Samir Khalil Samir

The Lebanese president and the Catholic Church in Lebanon have announced that Benedict XVI will visit the Land of Cedars 14 to 16 September next. The occasion is the presentation of the Apostolic Exhortation following the Synod on the Middle East, held in October 2010. AsiaNews asked Fr. Samir Khalil to comment on the significance of this trip. Fr. Samir was one of the experts who worked closely with the pope before, during and after the Synod.

A great French Muslim philosopher asks whether salafist violence - like that which killed the children of Jewish school in Toulouse – is not a symptom of something deeply wrong with the Muslim tradition. A religion that has closed in on itself. To renew Islam today, the challenge of modernity and humanism must be accepted. "Who will have that courage? Who will take this risk?". The analysis of Fr. Samir Khalil.

The late patriarch ruled his Church for 40 years. Spirituality, vocations, participation in rituals have increased, but ecumenism and lay involvement slowed. Skirmishes on intermarriage with Catholics. Nationalist and anti-Israeli, Shenouda clashed with Sadat, who imprisoned him. An alliance with Mubarak to build new churches. The urgency of the mission in society and in defense of women. Egypt caught between a military dictatorship and fundamentalism.

The Sunni University, a guide for the World Islamic world, offers some guidelines for the world born after the "Arab spring" on human rights, religious freedom, freedom of scientific and artistic research. This attempt to modernize the Muslim view on these issues has also been supported by the Christian Churches of Egypt.

The Arab uprising spread like wildfire and every Arab country felt its effects. However, the changes must be seen against the backdrop of the Islamist rise to power. Christians are afraid but must cooperate with Muslims. Syria’s case and the bishops’ reaction are a case in point. The West is confused and Obama discredited. A year on, here is a review of what happened in the Arab world.

The “Syrian spring” did not want regime change. However, months of violence by Assad and his government, army and secret services have discredited the regime. It is time for everyone, including the Churches, to act and speak out despite fears of Islamisation.

International public opinion is concerned that the young people’s revolt is sliding towards fundamentalism. Many religious authorities fear for the fate of Christians. The Synod of the Middle East, held a few months before the "jasmine revolution", raised many issues that have become buzzwords of Arab youth movements. Maybe for now Islam will win, but the Arab world is changing and the Church is committed to this change.

In Egypt and elsewhere, the new attempts at democracy risk failure because of the enormous poverty, ignorance, fundamentalism. The West can not just sit back and watch or take on policing duties. It should intervene in the economy, education, joint projects between Christians and Muslims to show that coexistence is possible

Hopes for a profound transformation of the Middle East begin to wane. The weakness of the young revolutionaries faced with the might of the army and Islamist parties who want to seize the fruits of change. Christians in Syria, forced to support the authoritarian regimes to save religious freedom. Democracy and secularism seems to be an impossible combination. The positive case of Lebanon.

In France, an Islamic organization has asked the French Church for the opportunity to pray in unused churches. And what if Christians in Egypt and Algeria request the use of mosques on Sundays? In order to avoid increasing conflicts in Europe, Islam needs to become mentally and culturally Western.

There is no fundamentalism, or anti-Israeli ideology in the demonstrations in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, etc .. It is a movement of young people spurred on by economic suffering and ideals such as democracy, equality, freedom, justice. The demonstrations are free of violence and hatred. Europe and the United States who have always supported dictators remaining blind to the needs of young people in these countries need to examine their conscience.

Muslim intellectuals and theologians draw the prospects for a change even in Islam: the value of women and fraternisation of sexes; rejection of fundamentalist Salafism, seeking a religion of the heart and freedom, against the formalism of the veil, the beard and abstruse ritual practices. And above all, they welcome secularism, the separation of Islam from politics.