Papers of Dialogue - 3 - 2012 - English

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July - September 2012

Understanding Islamic finance Geopolitics

Islamic Finance

Cultures

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July - September 2012

Understanding Islamic finance

www.agiarab.com Papers of Dialogue: no 3 | July-September 2012

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Geopolitics

Islamic Finance

Cultures

TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial 04 A new opportunity for the global financial system Giorgio Gomel

Geopolitics 06 Is there truly an Arab Spring?

Tariq Ramadan 10 Pathways towards integration: the Lombardy model Roberto Formigoni

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12 Paradise lies at the feet of the mothers Azzurra Meringolo

Islamic finance 14 Diversity in a market economy Valentino Cattelan 18 A different perspective on the financial crisis Habib Ahmed

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20 Islamic economics: between aspirations and reality Mehmet Asutay

Cultures 24 The Mediterranean roots of interculturality Benedetto Ippolito 27 Paths of cultural cooperation Rubens Piovano

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30 Fifty years in Libya Nicola Bonacasa 34 Thus spoke Abu Yazid al-Bistami Angelo Iacovella 37 The elixir of life on earth Amer Al Sabaileh 41 Newly-painted roots Marta Bellingreri

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Biographies

E ditorial ‘‘Editorial’’

A new opportunity for the global financial system Giorgio Gomel Head of the Internazional Economic Analysis and Relations Department, Banca d'Italia

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Islamic institutions have proven to be more resilient than conventional ones to the 2007-2008 turmoil, due to both their conservative managerial strategies and the ban on speculation.

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slamic finance is the component of the financial industry which complies with Islamic prescriptions (shari’ah). The shari’ah considers profits legitimate only upon the condition that they be generated from sharing in the business risk of an investment, thus forbidding the guarantee of a positive return on capital, the use of interest in financial transactions, and speculation.

The Islamic financial sector experienced dramatic growth in the last three decades. From only US $137 billion of assets in 1996, it expanded to reach $895 billion in 2010. The traditional centres of gravity of Islamic finance are the Middle East – notably the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – and South East Asia (particularly Malaysia) where important global or regional hubs have been established (Bahrain, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Singapore).

The sector in recent years has expanded beyond the traditional boundaries of the Muslim countries and Asia. Most notably in the UK (where some Islamic banks were licensed), Luxembourg and Switzerland, all acting prevalently in the wealth management business according to the shari’ah principles.

Driving factors of the Islamic financial industry’s expansion may be the need to invest surplus liquidity generated in oil-rich economies as well as to search for high and steady returns, or a diversification of risk, by Islamic financial institutions and conventional investors.

Some countries also consider Islamic finance key to their medium to long term economic development, with authorities and central banks playing a leading role in strengthening the legal and regulatory system, training

professional experts in shari’ah compliance, and supporting the financial education of clients.

In regard to Europe, Islamic finance gains attention on the demand side from the growing resident Muslim community potentially requesting more retail banking services, and on the supply side from an improved know-how on the part of European intermediaries, the attractiveness of some financial markets (e.g.

London for the capital markets and Switzerland for asset management) to the Gulf countries’ liquidity, and the potential growth of Islamic finance products in the bond market.

The expansion of Islamic finance suggests that the industry is changing from being domestic to becoming increasingly more internationalised; as such, the growth of Islamic finance is one aspect of the increased role being played in the global financial system by a number of emerging economies.

Islamic finance is sometimes regarded as a viable alternative to the conventional financial system. My view, though, is that it should be considered more correctly as part of the global financial system, the growing complexity of which calls for enhanced international cooperation by policy makers and regulators, lest the benefits of a dynamic financial system be jeopardized by instability.

As for Italy, notwithstanding a good presence of Muslim residents (around 1.3 million of people, 50,000 of which are native citizens) and strong relationships with some Islamic countries, Islamic finance has not yet gotten through our financial system. This may be explained by characteristics of the Muslim

population in Italy. Many of them are immigrants from North Africa where Islamic finance has made inroads only recently, and where financial services are mostly provided by conventional intermediaries. Furthermore, most Muslims in Italy are in the lower income brackets whose main financial need is to send remittances back home, and this is still served chiefly by informal instruments (hawala) or payment institutions.

As a part of the global financial system, the international crisis has also hit the Islamic financial sector. However, Islamic institutions have proven to be more resilient than conventional ones to the 2007-2008 turmoil, due to both their conservative managerial strategies and the ban on speculation.

This should not lead one to consider Islamic finance as not being exposed to risks that may threaten the stability of the individual institution and of the system in which they operate.

Nowadays various Islamic financial products replicate the structure, performance and thereby also the risks of conventional products; besides, Islamic institutions are not isolated from the global context and therefore also suffer from attendant liquidity problems.

Significant risks could also arise from the real sector: in a severe slowdown, Islamic financial institutions, using a profit and loss sharing business model, could be exposed to losses due to the inability of companies to generate the expected returns, especially in the case of significant exposure to real estate.

All these considerations suggest that the approach to Islamic finance must aim not only at evaluating its viability and competitiveness,

but also at checking the application of rules to preserve global financial stability. The international community highly appreciates the effort of the Islamic Financial Services Board to extend to Islamic institutions the international framework on capital, risk management, governance and transparency.

Of course, this can help develop common approaches and build cooperation between authorities in the supervision of both conventional and Islamic intermediaries.

There can be no effective cooperation, however, without an adequate knowledge of the key features of different components of the financial system, and of their interactions. It is in this spirit that Banca d’Italia in 2009 took the initiative to organize a “Seminar on Islamic Finance,” with the aim of better understanding the characteristics of this industry and its implications for the financial system in Europe and Italy, including supervision. For Banca d’Italia, it was an important opportunity to deepen the knowledge on this subject, in view of its relevance for the Bank’s institutional duties, and to prepare for the eventuality that Islamic financial institutions would manifest an interest for our market.

In this regard, there are no conceptual or legal barriers to the participation of Islamic institutions in the Italian system: from a supervisory perspective such participation will be considered in the light of the general framework applicable to all financial intermediaries in our country, which derives directly from the European law.

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Geopolitics

Is there truly an Arab Spring?

by Tariq Ramadan Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies, University of Oxford

onfusion reigns in Egypt. The mass uprising that began on January 25, 2011, overthrowing president-for-life Hosni Mubarak, appeared to shake up the dictatorial regime. Optimism triumphed: the “Arab spring” had come, the “revolution” was advancing, the people had overcome the dictator, and had begun their long march toward liberty. More prudent voices, which warned that greater attention must be given

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Mohamed Morsi Isa El Ayyat, president of Egypt

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to the national and regional political conjuncture, came under attack and were summarily disqualified. They were infected with pessimism, it was said, or promoting Western interests. Even more seriously, these same voices expressed doubt about the Arab peoples and their ability to free themselves from the double yoke of dictatorship and the Great Power diktat. The Egyptians, like the Tunisians and the Yemenis, had liberated themselves without any outside assistance, and had collectively taken their destinies in hand. To express any hesitation meant doubting oneself and the “Arab soul”, the arc of History itself: such doubt was, by its very nature, an expression of guilt. In my book Islam and the Arab Awakening, I outlined several reservations about the origin and even the nature of the uprisings that shook the Middle East and North Africa. I was criticized in the West (for conspiracy theorizing) as well as in the Arab and Muslim majority countries (for the same reason and, above all, for my lack of confidence in the courage of the Arab peoples). And yet…

The situation in Egypt obliges us to abandon the emotionally-charged optimism of the earliest months and return to a more carefully considered, and more logical, examination of the facts and issues as they are. We cannot

Geopolitics

avoid the conclusion that, from the very beginning of the popular upheaval, the only institution not to have lost control of the situation was quite precisely the Armed Forces. After some hesitation (due essentially to tensions between the pro-Mubarak clan and a majority of officers anxious to discard a leader who had become an embarrassment while at the same time protecting their prerogatives and interests), the hierarchy made an initial decision not to intervene (following the Tunisian example) and to allow mass protest until the dictator had fallen. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) kept close watch over, and even directed, each stage in the revitalization of state institutions: parliamentary elections; the commission designated to draft the new constitution; the creation of political parties and the choice of their presidential candidates; the trial of the former president; etc. Never once did the military relinquish operational control, and at each step of the way forced the representatives of the political parties and of civil society to deal with it: the candidates themselves, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis, were full participants, offering assurances (regarding eventual prosecution of ranking officers of the Armed Forces) and determining the terms of any possible agreement with the military institution. The military, in turn, does not simply represent the “armed forces” in Egypt, but is also a financial powerhouse with significant involvement in numerous sectors of the economy.

Developments have accelerated over the last two weeks. What was once perceptible only in the shadows has now emerged into the full light of day in the most opportune and perfectly calculated manner. The commission established to draft a new constitution was judged unconstitutional and halted. An old and dying Hosni Mubarak was condemned to life imprisonment and his young sons acquitted only a few days before the first round that saw a narrow win for the Muslim Brotherhood. It is impossible to judge the integrity of the electoral process. Between the two rounds, parliament itself was dissolved (because of irregularities) and the prerogatives

of the future president were substantially reduced, leaving the real decision-making power now in the hands of the military. With both candidates proclaiming victory, the announcement of the results was postponed.

Muhammad Morsi has been announced as the victor of a “historical democratic election”.

