INTERFAITH APPEAL – Religions, a common responsibility against hatred

“Let us meet immediately, at least in Italy, as bishops, rabbis, and imams. A simple, direct meeting, neither conventional nor confessional, to testify to our common responsibility. A responsibility to share the authentic message of peace, hope, charity, brotherhood and justice of Abraham’s descendants.” This is the message of the Appeal to Italian Institutions, citizens and Italian believers, which was signed by the president of the Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), Noemi Di Segni; the president of the Union of Islamic Italian Communities (UCOII) Yassin Lafram; the president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community (COREIS) Abu Bakr Moretta; the president of the Rome Mosque, Naim Nasrollah; Imam Yahya Pallavicini of COREIS and Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI).

The appeal was born from an “awareness of the dark times we are experiencing and of the power of the illusion that is also blowing on the ongoing tragedy in the Middle East,” reads the appeal, which was released on August 29. This awareness “call on us, as leaders of religious communities, as believers and as citizens, to denounce dangerous generalizations and damaging confusions about political, national and religious identities.” At the same time, “it pushes us to urge caution in exchanging information and restraint in tones and actions.”

The appeals states that hatred and violence “never have any legitimacy, and only lead to the spread of the cruelty of those who ambiguously cultivate parallel interests, vulgarizing and corrupting the interpretations and the authentic nature of the sacred texts in order to bless the use of weapons and promote others’ dead.” On this issue, the appeal quotes a passage from Fermi tutti (All stop), a message recently signed by Cardinal Zuppi, as Archbishop of Bologna, and the president of the Jewish Community, Daniele De Paz. “Justice for the Palestinian people and security for the Israeli people can only be achieved through mutual acknowledgment, respect for fundamental rights, and a willingness to communicate.”