الإسلام والغرب: نحو عالم أفضل

C IVILIZATION , C ONFLICTS AND C OEXISTENCE Claudio Mario Betti I would like to express all my personal gratitude to the Aljazeera Centre for Studies for having dared to touch upon a question that is in the background of our reflection today but that often remains unanswered. Not answering this question is not a way to avoid it. It returns and will return, eventually making it always more difficult to find ways of coexistence. The title of the forum and the main thesis exposed by the introduction is fascinating and challenging. Indeed there is, the need to implant in our “common” cultural consciousness the idea that “Thinking – and let me dare say also building – a better world, is a right and a duty” for the whole of humanity. It is a way of hoping for the future, of starting to build a world that is more human and where diversity is seen as an asset and not as a liability. In fact human convergence is inevitable. It is enough to look at our cities, both in the West and in the Islamic world to realize that we are more and more living in a multicultural world where the boundaries of race and ethnic belonging appear more and more difficult to sustain. It is up to us, to make this convergence an enrichment and a chance of progress and not a clash. The temptation of many, and here I am not talking about those who plant landmines on the path of coexistence, about those who want to avoid convergence at all costs, I am talking about us, those who are conscious of the need of restating and reaffirming the unity of humanity and the common destiny of mankind. Our temptation is that of considering the task too great and thus to resign to lead a self-referential (inward looking – self-centred) path. It is typical for most of us and especially from a religious point of view. The world is complex and the more complex it becomes the easier it is to find simplifiers, people who, with their attitude and narrow minded

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