The effect of the rulings was to shatter the institutional and legal integrity of the presidential election. Military spokesmen hastened to add that the election itself was temporary, and that a new ballot would be held when the constitution and parliament were re-established within the next six months. It is whispered that the Prime Minister position has been negotiated with a possible, and timely, comeback of Muhammad

Egyptian people stand outside a polling station as they wait to cast their vote.

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Geopolitics

Egyptian soldiers

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The region’s peoples have become aware that they can become masters of their destiny, and in a spirit of nonviolence, overturn dictatorship.

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1 See my book, The Arab Awakening: Islam and the New Middle East, Penguin, May 2012, chap. 2

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al-Baradei (on whom the American administration put some hope)1. In other words, an election for nothing.

Unless, of course, the intention all along was to give the military time to reassert full control while costing the country’s main political forces their credibility. The Muslim Brotherhood committed a series of strategic errors that cost them much of their popularity.

The Salafis proved to be a useful diversionary tactic (as in Tunisia), while the other political groups have been disorganized or deeply divided. We must also remember the strong ties that for decades have bound the United States and the European Union to the Egyptian military hierarchy (contrary to overrapid analyses that curiously overlooked the history of international relations in the region). The situation in Egypt is alarming, as it continues to be in Syria, in Libya, in Yemen, in Bahrain and, to a lesser extent, in Tunisia (it may well be that relative progress in Tunisia – even though nothing can be taken for granted in terms of true democracy – will prove to be a smoke screen masking the failures of all the other countries).

What has become of the “Arab spring”? The only genuine revolution to have taken place is an intellectual one: the region’s peoples have become aware that they can become masters of their destiny, and in a spirit of non-violence, overturn dictatorship. This is far

from a negligible achievement; it is also the condition for the social and political revolutions that we so wholeheartedly wish for. When the Great Powers appear to have agreed not to find a solution for Syria, when the former allies of the dictators pretend today to be the best friends of the people and of democracy, when nothing has yet been won in political terms, it is vital that the people remain mobilized, that they not retreat and – avoiding the trap of blind violence (which the Egyptian military may well encourage to justify a further crack-down) – agree on priorities for a democratic resistance. The strength of the mass movements came from their unshakable unity against the dictators; their weakness is due to the lack of leadership in creating a shared vision of the future. National mobilizations must place themselves at the heart of regional dynamics, of new South-South economic relations, and draw strength from the new multipolar international balance of power. If the energy of the Arab uprisings is to be transformed into revolutionary power, the voices heard on Tahrir Square must call for more than the end of the regime, and determine with greater lucidity and clarity the national and regional dimensions of their resistance. Mass mobilization is necessary, but the revolutionary ideal remains to be defined; the revolution has yet to come.

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Geopolitics

Pathways towards integration: the Lombardy model

by Roberto Formigoni Governor of the Lombardy Region, Italy

uring the past few years, Europe has witnessed the failure of two of the most widespread models of cohabitation: multiculturalism and assimilationism, thus unveiling the significant diversity of impact that the migratory phenomenon has on different countries of the European Union. In line with authoritative opinions from both the Catholic and secular worlds, I believe that the road towards integration might be represented by a “creolization”. This leads to recognizing the reasons of the other, the features of his/her identity, the characteristics of his/her culture, as it considers dialogue as something capable of transforming, mixing, making room for exchange, facilitating communication. This is precisely what makes the identity and tradition of others necessary to each and every one of us, so that we might assimilate the uniqueness that they bear, enabling us to love our own identity even more. It is not simply a matter of tolerating others, it is about learning to love them for what they are, in the conviction that every culture, every identity carries with it a unique and unrepeatable specificity, a trajectory of its own on the road towards truth, which cannot be univocal.

Lombardy, because it hosts approximately 1.3 million immigrants (accounting for roughly ¼ of the foreigners residing in Italy) needs to make a

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The latest report presented in March 2012 states that Lombardy has recorded a steep drop in illegal immigrants, which has enabled us to talk about a mature immigration.

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targeted effort in implementing integration processes, especially by the institutions.

Integration is a multi-dimensional process that involves a multitude of aspects such as learning a foreign language, housing, work, lawfulness, schooling and much more. The approach taken by the Region of Lombardy is structured around the conviction that integrating migrants into Lombardy’s social and economic fabric is essential in order to provide appropriate solutions to the complexity that this challenge entails.

The regional authorities, together with civil society, third-sector organizations and the world of associations, have spent many years focusing their efforts on several fronts: for example, the inclusion of migrants in the labour market (which we addressed with programmed interventions in favour of the disadvantaged segments of the population), upgrading female workers and preventing social marginalization. With a view to facilitating access to housing, we developed a multilingual information handbook on market rules. We also launched local support and guidance services for families. Thanks to a tollfree multilingual help desk we help immigrants get through complex administrative procedures.

Furthermore, we try to provide the instruments of knowledge and information to all the key players involved in communicating with migrant populations: teachers, trainers, cultural mediators…

Geopolitics

because we believe that the educational aspect is necessary to convey the essential elements to those who have chosen to live in our country: language, traditions, laws, rules and customs. We have had a project in progress for four years now that enables immigrants not only to attend free Italian language courses, but also to obtain a certificate attesting the language skills acquired.

During the last 5 years, we have organized 1,191 Italian language courses attended by almost 20,000 foreign users, 70 percent of whom obtained the certificate in compliance with European-wide language skill standards.

In addition, we established a specific regional observatory 12 years ago that tries to provide the instruments and knowledge to manage the immigration phenomenon. The latest report presented in March 2012 states that Lombardy has recorded a steep drop in illegal immigrants,

which has enabled us to talk about a mature immigration.

Integration and inclusion cannot be exclusively pursued through the Regional Administration, and for it to be achieved, it is necessary to involve all local players in compliance with the method of subsidiarity. Nonetheless, it is a great political responsibility. On the one hand, it is necessary to have firm regulation controlling entries, the rigorous enforcement of our laws, culture and traditions and, at the same time, integration pathways capable of transmitting our language, facilitating integration into the schooling system, recuperating outcasts and supporting women and families. It is done in the conviction that the encounter with ‘others’ might put us to the test, not to necessarily give something up, but to in order to grow, become better individuals and make progress in our lives.

New headquarters of Lombardy Region, Italy

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Geopolitics

Paradise lies at the feet of the mothers

by Azzurra Meringolo Journalist based in Cairo

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hadith attributed to the Prophet Muhammad claims “Paradise lies at the feet of mothers”. Around Tahrir Square, that heaven is represented as the democratic future of Egypt, where women were able to fight alongside men to topple President Hosni Mubarak and go from mere subjects to first-class citizens.

Veiled and unveiled women alike took to the streets to change their country and take advantage of the winds of change, speaking out against taboos that had banished them to a position of inferiority up until that moment.

Matters went from the virtual sphere to reality, and from social involvement to political involvement.

Activists had been trying to express their dissent for years, and channelled it into the Tahrir Square revolution. On April 6, 2008, Essra Abdel Fattah organized the umpteenth workers’ strike at a burgeoning textile company in Mahalla el-Kubra, an industrial town near Cairo, and was eventually arrested by the police. Laila Soueif, mother to activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and sister to Ahdaf Soueif (the renowned novelist and contributor to the Guardian who returned home to join the protests), had for years been fighting for the rights of those who fell into the hands of military courts.

Another woman who exhorted Egyptians to come out into the open was Asmaa Mahfouz, the twenty-seven-year-old who, a week before the uprising began, posted a video blog recorded on her mobile phone for the whole country to

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see. “I am going down to Tahrir Square on January 25; if you have courage, join me […]

Whoever says women shouldn’t go to protests because they will get beaten, let him show some courage and manhood and come with me on January 25”. Asmaa repeated this message with increasing urgency on the YouTube video that hundreds of thousands of Egyptians watched.

Many Egyptian women, discussing the possibility excitedly amongst themselves on the eve of the first protests, feared what would happen if they took to the streets, especially dreading the potential of sexual abuse. But when the braver ones among the revolutionaries reassured the others of their safety, the female contingent began to grow. Women were on the front lines of the protests, risking their lives and sometimes even losing them. That is what happened to twentythree-year-old Sally Zahran, dubbed the Egyptian uprising’s Joan of Arc, who was beaten to death by security forces while marching in her first protest.

The crowds in Tahrir Square were made up primarily of younger women, who brought different generations with them. Together, they sought to break down the archaic tradition of women being relegated to the household.

A veteran of Arab feminism, eighty-year-old Nawaal al-Saadawi’s white locks stood out among the activists’ colored veils. She had begun her battle when she was still a child, having been forced to undergo a clitoridectomy, a practice believed by

Geopolitics

some to purify the female body. Ms Saadawi was imprisoned and exiled for fighting for her cause, taking up where Hoda Sha’rawi, who many Egyptian women still look to as an Arab feminist icon, had left off. Aside from founding one of the first feminist organizations, Hoda Sha’rawi is notorious for something she did upon returning from a women’s conference in Rome in 1923. In a downtown Cairo square, she publicly removed her veil, preceding Yemeni Nobel Prize winner Tawakkol Karman by almost a century. Karman removed the niqab that covered her face while attending a human rights conference in 2004.

