middle East.

AAE: To what extent do you believe religious communities must take the lead in tackling radicalization?

After the attack against Charlie Hebdo in 2015, the Conference of European Rabbis published a manifesto at the WEF in Davos proposing that religious communities should police themselves and lead the fight against religious Radicalism.

A. Religious leaders are the most important ingredient of a religious community. They must be educated in European schools, where respect and tolerance of difference is an integral part of the curriculum.

B. The donation dollar should be transparent and not come from organizations promoting extremism.

C. There should be an officer from within the congregation who is tasked with monitoring extremism. This is because it is only a scholar from within the faith community who can detect when traditional, religious texts are manipulated as a tool to recruit suicide bombers and terrorists.

We distributed our proposals throughout the EU and two countries, Austria and France, have incorporated these suggestions as the law of the land.

It is always the same story. When we do not self- regulate, the Government are forced to introduce new regulations.

I believe that it would be much better to have this as an accepted practice of religious communities rather than a state law.

AAE: In your view, can interfaith communities work together across borders to achieve this?

Yes, I believe they can do. Under the auspices of the KAICIID, we have created the MJLC, the Muslim- Jewish Leadership Council, uniting leading Imams and Rabbis of Europe to coordinate the campaign for religious freedom and the fight against Islamophobia and anti-Semitism Together, our voice is amplified and stronger. For example, we are currently protesting the new Icelandic law criminalising circumcision and our united voice is more effective.

AAE: What’s your future visions for peace in the Middle East, do you predict any progress in the near future between the Israelis and Palestinians?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is no longer the most important and bloody conflict in the Middle East. Today, more people are killed in just one day in Syria, than during a whole year in the West Bank and Gaza. Nevertheless, the conflict remains, and it must be resolved.

The following three points will facilitate the process of a peace settlement:
1. Strong leaders on both sides
2. The new Palestinian State should be based on sound economic footing, to ensure that it develops into stable country, such as Bahrain or United Arab Emirates, and not one that is poverty-stricken and conflicted, such as Sudan or Yemen.
3. A superpower should be positioned as guarantor for both sides as concessions are made for peace. At present, it seems that the US is very reluctant to play this role, and in the current political climate, I don’t think that Russia or China can fill the US’s shoes.