DAR AL HARB / ISLAM: ISLAM'S CHALLENGE TO THE WEST

Fr Gheddo: challenge of Islam is above all cultural, religious

They admire scientific and technological development in the West but believe it to be devoid of a soul. Even in moderate countries, madrassahs teach about the struggle against the West and give pride of place to pictures of “martyrs of Islam”. This challenge cannot be met through solely juridical, military, political and diplomatic means.

Rome (AsiaNews) – The challenge posed by Islam to the West is cultural and religious more than economic and political. “They admire us for our technology, economy and development and they fear our military force. But they see in the West and especially in Europe, aridity, a lack of children, abortions, suicides, gay marriages, overall decadence and they are charged with the task of coming to give a soul to western development.” This is the view of Fr Piero Gheddo, a PIME missionary, expressed in “The challenge of Islam to the West” (St Paul Ed, nine euros), the fruit of knowledge that has matured over 40 years of travels.

He told AsiaNews: “When one talks about the challenge of Islam, one means especially oil, economy, politics and terrorism. This is all true however it is not just this: the challenge is above all cultural and religious. The Muslims are deeply religious peoples although at times in a formalistic way, like us after all. They come in contact with us, peoples who no longer have God on our horizon. Thus, on the one hand they blackmail us with terrorism, oil and demography. This is why, for example, there is talk about an invasion of Europe: in Germany seven million Turks make up 10% of the population. On the other hand, the challenge is religious: they are convinced they are coming to give a soul to our development. All this should prompt us to reflect, however the answers to Islamic challenges are sought in juridical, military and diplomatic interventions and in economic blockades.”


But why do you discern a challenge in this judgment of the West by Islamic countries?

The Islamic reawakening, which is less than a century old, has been taken as an objective by a good part of the Muslims, to install the Caliphate of Islamic countries and to conquer the world. It is the human more than the moral decadence of the West that suggests this task. The West no longer knows what it wants. The great ideologies that the West invented to replace God have crumbled and a vacuum remains. And they want to fill it.”


You talk about Muslim countries as a unity, but in reality there is more than one Islam and deep divisions.

I have been travelling around Muslim countries for more than 40 years and I have visited nearly all of them except for those of the Caucasus and a few others. I was impressed because although there are many versions of Islam – Shiites, Sunnis, Sufis, moderates, promoters of the Sharia, they are all united in this struggle against the West. They are especially driven by what they call the immorality of the West that is advertised in newspapers and taught in schools. Textbooks and teachers insist that the West is strong militarily and economically but is empty. It is a judgment that has changed with time. Our missionaries in Bangladesh, for example, say that in the forties, when they arrived, there was admiration, fear, perhaps even antipathy, but not hatred, one could travel peacefully. Later, it may have been the oil or Israel, but hatred came. Bin Laden was not born by chance.


But many Islamic countries condemn Al Qaeda and terrorism.

Even in moderate countries, Islamic schools, madrassahs, teach the Koran but they teach especially the struggle against the West. From there, the best ones, who may be poor, are sent to schools of formation to be warriors for Islam. For us, they are terrorists but their images are displayed in schools, they are the ‘martyrs of Islam’. Nothing is ever said about how this has created a deeply anti-western mentality in Muslim peoples, fertile ground for the multiplying of terrorism. For years, Saddam Hussein and Gheddafi poured 20/25,000 dollars to families of suicide bombers. I am convinced that others are still doing this now because terrorism is part of the struggle against the West.”

If this is the picture, what should the West do?

The West should understand what the challenge is. And it is not doing this so far: it is facing terrorism through military, economic, political, juridical and diplomatic means and it never thinks about the crisis in our society that is immoral, untenable. It never says: we must change. We must return to Jesus, become aware that immorality is a central issue. I am not saying that the Church should be in command, for goodness’ sake, but it is a development factor. Our culture is founded on Christianity. Montanelli used to say to me: “I am an unbelieving, non-practicing Catholic.” And when I asked him “how do you manage that?” he would reply by saying “because we cannot but call ourselves Christians”. If you remove Christianity from the soul of Europe, nothing remains but the ruins of Athens and Rome. The idea of equality among men and among men and women, the distinction between Church and State, schools and hospitals, respect for people: this is all in Christianity and this is what distinguishes us from Islam. Even Islam misses Jesus Christ. For example, the sense of forgiveness is missing. In Indonesia, in Sumatra, there are many ethnic groups. They are all Muslims but every so often there is an inter-tribal conflict. The government sends a pacification committee to stop it, made up of five authoritative people including at least two Christians (usually a Catholic and a Protestant). I asked the reason for this decision in a Muslim country. “Because you have a sense of forgiveness, of bringing peace,” the Internal Affairs Minister replied. “For us Muslims, revenge is sacred.” This is why a Christian speaking about peace is credible, but a Muslim is not. (FP)


Pertinent Links:

1) Fr Gheddo: challenge of Islam is above all cultural, religious