The gender revolution had begun long before the scent of jasmine reached the banks of the Nile. It was championed by those who are often referred to in the West as “Islamic feminists”, although women do not always like that label.

Some reject the term ‘feminist’ and others, especially the more liberal-minded among them, the designation ‘Islamic’. However, they all agree that the Qur’an recognizes men and women as having equal rights.

During the eighteen day uprising, solidarity among the protesters helped to bridge the gender gap, and it seemed that women were making headway toward emancipation. Yet, in the wake of Mubarak’s fall, they went back to being one of Egyptian society’s most vulnerable groups. This is borne out by the events of March 8, 2011, when a feminist march ended with some twenty women being arrested and subjected to virginity tests by officers. Subsequently, the general elections further crushed women’s hopes as the female contingent elected to Egypt’s new parliament was less than 2 percent. Those who were defeated included Gamila Ismail, a TV presenter who had dedicated many years to a campaign to free Ayman Nour, her ex-husband. His imprisonment was the price paid for running against the country’s former leader in the 2005 presidential elections. There was no chance of a woman winning the election either, as the only potential candidate, television anchor Bothaina Kamel, failed to collect enough signatures to endorse her candidacy.

However, this does not mean that Egypt’s Spring did not contribute to women’s emancipation in its own way. The testimonies of Salwa Husseini, Rasha Azeb and Samira Ibrahim, the young women who had the courage to come forward

Nawal El Saadawi is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist.

Tawakkul Karman, a feminist from Yemen and winner of the Nobel Prize

about (and even denounce, in the case of Samira) the ordeals to which officers and security forces subjected them to in March of 2011, show that women have started to break down the wall of fear and have even begun to ask for justice. The past months’ events have again proven that women are becoming increasingly organized and determined to claim their space within society and to engage in political dialogue. “Egyptian women were pioneers in the Arab world”, Alaa Al Aswany tells us in The Egyptian Revolution. “They were the first to receive an education, the first to work, the first to drive a car or pilot an airplane, the first to win a seat in Parliament and the first to be awarded ministerial roles”. The revolution that is still underway sees the women of Tahrir Square striving to reclaim that trend, driving the women’s emancipation movement forward by bringing together different generations and stretching it beyond national borders.

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Islamic Finance

Diversity in a market economy

by Valentino Cattelan Lecturer in Islamic Finance, University of Rome Tor Vergata

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totalitarian capitalism?

In the last few decades, globalization has shrunk the world into a smaller place for living.

With regard to the market economy, this has deeply reconceptualized the traditional frame of interstate commerce in light of transnational investments. Moreover, international trade has shown an even stronger hybridization of legal structures, while economic studies have put new attention on alternative models of property governance (Governing the Commons. The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, by Nobel Prize Elinor Ostrom), as well as towards the anthropological background of property rights (Changing Properties of Property, edited by Von Benda-Beckmann et al.).

Anyway, although globalization is leading the market towards new frontiers, Western capitalism continues to frame development policies in Asia, Africa and South America, with scarce awareness of the peculiarities of local property structures. In other words, blindly exported as a unique economic paradigm, the ‘selfish gene’ of Western capitalism continues to act as a ‘totalitarian’ model for

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Islamic Finance Petronas Twin Towers (Malaysia)

economic growth, excluding alternative (and possibly competing) capital theory, despite its numerous failures in eradicating poverty in nonWestern economies.

Failure of (Western) capitalism and property rights issues On the matter, according to Hernando de Soto (The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else) the main reason behind underdevelopment can be found in the persistence of local and non-formalized economic structures, which prevent people from entering the ‘official’ market and transforming their labour and belongings into ‘capital’. Anyway, the implicit assumption of formalizing property rights in order to transform ‘sleeping’ wealth into capital for a market economy seems to simply re-affirm the exclusivity of the ‘Western way’ to capitalism, thus reinforcing the economic totalitarianism mentioned above.

Notably, this cultural limit of ‘unilateralism’ in de Soto’s arguments was already highlighted in 2005 by Professor Okoth-Ogendo (University of Nairobi), in remarking that ‘underneath the proposition that [Western] “formal” […] systems of exchange and transaction are a more efficient engine of development than [nonWestern] “informal” relations, is an ideological message […] [that] was pursued to explain, impose, and sustain a system of law, administration and property relation which was not simply alien, but which grew to oppress, destabilize and stultify the evolution of indigenous social systems’.

Okoth-Ogendo’s words clearly express a claim of exploitation of developing countries, furtively perpetuated by the transplant of Western capitalism. At the same time, they also provide an indirect invitation to the possibility to look at economic growth outside conventional capitalism: from this precise view, not only is there a re-evaluation of indigenous property models that are becoming relevant to development studies, but even the practice of international commerce is showing the emergence of new markets based on an alternative conceptualization of property rights.

This is exactly what the success of the

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Nourished by ethical values rooted in the Muslim tradition, Islamic finance has rapidly acquired a promising role in the international financial market.

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Islamic Finance

‘indigenously’-rooted, but nowadays transnationally oriented market of Islamic finance, is revealing.

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Islamic finance: a complementary path to economic development Nourished by ethical values rooted in the Muslim tradition, Islamic finance has rapidly acquired a promising role in the international financial market, offering alternative and viable solutions in terms of risk and capital management. At the same time, the appearance of this new actor has further reinforced the criticism towards the unilateral application of Western capitalism as a unique possible frame for economic growth, and consequently questioned the neutrality and universality of Western property rights as the basis for any capitalism.

Conversely, the success of Islamic finance demonstrates how different capitalisms can coexist and integrate in the same financial market.

On the one side, the Western capital tradition conceives the individual as the source and beholder of any right, as well as the centre of attribution of any resource deemed as portions of divided justice to be achieved by fair competitiveness in the marketplace. On the other side, the Islamic capital tradition, with its assumption of the centrality of God as the only Creator, frames property rights not in the direction of dividing separate portions of economic justice, but of participating in the unique divine justice by sharing economic resources. As an outcome, through this alternative view on property rights, Islamic finance promotes a path to economic

Ubuntu is a term rooted in traditional African philosophy, and refers to the importance of community and to the acknowledgment of our common belonging to mankind. It has often been compared to Western Humanism and inspired Nelson Mandela’s politics of reconciliation in South Africa.

...

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development that cannot certainly be assessed in terms of a rejection of Western capitalism, but as a complementary path to growth. It promotes the primacy of real economy over finance, the prevention of unjustified income (riba) and speculation, and a stronger focus on assetbacked and risk-sharing investment strategies.

Accordingly, facing the issue of development through an emerging plural frame for property rights, the problem of formal/informal property structures (with the inner ideological assumption of the superiority of Western on non-Western property relations) can be reconceptualized in light of a possible integration of different models of capitalism, able to complement (and complete) each other.

The challenge of a plural capitalism In this brief contribution, Islamic finance has been inserted in the broader context of economic development and property rights issues.

In this regard, challenging the neutrality and universality of Western capitalism, a plural theory of property rights, able to recognize the peculiarities of an alternative approach to property governance and economic justice, has been suggested as a viable means for poverty alleviation. Accordingly, rejecting a ‘totalitarian’ view on property rights, Islamic finance has been interpreted as a first step towards the birth of a plural capitalism, opening the market to alternative perspectives on economic development and social integration.

The extent to which this plural capitalism will be fostered in coming years (with reference to other African and Asian non-Western traditions – particularly promising for the subSaharan region, for instance, is the ubuntu philosophy) will mainly depend on a political commitment that is able to enhance multiculturalism as a way to sustainable development, based on the recognition of diversity as an opportunity for growth – a diversity in the market economy that Islamic finance has the merit to highlight.

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Islamic Finance

A different perspective on the financial crisis

by Habib Ahmed Professor and Sharjah Chair in Islamic Law and Finance Institute, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham University, UK

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1 Alan Greenspan, “Markets and Judiciary”, paper presented at Sandra Day O’Connor Project Conference, Oct. 2, 2008.

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erplexed by the intensity of the recent global financial crisis, Alan Greenspan called it ‘‘a once in a century credit tsunami’’ and pointed out that ‘‘some of the critical pillars of underlying market competition arguably have failed’’1. An unregulated legal/regulatory environment in the United States initiated innovations that resulted in fundamental shifts in the financial sector. Driven by excessive profit motives at the organisational level, new financing structures and products evolved. The traditional financial intermediation model in which depositors provided funds to the banks for investment was replaced by raising funds from the market through securitization. Excessive risk-taking along with a failure to assess and manage risks at various levels ultimately caused the crisis.

Whereas there were regulatory and organizational factors responsible for the crisis, three key product and operational level factors contributed to it. First, there was excessive creation of debt in the economy as was evident in the engagement of banks/financial institutions in sub-prime lending. Second, a large part of these loans were packaged as mortgage backed securities (MBS)/collateralized debt obligations (CDO).

By the end of 2006, about 55 percent of the estimated total of $10.2 trillion value of mortgage loans in the US were packaged and sold to local and global investors. Even though about 12-15 percent of the securitized mortgages constituted subprime loans, rating agencies gave positive ratings to these securities. With low interest rates reigning during that time, these securities appeared attractive and investment banks, hedge and pension funds,

municipalities, schools, etc. invested heavily in them.

