ITALIAN MUSLIM LEADERS: ISLAM IS RELIGION OF PEACE

reuters-italy — **Italian Muslims shared a message of rejecting violence of so-called Islamic State (ISIL), making a distinction between “terror and the Muslim religion”.**. (Photo: Reuters)

Rome, 24 Dhulhijja 1435/18 October 2014 (MINA) – The leaders of the Italian Muslim community and representatives of Italian institutions have come together to send an out-loud message that Islam is a religion of peace that rejects any violence committed in its name.

“ISIL is not only a threat to the West and the entire world, it is most of all a threat for the Muslim world’,” Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini told congregants at the Italian Islamic Cultural Center of the grand mosque in Rome, OnIslam quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Saturday.

Those who are damaged are “Muslim civilians, targeted in their souls by those using Islam to exercise power”.

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“They are discredited, making the lives of millions of people difficult”, said the House speaker.

Boldrini was among the keynote speakers who were invited by the Italian Islamic Cultural Center of the grand mosque in Rome as a representative of Italian institutions.

The event, held after Friday’s prayer, was attended by various figures including several ambassadors of Muslim countries to Italy, a few MPs – from Khalid Chaouki to Senator Luigi Manconi, and former Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno – and several members of the Muslim community.

The attendants shared a message of rejecting violence of so-called Islamic State (ISIL), making a distinction between “terror and the Muslim religion”.

“It is our duty to have a clear and non-negotiable position against anyone favoring these threats, anyone fostering conflict or aiding terror”, said the Islamic center secretary general, Abdellah Redouane.

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The phenomenon of “foreign fighters is alarming,” he admitted.

“There are thousands of people who left Europe to go fight in Syria. But 20 million Muslims have instead remained home with their families in Europe, which is their home and which they want to protect with all those who live here. We have to be the ones to preserve it”.

There will never be “room for those who sow hatred”, Redouane concluded.

“Our religion does not recognize itself in this violence. We must take a stance but we must be the first to be aware and have the intellectual honesty to recognize the genetic mutation that has occurred in some minorities”.

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Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, shared a similar message.

“A religious community that sees a not indifferent number of followers from different ethnic groups and various countries commit in its name inhuman, criminal and odious acts, cannot fail to reflect on the reasons why its members strayed,” he said.

Italy has a Muslim population of some 1.7 million, including 20,000 reverts, according to the figures released by Istat, the national statistics agency.(T/P008/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)