Oasis 19

In Iraq the American project, aggravated by local responsibilities, has had devastating effects: it created a link between jihadism and secular anti-Western movements and it injected an ethnic-religious sectarianism that has lacerated the socio-political fabric of the country

Salafism and violence. The ideal of an Islamic State divides the Jihadist movement in Syria. On the one hand, there are those who do not hesitate to use any kind of violence, even against Muslims, in order to establish such a State as soon as possible; on the other, there are those who believe that winning popular support is a priority.

Creative jurisprudence. In his Testaments Muhammad Mahdi Shamseddine produced a general vision of Islam that is characterised by clemency and moderation. And he called on the Muslim faithful to belong to the world in order to contribute to the construction of a civil state that would defend the complex components of society.

The Gospel of Peace. Despite the efforts of a part of the Western intelligentsia to present the monotheistic religions as intrinsically violent, Christianity’s novelty has paved the way for a purification that is also calling to the other great religions.

Real reform in the Church requires four essential conditions: intelligence of the real always nourished by charity: the rooting in community of the whole body which possesses a truth that is always greater than personal truth; patience with delays; a return to the principles of tradition.

Is the West dominant? Yes: but because it has drawn upon Islam. Did Muslims ‘close the doors of science in their faces’? Yes: but because they abandoned true Islam. This is the interpretation of history of the founder of modern reformism which is still widely subscribed to today.

Between ‘inside’ Euroscepticisms and ‘outside’ Euroenthusiasm, Europe has experienced in many of its streets seasons of protest. But for Martin Schulz, the President of the Parliament in Strasbourg, even though it does not always know how to provide answers to the requests of its citizens, the European project still offers the only viable pathway that can be followed.

Almost twenty years on from a bloody civil war, Bosnia Herzegovina went through a turbulent phase at the beginning of 2014: its people shouted “Enough is enough!” at a system of government that proved corrupt and self-serving instead of committed to meeting the real needs of the country. A country that is asking for a future, above all.

André Miquel, one of the greatest experts on the classical period of Islamic civilization, pores with extraordinary passion over the masterpieces of Arabic literature and helps us understand its relationship with its historical context, with religion and with those radical questions that trouble men of every era. Including our own.