Finally, the expansion of the derivatives products exacerbated the crisis. Investment banks and insurance companies issued credit default swaps (CDS) and took on the risk of default of securitized assets. The value of the overall notional amounts of OTC derivative contracts reached $596 trillion by the end of 2007, with credit default swaps (CDS) increasing by 36 percent during the second half of the year to reach $58 trillion.

While some of these derivatives were used to hedge against risks, the majority were naked swaps whereby speculators were betting on price movements of MBS/CDOs. This is apparent when the size of the outstanding derivatives is compared with the real economy. In 2007, the GDP of the US was $13.8 trillion (and world GDP was $54.3 trillion).

Islamic finance: basic principle and concepts Islamic finance involves incorporating Islamic law and values into financial transactions. The overall aim of Islamic law is to enjoin the good and promote welfare (maslahah), and the specific goals (maqasid al-shari’ah) are to safeguard faith, self, intellect, posterity, and wealth. The objective of Islamic commercial law would be to protect and enhance one or several of these goals. Contractual and commercial transactions are sanctified and encouraged as these enhance and support property and progeny.

The basic principle of Islamic commercial law is ‘permissibility’ which states that all acts/contracts are permissible unless there is a clear injunction of prohibition. The two broad categories of prohibitions in

Islamic Finance

Stock Exchange in Abu Dhabi

contracts related to economic transactions recognized in shari’ah are riba and gharar. Although the literal meaning of riba is ‘increase’ and it is commonly associated with interest, it has much wider implications that can take different forms. An implication of riba is the prohibition of sale of debt. An extension of the ruling on sale of debt relates to sale of debt for debt.

As both counter-values of contemporary derivatives (forwards, futures, swaps, etc) are postponed in the future, they would fall under the sale of debt for debt, and as such, are not allowed.

While gharar means excessive risk, it is a broad concept and has several manifestations. Gharar can exist in the terms of a contract or in the object of a contract. The former would take the form of legal risks and would arise when there is uncertainty in the implementation of a contract and the consequences of a transaction are not clear. The subject matter or object of any contract must fulfil certain conditions. Islamic law distinguishes between ownership and possession and requires actual possession before selling something. Gharar will exist when either the object of sale does not exist or the seller and/or buyer do not have the knowledge of the object being sold. Thus, derivative instruments would also be prohibited due to uncertainty and non-existence of the object of sale. Gambling constitutes an extreme form of gharar and, as such, is forbidden.

Islamic finance and the crisis The proponents of Islamic finance argue that if the Islamic principles related to economics and finance had been applied, the financial crisis could have been

prevented. With emphasis on equity modes of financing, financing would not only require higher standards of due diligence, but would also have active monitoring.

As debt cannot be traded because it can lead to riba, products like CDO/MBS would not exist in an Islamic system. Furthermore, derivative products like CDS are prohibited under Islamic law due to riba and gharar.

As Islamic financial institutions were not exposed to the toxic securities that caused the crisis due to the shari’ah prohibitions, they were not directly affected by the crisis. While there are several anecdotal evidences about the resilience of Islamic finance during the financial crisis, a recent paper by IMF paper shows that in 2008-09 credit and asset growth performed better in Islamic banks compared to conventional banks and contributed to financial and economic stability.2 This led to a generally more favourable assessment of Islamic banks’ risks by external rating agencies.

Whereas the principles of Islamic finance have much to offer to bring about a stable financial system, the practice of the industry is drifting closer towards the conventional models. In some cases, using shari’ah compliant products that are similar to those in conventional finance is blurring the difference between the two systems and has the potential to lead the Islamic financial sector to a similar crisis. In the longrun, the trust in the Islamic financial system can be maintained not only by having transparent dealings and well-managed risks, but more importantly, by having authentic products based on Islamic principles and values.

2 Maher Hasan and Jemma Dridi (2010), The Effects of the Global Crisis on Islamic and Conventional Banks: A Comparative Study, IMF Working Paper WP/10/201.

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Islamic Finance

Islamic economics: between aspirations and reality

by Mehmet Asutay Reader in Political Economy (Middle East and Islamic Political Economy and Finance); Director of the Durham Centre for Islamic Economics and Finance University of Durham, United Kingdom

I 1 The term tawhid refers to the concept of Oneness of God, and its articulation in everyday life and actions of individuals, society, organisations and environment.

2 The term tazkiyah refers ‘growth in harmony’ in the sense that individual, societal and environmental growth should be in harmony with each other by aiming at perfection as a path given by God.

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slamic economics or Islamic Moral Economy (IME) has emerged mainly in the post-colonial period as a result of the search for reform in the Muslim world. In the post sixties period, the failure of economic development in the Muslim world and the rise of the Islamic political identity motivated certain academics, activists and financiers/bankers to discuss the initial foundational issues in what later came to be known as Islamic economics or IME. Thus, IME is a response to the economic development failure in the Muslim world, and is constructed with authentic meaning derived from the ontological sources of Islam. It is in a way a reaction and problem solving attempt to develop the ‘Islamic system’ of economics in producing theories and a policy base for the development of Muslim societies through the norms, values and principles of Islamic ontology, with the objective of creating a human centred development process.

As a revivalist movement, IME has been socially constructed with a ‘socially’ understood meaning. In this reading, and hence, formulation, emphasis was placed on the

consequentialist nature of economic development and the substance of the process, which, as a result, produced a ‘social welfare’ or ‘social good’ oriented developmentalist paradigm. The concepts of ‘adalah’ or ‘justice’ and ‘haqq’ or ‘right’ are the core objective and operational functions of this alternative system understanding.

The initial attempt to formulate the ‘Islamic system’ of economics or IME was aimed at laying the axiomatic foundation of IME, with direct consequences and implications for social aspects and developmentalist orientation of IME, as presented below: 1- The vertical ethicality implies that individuals in their relation to the Creator, God, have equal opportunities for the bounties on earth created by God; namely tawhid1. But this also aims at regulating the individual behavioural norms with spiritual accountability by extending the utility function to the hereafter; 2- Social justice and beneficence (adalah and ihsan), which constitute the horizontal equality between individuals within the tawhidi framework;

Islamic Finance

Kuwaitis at the Stock Exchange, Kuwait City

3- As a direct result of the vertical and horizontal ethical axioms, IME assumes growth in individual, social, economic and biological environments in order to be in harmony with the stakeholders within the spiritual framework of tazkiyah2; 4- IME, as a consequence of the above axioms, assumes enabled individual, society and natural environments so that each can reach its perfection within the tawhidi framework, as God has chosen perfection as a path by definition for everyone and everything. This refers to rububiyah3 as the functional axiom;

5- In fulfilling rububiyah in all aspects, the tazkiyah process aims at overcoming the conflict between individuals and society.

Therefore, IME assumes that in order to overcome the perceived conflict between individual and society, voluntary action is not enough; and hence, certain socially oriented financial and economic obligations are made mandatory, or fard, so that moral economic objectives can be achieved, such as the payment of zakah4; 6- In operationalizing such expectations as expressed within the axioms of IME, as part of the tawhidi framework, the individual is

3 Islamic epistemology assumes that individuals, organisations, society and environment have a particular development path as a perfect path given by God. Therefore, the term rububiyah indicates the divine arrangements for the development and sustainability of such perfection within the tawhidi framework.

4 Zakah, mandatory alms for those with wealth beyond certain threshold level, is one of the five pillars of Islam.

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In terms of a consequentialist approach, the foundational axioms demonstrate, as a system, that IME refers to economic and sustainable development, social justice and social investing oriented principles.

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perceived to be the vicegerent of God on earth, namely khalifah, to fulfill the expected duties in their social, economic, financial and other behaviours in order to make their decision through a moral filter.

All these axioms, as the foundational framework of IME, are the articulation and operationalisation aspect of maqasid alShari’ah or the ‘objectives of Shari’ah’ process, which is defined as realizing ‘human well-being’. In other words, the entire objective of IME (and also the operational aspect of Shari’ah) is to serve ‘human well-being’, which is the main and essentialised aim of all efforts within the tawhidi framework.

Consequently, IME assumes a morally oriented individual at its methodological base, which can be considered as ‘homo Islamicus’. Such an imagined individual is expected to aim at achieving ‘ihsan’ or ‘beneficence/excellence’ in whatever he/she does through the ‘falah’ or ‘salvation’ process in this world and hereafter. Thus, by endogenising ‘hereafter’ as an essential part of perpetual life, spiritual accountability is introduced to individual objective function.

In terms of a consequentialist approach, the foundational axioms demonstrate, as a system, that IME refers to economic and sustainable development, social justice and social investing oriented principles. Within such a framework, IME assumes the development of functioning individuals in terms of ‘doings’ and ‘beings’ by creating the right and just environment and opportunity spaces for such development to take place.

Within this larger framework, Islamic Banking and Finance (IBF) is conceptualised as a functional institution in terms of raising and pooling the necessary funds and financing for economic activity, progress and development. Islamic Banking and Finance Institutions (IBFIs), thus, should be located within this framework, and possess a systemic understanding in order to serve the aims and objectives of IME and hence contribute to the falah process for

individuals by expanding the ihsani social capital in the society.

Islamic banking and finance as a value oriented proposition The origin of IBF can be traced back to the initial years of Islamic civilisation. While one way or another such a tradition continued to exist in the periphery of the Muslim world, its re-emergence with a systemic understanding has only been possible in a post-colonial period when some of the newly independent Muslim states searched for an authentic meaning of economic and financial activity through Islamic values. Hence, the rise of IME is a result of this authentication process with the objective of developing an economic system understanding of Islam.

