Interview with Izzedin
Elzir, President of the Union of the Islamic Communities in Italy In Borgo Allegri, an
ancient street in the centre of Florence, in the heart of Tuscany, full of the fragrances
and the vitality of the nearby historic market of Saint Ambrogio, we meet, on
June 2nd 2011, Izzedin Elzir, President of the Union of the Islamic Communities
in Italy. Blue eyes, warm and reassuring smile: the young Imam of Florence
welcomes us into his office, while, outside, the voices of the street blend
Tuscan dialectal expressions with exclamations and words in the Arabic
language. Near the small Florentine mosque, there is a garden, where men of all
ages, coming from different parts of the world, meet every day.
In the Mediterranean,
the historical and cultural wealth of the Muslim religious heritage has been
regarded, for decades, by Western public opinion, as a lasting threat to the
peace and stability of the area, rather than as a great opportunity for living
together, and for a common growth; namely, the paradox of an important
coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jews, that constitutes, in itself, an
insurmountable obstacle to brotherhood and common prosperity. A dramatic and
mocking contradiction with what is professed on the subject of peace by the
various religious doctrines, don’t you think?
It is true, this is
indeed a paradox: the Islamic faith aims at peoples’ peace and freedom. This faith
has major common roots with the other religious cultures that coexist in the
Mediterranean, and, in this sense, the path that we can embark on together
leaves large positive openings for a common course. We must not renounce to be
positive, on this point. If a distrust of the role played by religion exists,
this is in part due to historical reasons, as well as to the fact that religion
is too often used by those holding the power to keep people calm. In any case,
one has to be very careful, and avoid the identification of Islam, Islamism and
fundamentalism: every day, theories that have nothing to do with, and in fact
do not even know the history of, Islam and of the Mediterranean, are being
repeated, To say that, in the future, we will have to live conflicts of
civilisations, of cultures, is a fundamental mistake. Cultures do not clash, it
is the ideologies that disguise themselves as cultures that do. Our time has
certainly the merit of having pointed out the right to difference, but one has
to remember that values do not identify themselves with difference as such, but
are determined by the relationships between differences. And it is here, and
only here, in this relationship between differences, that a new laity, and a
State that is not left to theocracy, but allows individuals to live their
faith, can be born. All this can coexist only on the basis of respect. Respect for
men, for populations, for their faiths.
The prospect of a new
interaction between civilisation
Matvejević wrote that
“every Mediterranean city has a great identity: different languages, different
ways of understanding, different ways of saying, different ways of living. This
is an identity of being, with respect to which there is a weak identity of
doing. One cannot design this strength of the Mediterranean identity. And that
is true for all the Mediterranean; it is true for Southern Europe, overlooking
the Mediterranean, and it is true for the opposite shore as well”. In short,
there is a complexity that often the Western mass media capture in a rather
confused way: to quote T. Todorov, a large amount of information, but, as
usual, a great difficulty to understand.
I agree. We are
bombarded with information, but we struggle to find syntheses, in-depth
examinations. This is a problem that concerns especially us Europeans: nobody
in the Northern shore of the Mediterranean expected the events of the Arab
Spring to develop at this speed, even though the American media, in this sense,
were more prepared than we were. The end of Tunisian dictatorship of Ben Ali
evolved in a few weeks, the same happened with the fall of the regime of Hosni Mubarak
in Egypt; various protest movements threaten to undermine authoritarian regimes
in the Arab world, in Libya, but also in Syria, in Yemen. The common element of
these events comes from the younger generations, from their demands for
freedom. About the distorted image that is provided to us by the media, how
many times we had heard someone say that “those people are not ready for democracy,
dictatorship is the necessary solution in order to avoid chaos”. This is not
the case. The young people of the Arab Spring want freedom, they ask for a
perspective that will allow them to live a future of peace and security. They
ask for the same things we ask for. This Arab Spring, I believe, closes the
prospect of a clash of civilisations, and opens that of a new interaction
between civilisations.
This is undoubtedly
difficult, but people who have lived under dictatorship are searching for
freedom. The trend is towards democracy, all parties present in the various
realities of the Arab world have realised that they have to work together in
that direction, and the first steps have been significant of this path. I think
that this will also help the Europeans to talk to them in a respectful manner.
To everyone, not just to those who share their thoughts. Moreover, the model of
the European Union is seen as very positive in the Arab world, and it
constitutes a stimulus for several cooperative processes present in the Arab
countries. I believe that, at this time, Italy, which could play a leading
role, is losing a great opportunity. Italy is the most loved European country,
its culture and its popular identity are viewed with respect and admiration.
Yet the Italian institutions are proving to be more vulnerable and uncertain
than their citizens: let’s just think about what happened in Sicily, with a
major reception effort from the citizens of the island to help the immigrants coming
from the sea, and to establish relationships with them. Positive dialogue,
mutual exchange, do not arise when one wants to choose its interlocutor;
instead, they arise when one is willing to accept the other, to help him if in
need, but also to receive from him, to respect what he carries within himself.
In this way, I believe, we will build our common Mediterranean identity.
Francesco Barilli