IME has generated the necessary funding and financing for economic development within the norms of the social and moral economy of Islam by conceptualising it as a ‘financing’ proposition as opposed to ‘financialisation’ of the economy. As the IME framework suggests, ethicality in this value proposition in its original sense does not suggest only the prohibition of riba (interest), but relates to larger social and economic development issues as discussed above. In other words, IME conceptualises IBF as a financing proposition shaped by rules (fiqh), but also by moral values of Islam constituting the ‘substance’. Thus, the Islamic value-andnorms-based nature of IBF can be described as follows: 1- IBF is a tenant based financing proposition, such as: ‘absence of interest-based transactions’, ‘avoidance of economic activity involving speculation’, and the ‘prohibition on production of goods and services which contradict the human well-being’.

2- IBF is principles-based, as the concept is grounded in ethics, values and norms derived from the Islamic ontology. In addition, importantly, IBF puts special emphasis on ‘risk-sharing’ and ‘partnership’ or ‘profit-and-loss sharing’ contracts. In this financing proposition, ‘credit and debt

Islamic Finance

products are not encouraged’ and even eagerly discouraged so that real economy embedded financing, as assumed by IME, can be developed.

3- IBF, as part of IME, proposes embedded financing – embedded in the real economy, and therefore, it offers an alternative financing paradigm. This is articulated in the principle of asset-backed transactions and investments in order to contribute to the development of a value-added-oriented real economy through the financing of economic activity as opposed to financialisation. As a consequence, IBF aims to bring about stability by linking financial services to the productive, real economy.

4- IBF aims at serving the communities and not markets. Since IME aims to create a framework of developmentalist financing, instruments of poverty-reduction are an inherent part of IBF. For this, in addition to Islamic financing of economic activity for development, zakah and waqf5 and other related instruments and institutions can be mentioned.

These principles, within the framework of IME values, indicate that IBF cannot be relegated only to the prohibition of riba in the sense of Shari’ah or ‘form’ compliancy, but importantly, they essentialise ‘substance’ as defined by IME. Thus, IBF relates directlyto the axioms of IME in this very aspect. For instance, the ethical financing is essential so that rububiyah and tazkiyah concepts can be fulfilled, but also so adalah and ihsan can be achieved.

Critical perspectives In critically looking at the reality and progress of IBFIs, one witnesses the overwhelming convergence with conventional banks and financial institutions in terms of operations and products. Over the years, as part of this convergence, IBFIs have compromised on their ‘moral economy’ related objectives and outcomes by locating themselves within neoclassical economics. In other words, their attachment for efficiency has been at the cost of equity, while IME, as the foundation and framework for IBFIs, prioritises social as well as economic optimality.

The operation and performance of IBFIs, thus, indicate that there is a growing divergence between the aspirations of IME and the realities of IBFIs. This divergence mainly demonstrates itself in ethical and social expectation related areas, and therefore, it is valid to claim the ‘social failure’ of IBFIs with the evidence produced by a growing body of empirical literature. The debate in recent years, hence, has been around ‘form vs substance’ or ‘Shari’ah compliant finance vs the Islamic based finance’, which indeed brings the entire legitimacy of the current practice of IBFs into question. It should be noted that the substance in this debate is defined through IME’s suggested ethical and developmentalist or social economy oriented value proposition.

In concluding, since ‘development’ is a larger concept, IBFIs with their current structure have not been able to affect, nor have they aimed at affecting, the developments of societies in which they operate in a systematic manner. This does not mean that IBFIs do not have impact on economic growth; on the contrary, due to financial development and pooling of funds, it does contribute to economic growth. However, development is beyond the growth of the economy, which is the aim of IME. The correction of the observed ‘social and developmentalist’ failure is essential for sustainable development, and hence, for fulfilling the promise of IME. In serving such objectives, new Islamic financial institutions, in addition to IBFIs, are necessary and essential.

Therefore, in the next institutionalization stage, IBFIs should relate to ‘substance’ and ‘consequences’ rather than the ‘form’. Otherwise, considering the newcomers to IBF in the Arab spring countries that need development financing, job creation, and capacity building, commercial IBFIs in their current form would not be able to respond to such expectations, which may result in ‘disillusionment’.

5 A waqf, as part of Islamic moral economy system, is in Islamic law, an inalienable endowment or pious foundation dedicated to charitable purposes for welfare needs of the society.

E-mail: mehmet.asutay@durham.ac.uk

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Cultures

The Mediterranean roots of interculturality

by Benedetto Ippolito Professor in History of Philosophy at UniversitĂ degli Studi Roma Tre and at Pontificia UniversitĂ della Santa Croce, Rome

O

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ne of the most important values in the construction of the new international political scenario is undoubtedly interculturality. All things considered, it is a new notion whose meaning depends strictly on the use made of it on the media. During the 1990s, through the famous philosophical dialogue between Jurgen Habermas and Charles Taylor, we only came to know the ambiguous and contradictory notion of multiculturalism, not yet achieving the more sophisticated notion of interculturality. Instead, more recently, people have preferred to refer to it as the relationship between cultural identities, or as the encounter and clash of civilizations, according to the well-known definition given by Samuel Huntington in the aftermath of 9/11.

The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor (born in 1931) and the German philosopher JĂźrgen Habermas (born in 1921) proposed divergent approaches to multiculturalism. While the first emphasized the importance of recognizing group identities, the second focused on the autonomy of the individual.

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In actual fact, multiculturalism is a concept that transmits a weak and disempowered interpretation of the possibility of establishing a relationship between different traditional and linguistic identities and rather suggests a piecemeal cohabitation, carefully avoiding a higher level of synthesis. This means that different community subjects can coexist the one next to the other but can never truly integrate, thus ultimately settling all hostilities.

By contrast, the concept of interculturality refers to a definitive interpretation of cultural identities capable of superseding both the contractual model developed by John Rawls and the community, multicultural model authoritatively put forth by Alasdair MacIntyre.

At this point it is interesting to note that this new frontier in the relationship between citizens draws its origins directly from the major religious communities, first and foremost from the three Abrahamic monotheisms: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Their connection through their common origin in the Old Testament should not be overemphasized even if it constitutes a key condition for inter-religious dialogue. On the other hand, it

Cultures

differs from ecumenism precisely because the latter exclusively relates to Christian religions following the East-West schism of 1054, which became confessional consequently to the Protestant reform of the 16th century.

Once it is understood that interculturality differs from ecumenism and from multiculturalism, mainly because of its attempt at universalism and its general pretence to find a true form of dialogue and integration among people, it is equally important to eliminate a second great prejudice strictly followed by the Atlantic cultures, both European and Mediterranean.

It is a myth that consists in thinking that the idea of West is a unitary form of homogeneous society, potentially in conflict with other civilizations from the very beginning. A hostility that is paradigmatically expressed in the counter-opposition between Western Judaism and Eastern Islamism.

This conviction is actually false as it has no correspondence whatsoever with reality.

If it is indeed true that Christianity has become the seminal element of the West thanks to its fusion with the Latin stoic tradition and with the Greek Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies, it should nonetheless be overlooked that the Roman Church’s institutional reference to the New Testament has introduced an uncustomary and original principle compared to the parallel community-based traditions. To put it simply, Christianity put in place a form of fundamentalism of its own, with its own wars and crusades, but has equally enabled the creation and transmission of a universalistic idea of Mankind that still now constitutes the legal and cultural specificity of the international protection of human rights throughout the world, quite differently from the aforesaid incomplete proposals of cohabitation between peoples.

In order to thoroughly understand this philosophical groundwork, it is necessary to go back to our Medieval roots to verify if there really is tangible evidence of Western Europe’s universalistic potential.

To this end, it might be useful to re-read an extract from Etienne Gilson’s emblematic book The Philosophy of Christianity in the Middle Ages (p. 185):

“By making all the followers members of a single mystic body, at its origins Christianity established once and for all the nature of the new society. Not a national society, nor an international or supernational society; in brief, the new kingdom was not of this world, to live in it meant living in the Heavens”.

This description, relating to the 5th century, highlights a reference to Augustine’s Civitas Dei and, even more importantly, underscores how Christianity promoted an ideal spiritual life that goes beyond time and single cultures, linking all persons to the pursuit of transcendence, which constitutes the authentic significance of human existence.

In short, it could be said that the birth of Islam and its increasing presence in Europe certainly gave rise to political difficulties and counter-oppositions which unquestionably added on to the difficulties that Christianity had already created within its own realm: precisely a society divided between particularistic interests and internal power struggles. However, this common pursuit, this high religious vision of the ultimate purpose of transcendence of individual life, enabled the creation of a wide-reaching cultural and economic exchange between the West and the East which engendered, at the beginning of the 2nd millennium, the fruitful scientific and philosophical encounter between the Greco-Arab heritage and the Latin world, which still now assures the possibility of an integrated and mutually supportive co-existence between different religious beliefs.

Ancient map of the Mediterranean

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We can affirm that interculturality is possible in the Mediterranean Basin because this is where its DNA lies.

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Cultures

Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and Avicenna (Ibn Sina)

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If reasoned along these lines, the presence of Avicenna and Averroes in Dante Alighieri’s Paradiso and the use made by Thomas Aquinas of the Arab commentaries on Aristotle can neither be surprising or even be considered merely haphazard. They testify to the functionality of the universal horizon disclosed by religion in the heart of the Old Continent already one thousand years ago, well beyond the limits of the outlined political and cultural confines evoked by single warfaring communities.

On the other hand, it is easy to find other Medieval examples of Europe’s intrinsic vocation for interreligious and inter-cultural dialogue. One such emblematic example is undoubtedly that of the 12th century logician and theologian Peter Abelard.

Besides upholding a strong conception of a really universal truth, independent from single confessional beliefs, the French thinker dedicated a

John Rawls (1921-2002) was an American philosopher whose major work, A Theory of Justice (1971), is considered one of the most influential texts of political liberalism. The Scottish philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre (born in 1929) formulated a critique of contemporary liberal and capitalistic societies, and instead proposed the Greek polis as a model.

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whole book to the issue, entitled Dialogue Between a Philosopher, a Jew and a Christian.

Representing the two Biblical religions, to which Islam could easily be added, his book portrays two specific characters: a Jew and a Christian. However, the dialogue between them can only occur through a third interlocutor: the philosopher. This is the person who can guarantee a common space of rationality to the debate and also assure the upholding and care of the ethical dimension, a shared human interest that embraces all and that nobody can overlook. Being a secular intellectual, the philosopher is not impervious to the mystery of transcendence although he is led to think of God in the specifically general terms typical of a universal practical occurrence that is essential to believers and non-believers alike and that makes it possible to distinguish between good and evil, thus endorsing the value of positive, generous and altruistic behaviours that everyone should have towards others. In a rather original way, Peter Abelard attributes to the philosopher a symbolic role of political and rational guarantor, on the border between the individuality and universality that hold together different faiths and cultures in the public domain, thus foreboding what we now refer to as “a democratic space of fundamental rights”.

A meaningful conclusion after all, attesting to the far-sightedness of the cultural message that Abelard wanted to leave the West.

All things considered, we can affirm that interculturality is possible in the Mediterranean Basin because this is where its DNA lies. Indeed, the dialogue between different entities consists in the intellectual awareness that every cultural and religious identity has an intrinsic value per se, knowing that this unique right of liberty can only be protected within a national context that guarantees the ethical and political value of the common good and of democracy.

From this perspective, it is not so much the West but Europe’s Mediterranean that is culturally relevant in the inter-religious dialogue among the peoples of the Earth. It is not so much the West but its Atlantic ideologization that incessantly fuels the clash between civilizations.

Cultures

Paths of cultural cooperation

by Rubens Piovano Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, Tripoli, Libya

A

s he carve the head of the Domitilla statue in 69 AD, the sculptor who created it could not have imagined that the endless vicissitudes it was about to face (ranging from being proudly showcased to lying buried and long forgotten under the sand, from its enthralling rediscovery to being solemnly placed in the Sabratha Museum, from the regret generated by its theft to its unexpected re-emergence at an auction at Christie’s in London) would include, no less, a happy return home via Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti’s suitcase on the occasion of his first official visit outside of Europe this past January.

The Italian Prime Minister made a highly symbolic gesture in returning the valuable archaeological artefact to Libya, thus paying tribute to the new regime and pointing out that culture will continue to play a key role in the framework of the two countries’ renewed relations.

The said gesture also bears witness to the fact that archaeology will continue to constitute the main, though by far not the only, pillar on which Italy’s cultural policy toward its friends from the southern shore of the Mediterranean rests.

Italy has successfully been tasked with managing

Libya’s vast archaeological heritage for over 100 years now. Generations of researchers, academics and experts, many of them internationally renowned, have contributed to shed their light on and decipher the country’s rich, complex history: from the rock art of the Fezzan to Ghadames, the pearl of the desert; from Phoenician Libya to the country’s Greek and Roman eras; from its Arab heritage to the Ottoman era.

The Italian Foreign Ministry has renewed funding for all ten of the archaeological missions which were underway prior to the February 2011 revolution. The projects are set to resume, and some are already off the ground. One of the results we boast, aside from the many scientific publications produced and the volume of seminars and events which have been organized, draws on the findings and studies conducted in the field with a great deal of devotion and expertise. It has without a doubt contributed to Libyan archaeologists’ training, placing the future of what is a crucial sector in the country firmly in their hands.

Leptis Magna, Sabratha and Cyrene are all mustsees, sites with the ability to evoke profound emotions not only in Italians, who revel in the

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The Italian Foreign Ministry has renewed funding for all ten of the archaeological missions which were underway prior to the February 2011 revolution.

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Cultures

The Forum of Leptis Magna, Libya

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recognition of a great deal of shared history, but also in anyone genuinely curious about the history of Mediterranean civilizations. Safeguarding and harnessing the potential of Libya’s historical, archaeological and archival heritage could help foster and facilitate the development of cultural tourism. The latter is a core asset for the country, owing to the employment and the related business it generates. Italy’s experience in the sector will likely prove useful in producing professionals not only in the field of conservation, as has been the case so far, but also in the planning of new host facilities. We have learned, at our expense, that in these rare uncontaminated lands, eco-friendliness is a must, in view of emerging flows relating to international tourism.

Italy and Libya’s cultural partnership will have the opportunity to flourish in the fields of training and education, among others, with full respect to Libya’s autonomy in the initiatives it chooses to undertake in the relevant sectors. To date,

thousands of Libyan students and researchers have come to Italy, and we must endeavour to rekindle their interest in light of growing international competition.

Some of the key players involved in the partnership are undoubtedly universities and specialised schools. It is incumbent upon them to enhance the flow of exchanges and meetings, forge relations and come to agreements pertaining to research and training. The help and contributions which will hopefully be proffered by the private sector and banks will be equally important in backstopping cultural dialogue.

There is much common ground, just as there are platforms for exchange, in the fields of science and technology. The challenge for Italy is capturing its Libyan partner’s interest and garnering its trust through the provision of excellence.

We can only assume the new government intends to make a few changes to its educational system, and that it will agree to undersign agreements for

Cultures

training programs, including “training the trainerstype” initiatives. Another potential goal for those who take it upon themselves to restructure the country might be that of overhauling the complex healthcare system, placing the focus not only on the continuous and all-important retraining of doctors and researchers, but also on the establishment of an adequate prevention framework.

Though Libya is self-sufficient from an energy standpoint, it has already begun to tackle the issue of renewable energy sources. It is likely that Libya will greatly benefit from the futuristic – but not overly so – projects for building large-scale solar power plants in the Sahara Desert to meet demand for the entire European continent.

The architecture and urban planning industries will play their part in the rebuilding process, increasing construction flows and new urban landscapes.

Therefore, there is no lack of impetus, projects, initiatives or stakeholders – the will behind it all just needs to be reasserted.

Italy’s commitment is clearly borne out by the reopening of the Italian Cultural Institute in Tripoli. The institute has the dual task of acting as a feeler with the ability to properly and thoroughly interpret the cultural demands of its host country, while also facilitating the types of interaction mentioned thus far, not to mention those which traditionally comprise the cultural sphere, including, but by no means limited to, cinema, theatre, opera, music, art, dance and that fundamental enterprise that is language teaching.

The challenge ahead is both incredibly exciting and ambitious, if culture is indeed to be considered a decisive factor in achieving democracy, never to fall by the wayside in favour of fulfilling “other priorities”. However, a mistake to be avoided in the process is the belief that it is up to us to rebuild a country according to our parameters, our hopes, and our past. That will be Libya’s job. We will try to help it find the appropriate tools in the shared interest of building a peaceful and prosperous Mediterranean.

Detail of a monumental scena of the theater, Sabratha city, Libya

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The challenge for Italy is capturing its Libyan partner’s interest and garnering its trust through the provision of excellence.

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Cultures

Fifty years in Libya

by Nicola Bonacasa Professor Emeritus in Archeology and History of Greek and Roman Art, University of Palermo, Italy

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Sabratha is a city for mankind, Leptis Magna for the Empire, and Cyrene for the gods.

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have said and written it before: “Sabratha is a city for mankind, Leptis Magna for the Empire, and Cyrene for the gods”. Each of these places has its individual, defining, historical identity which archaeological research has rendered visible through digs, restoration and publications.

I was fortunate enough to work in all three of ancient Libya’s great centers, but it is worth noting that, aside from the Palermo University mission, another 11 Italian missions have been running in Libya for several years. These missions have been sponsored by the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry, several Italian universities and the Italian Ministry of Education and Research, and they have all stood out both in terms of their commitment and their expertise.

Starting in 1955, I had the good fortune of spending three years with Renato Mancini at a dig in Leptis Magna’s Severian Port; that was

I

Located in the south of modern Lebanon, Tyrus (Tyre) was already considered by the Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus as one of the oldest cities in the world. Indeed, since at least the 2nd millennium BC, it was one of the most important Phoenician harbors and trade centers of the Mediterranean. Merchants from Tyrus explored and ruled the seas and built cities such as Carthage and Cadiz. Today, it is one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.

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my first assignment in Libya. From that moment on, albeit with a few hiatuses, I watched the country grow and change until this past year, when Palermo University held its last mission in Sabratha in May-June 2012.

Summarizing over half a century of excavations, research, restorations and publications pertaining to ancient Libya’s three major sites (Sabratha, Leptis Magna and Cyrene, as well as some other smaller sites) is no small task.

However, this is a good opportunity to acknowledge the friendly and generous help that was afforded to us every step of the way by the relevant antiquities departments, supporting offices and museums.

Farmers from Tyrus, followed by PhoenicianPunic merchants, stopped off and settled on the coast of Sabratha, as well as on a narrow strip further inland, between the sixth century and the very end of the fifth century BC. This same site saw the birth of Sabratha’s protoimperial nucleus, which began with the development of the forum area between the temples of Liber Pater and Serapis, to then slowly expand in a grid-like fashion with its monuments and constructions, encroaching further south and especially toward the east.

Meanwhile, in the Augustan era, on the far eastern border far removed from the populated areas and flush with coastline, an altar was built as a tribute to Isis, becoming a monumental temple with the advent of the

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Flavian era. First the Julio-Claudian dynasty, of which Caracalla was part, then the Flavians, followed by the Antonine emperors, they all aesthetically improved the city and turned it into a monumental one, complete with new, clear-cut neighborhoods, a theater boasting extraordinary architectural quality, and an impressive amphitheatre further to the east.

It is worth noting from the outset that many research projects which have now been brought to term (mainly in Sabratha, but also in Leptis Magna and Cyrene) have been written about not only in a range of articles in journals and conference papers, but also in a number of monographs. For 37 years, the Palermo mission in Sabratha placed its focus on the city’s 6 main thermal baths, its Christian baptisteries, the farm-villa in Dahman, the temple to an unknown deity, the Temple of Hercules, the five houses with significant relevance in the civil urban landscape, the Temple of Serapis and the sculptures produced in the Roman era, the workmanship that went into artifacts and chalk figurines, and the prolific production of oil lamps. However, let’s not forget that the Palermo-based mission has also been in charge of the Sabratha Archaeological Park project, pending its resumption and execution. In Leptis Magna, it was also responsible for analyzing and classifying material from the immense necropolis beneath the theater, and it played an active part in the development of the new Archeological Museum in Leptis. Additionally, drawing from the University of Catania with the help of the National Research Council’s Institute for Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage (CNR-ITABC), it examined public fountains, the so-called ‘Basilica Ulpia’, the Temple on the main decumanus, some distinctive arcades, and the magnificent coins from the treasure of Misrata. That left Cyrene, which began to be dealt with systematically in 1997, as the research conducted there has been running parallel to that in Sabratha for many years. In Cyrene, the Palermo mission functioned through a “Pilot project” designed by the Italian Foreign Ministry. It has been organizing yearly sites for excavation and restoration work, continuing and completing the anastylosis of the great Temple of Zeus along the building’s north, east and west sides.

Meanwhile, two admirable colleagues dealt with the excavations at the Apollo Sanctuary’s so-called “assembly of the gods” (C. Parise Presicce) and the rediscovery of the city’s Eastern and Central Basilicas (R. M. Carra).

The glorious and complex history of the Temple of Zeus (500-480 BC), built in conchiliferous sandstone and entirely covered in plaster, tells us it was demolished several times in the past: first, during the Jewish Revolt in 115 AD, and then with the earthquake in 365 AD, when it

Quadrifons Arch of Septimius Severus, south view, Leptis Magna, Libya

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Temple of Zeus, southwest view. The pediment rising from the floor, Cyrene, Libya

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was subsequently set on fire and destroyed by Christians. The temple also has undergone restoration interventions more than once – the first was in the Hellenistic era; the second under Augustus or Tiberius, thus accounting for the final part of a monumental inscription on its eastern flank, ending with the words ‘IOVI AUGUSTO’; the last restoration took place under the Antonine Empire, at the hands of architect Aurelius Rufus, who broke ties with Zeus Olympus. Regardless, the Temple of Zeus is the only Greek temple on the African continent. We hope to be able to complete and exhibit the monument’s restoration, as it has been over 45 years since this impressive Italian project was launched in Cyrene.

Monuments in Sabratha and Leptis Magna have an even more exceptional history.

Taken as a whole and compared to that of Leptis, for instance, architectural and sculptural

material in Sabratha display more contrasting elements and individual trends than common trends and elements of convergence. This was most often a result of Hellenistic tradition and the deeply-rooted Punic culture, but at times stemmed from an encroaching urban influence, the upshot being considerable diverseness, rather than similarities, in the creation of repertory material and the development of stylistic trends. In a nutshell, it seems to us that imperial Sabratha reveals a distinctly urban and independent cultural identity, looking for all the world like a “Romanized” cluster, yet unfailingly preserving Alexandrian traditions, just as it was once a “Hellenistic” cluster flourishing on the then widespread “Punic tradition”. Essentially, within Roman imperial Africa, and more specifically within the historical region of Tripolitania, Sabratha eluded that Greek-Oriental and Eastern

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sameness which enveloped Leptis Magna as of the end of the 1st century AD. Thanks to the many works unearthed by Palermo University – ranging from architecture to sculptures, paintings, mosaics, chalk statues and objects – we are well on the way to defining the long periods that categorize Sabratha’s socially active classes.

As for Leptis Magna, if we are to briefly analyze its Severian urban framework and its intrinsically constructed splendor, it is legitimate to say that the amazing, spectacular Severian Leptis was, deep down, an overstated urban product bearing the hallmarks of an artificial political creation.

Instead of following the usual laws of even, natural growth, the city succumbed to a display of things colossal and eternal in an attempt to mimic the capital, as though portraying itself as the only city in the Roman

Empire apart from Rome itself, though that was certainly far from the truth. It remains unknown whether Septimius Severus ever actually laid eyes on his beloved Leptis, as the date of his journey to his birth town in 203 AD is as yet unconfirmed, and the journey may never have taken place at all. In any case, his childhood friend and son-in-law, the extremely wealthy Fulvius Plautianus, who was originally from Leptis Magna, was the attentive, capable and perhaps overly compliant executor of what was known as Emperor Septimius Severus’s “dream”. Let it be said that in Severian Leptis, the city’s monumental buildings would sometimes appear not to have been useful facilities destined for the community’s use, but rather pure and simple representations of power, as is indeed the case when it comes to the redundancy of sculpted marble.

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Taken as a whole and compared to that of Leptis, for instance, architectural and sculptural material in Sabratha display more contrasting elements and individual trends than common trends and elements of convergence.

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Thus spoke Abû Yazîd al-Bistâmî

by Angelo Iacovella Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Rome’s LUSPIO University

The Persian Sufi master Abû Yazîd al-Bistâmî is one of the most enigmatic mystics of all times. Being illiterate, he never wrote any books; hence, his corpus is composed of scattered spiritual sayings, which have at times being criticized for their alleged extravagant and paradoxical character. His controversial figure is, however, remarkably interesting in order to understand a profound and complex phenomenon such as Sufism.

T

An ancient Persian miniature portraying the Saint of Bistâm, reduced to skin and bones by his prolonged fasting and surrounded by tame beasts

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hroughout the medieval history of the Middle East and Central Asia, few historical characters have emblematically embodied the essence of Islamic mysticism or “Sufism” (tasawwuf) more than the great Persian master Abû Yazîd (Bayazid) al-Bistâmî.

Abû Yazîd b. ‘îsâ b. Surûshân al-Bistâmî was born in 167 of the Muslim calendar (corresponding to 801 AD) in a family of Zoroastrian origins in the city of Bistâm, a rugged and somewhat peripheral Iranian provincial capital located in the mountains of Tabaristân, South-East of the Caspian Sea, in the region of Khorasân. There he spent most of his existence on Earth – dedicated to the mortification of the senses, self-enclosed, surrounded only by a handful of affectionate disciples – that came to an end 73 years later, still in Bistâm, where his remains rest to this day.

Unlike other Muslim mystics, as Abû Yazîd alBistâmî was perfectly illiterate, he entrusted his spiritual teachings not to a written work but to a series of extemporaneous phrases or speeches, otherwise known as “theopathic locutions” in Sufi circles (the equivalent of the term shatahât, meaning “words uttered under the effect of ecstasy”).

Although, to date, there exists no exhaustive biographical study on the life of al-Bistâmî, it is nonetheless possible to outline a brief profile of the extraordinary and charismatic figure of this Muslim saint from the omnium of his utterances and from a combination of sources in the Arabic and Persian languages dealing with his story, spanning between historical truth and a spellbinding hagiographic narrative.

If credence is to be given to medieval apologies, Abû Yazîd allegedly took his first steps along the path to “contrition” (tawbah) even before being born. According to his oldest-dated biographer (a man by the name of al-Sahlajî), any time his pregnant mother swallowed a suspicious food (i.e. not compliant with the dietary laws of Islam) while bearing Abû Yazîd, the yet-to-be-born baby “wiggled inside her womb, obliging her to throw up what she had just ingested”.

As a side note, the speeches attributed to alBistâmî are scattered with explicit references to his mother, a simple and reserved woman, animated by unmatched religious pietas. It was thanks to her example that Abû Yazîd was able to discover his calling to soul-searching so early.

“He was asked: ‘How did you achieve your

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The Mausoleum of Abû Yazîd, Bistâm, Iran

spiritual state?’ And he answered: ‘Say whatever you will. As for me, I think that it arose from always having obeyed and pleased my mother’”.

According to a late legend of dubious historical backing, his uncommon virtues were also revealed to the eyes of the 6th Imâm, Ja‘far alSâdiq (d. 765 AD) with whom the young Abû Yazîd presumably worked as a house-boy or “cup-bearer”, although he soon invited him to take his leave in order to dedicate himself to the “dwelling of his soul”. Even admitting that the two never actually met, the aforesaid Ja‘far was often quoted – for example in Farîd al-Dîn ‘Attâr’s famous work Tadhkira al-awliyâ’ or Memorial of the Saints – among the “three hundred and thirteen” shaykh or “spiritual trainers” at whose feet Abû Yazîd is said to have gone in person to learn from their very lips the basics of the strictest of mystic disciplines: “He left Bistâm and practiced an ascetic life in the Syrian desert, walking bare-foot, without ever surrendering to sleep”.

After concluding this very rigorous apprenticeship, a new phase opened in the

epic story of al-Bistâmî, coinciding with his return to his birth-place, which was also dominated by a meticulous respect for canonical duties and characterized by fasting, night-time prayers, blatant contempt for mundane concerns, visiting cemeteries, attending funerals, mortification, and poverty.

This was a fight to the death against “concupiscence”, to use a term dear to alBistâmî. According to the definition laid out by Abû Yazîd, concupiscence can ultimately be made out to mean anything that lies between us and God and that prevents us from knowing ourselves.

Al-Bistâmî spent his days in solitude, dividing his time between a little mosque and a humble “barn” (sawma‘ah), where he lived till his death. With the unfortunate visitors who went to him for a word of advice or encouragement, he was often abrupt, addressing them with sharp-tongued paradoxes: “A man knocked on the door of Abû Yazîd. And he answered: ‘Whom are you seeking?’ asked Bayazid. Replied the man, ‘I seek Bayazid’. ‘Poor wretch!’ said Bayazid.

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The Mausoleum of Abû Yazîd, Bistâm, Iran

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Al-Bistâmî spent his days in solitude, dividing his time between a little mosque and a humble “barn” (sawma‘ah), where he lived till his death.

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‘I have been seeking Bāyazīd for thirty years and cannot find any trace or token of him’’’.

With his antisocial and extravagant behaviour, which was nonetheless dictated by good faith and sincere religious fervour, it was obviously not long before Abû Yazîd attracted fierce criticisms from the ‘ulamâ’ (theologians) and from Bistām’s orthodox community, worried by the apparently blasphemous content of some of his utterances made while in the bliss of ecstasy, annihilated in his contemplation of the divine Master.

In his condition of temporary suspension from ordinary consciousness and inebriated by the love of God and the wish to commune with Him, he went to the extent of saying: “Similar to me is an endless ocean, without beginning and without end”; “I am not I, I, I, because I am He. I am He. I am He” and so on and so forth.

This did not stop his fame from spreading like wildfire throughout Iran, stretching eastward to present-day Afghanistan and westward to Syria and Egypt, precisely on the momentum of his disruptive statements, producing ambivalent reactions among the Muslim community of the time, already pervaded by fiery political and

religious diatribes. Some – starting with institutional authorities – did not hesitate to consider them an offence to the “transcendence” (tanzīh) of Allah, with whom Abû Yazîd had blatantly dared to compare or identify himself. This is why he was brusquely kicked out of Bistâm up to “seven times” and obliged to err in far-away lands to escape the wrath of his detractors. In this overwhelmingly hostile climate, however, many were the voices raised in his favour, the most authoritative of which was that of his Nubian counterpart and equally renowned ascetic Dhû al-Nûn al-Misrî. In order to manifest the extent to which he held him in his esteem, al-Misrî sent him a gift – through an emissary sent for this purpose from distant Egypt; the two never physically met – a “prayer rug” and a finely embroidered “cushion”. The moment he saw the latter, Abû Yazîd lashed out against his naïve benefactor in his usual sharp-tongued manner, laden with double meanings and a scathing play on words: “Who has made a cushion of himself does not know what to do with a cushion”. “I have come out of my ego”, he exclaimed on another occasion, “as a snake from its skin”.

For his disciples, Abû Yazîd did not deserve to be stigmatised for the words uttered in an evident state of mystic vertigo, just like it would be unfair to punish a baby engaging in inarticulate gabble, or a lover who, in the embrace of his beloved, swoons in the sweet glossolalia of eroticism.

A few years after the death of Abû Yazîd alBistâmî, the learned and pious Iraqi scholar of theosophy Abû al-Qâsim al-Junayd was publicly questioned on the legitimacy of Abû Yazîd’s ecstatic utterances. Al-Junayd solemnly declared that Abû Yazîd al-Bistâmî could not be blamed of blasphemy as his ego was annihilated, “driven by his confusing himself with the One True God; which impeded him from viewing himself. And not having seen anyone other than Allah (the Highest!) and His attribute, he ended by speaking only of Him. In conclusion, nothing of what he perceived or expressed concerned any one else but God, by reason of his exclusive attachment to the One True God”.

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The elixir of life on earth

by Amer Al Sabaileh Professor at the University of Jordan

All religions show a transcendental unity, since they all strive to create coexistence among human beings. Differences stimulate us to know each other, in order to build relationships based on peace, respect and mutual understanding. It is from these values that mankind can embark on a path of sustainable development, in harmony with the natural environment.

The Lord Jesus said: “Truth appears to those who love it”.

Yet, what is the truth that we human beings must seek?

A

ll civilisations must return to their roots and speak the language of humanity, in order to pave the way to human understanding and interaction. But we will only see religions embrace and opposites come together, hatred subjugated and transformed to love, once we have all understood that life is by way of being a journey of just a few short years, which we must fill with love not hatred, hope not misery.

Certainly, all Divine Revelations have striven to create coexistence among men. The Holy Qur’an itself establishes as much in the following verse, which outlines a form and purpose for creation as Almighty God says: “O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! the noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware“ [Surat alHujurat (The Dwellings) 13].

Differences among human beings are, then, the foundation and the secret of life; if things were otherwise life would be a meaningless sequence of events; for if all creation were alike the result would be tedium and monotony.

Thus divine wisdom has decreed that life should be continuous movement. As Almighty God says in the Holy Qur’an: “And if thy Lord had willed, He verily would have made mankind one nation, yet they cease not differing“ [Surat Hud (The Prophet Hud) 118].

Our differences are a call to interact, not to move apart. And in order to interact mankind must come together, giving rise to a state of mutual understanding in which all stereotypes and preconceived opinions fall as human beings truly communicate and begin judging one another from personal experience, without prejudice. This in turn will create relationships of mutual understanding as a true starting point for activities aimed at building not

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Life is by way of being a journey of just a few short years, which we must fill with love not hatred, hope not misery.

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In order to achieve coexistence among human beings, people have to ensure that their relationships are founded on two fundamental components: freedom and justice.

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destroying the earth, at sustainable production not indiscriminate consumption.

It is for this reason that in this article I wish to throw light on the idea of coexistence among men, and the importance that we succeed in creating such a state of affairs. Coexistence is the elixir of life on earth, without which the world would be divided into warring cantons and human life would become valueless; the powerful would rob the weak and the great would enslave the small.

We must, then, attempt to tame the human psyche, control its instincts and regulate its behaviour in order to establish a global framework for human interaction. The goal of man’s existence on this earth is closely linked to work, and work in its turn is linked to building, building in the sense of constructing the earth, but this is not possible without establishing cooperation among human beings.

The characteristics of human beings differ from one to another, and each one has his or her own distinctive features, which are what make us individual and unique. The secret, then, lies in administering those distinctive features, bringing them together and creating bridges between them, so that everyone operates within the sphere of humanity, which is what ensures that our distinctive features and our uniqueness are successfully employed to create a better life for everyone.

In order to achieve coexistence among human beings, people have to ensure that their relationships are founded on two fundamental components: freedom and justice.

There can be no doubt about the pivotal role that freedom plays in guaranteeing coexistence. It is for this reason that, at the core of their messages, religions have always striven to liberate human beings from any kind of slavery, to eliminate the idea that the strong must dominate the weak, and to divest certain people of their power to affect the destinies and lives of others.

Let us quote the words of the Iman Hussein ibn Ali ibn Abi Taleb, as he invited the people who were seeking to kill him at the Battle of Karbala to listen to his advice. He underlined the concept of freedom in its human sense, distinct

from religions or from any sense of reward or punishment: “If you have no religion and you fear not the Day of Judgement, then be free men in your world“ [Bihar al-Anwar 45, 50, chapter 37]. Thus the Iman Hussein, and just a few hours before his martyrdom, was emphasising that only freedom is the basis of human life.

The second mainstay of human relationships is

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justice. Freedom and justice are so tightly linked that the one cannot dispense with the other, they are the two bastions of peaceful human coexistence. As the Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb says: “People are of two categories, either your brother in religion or your counterpart in creation“.

If we examine the words of Ali ibn Abi Taleb we

see how important it is for humans to concentrate on the fact that they belong to a single category. The fact that they are all part of the human race is the basis for relations among people. Thus there is just one standard, and equality and justice prevail. Linking the image of brotherhood to two principal elements - brothers in religion or equals in creation - effectively closes the door to any

Alhambra in Granada, Spain

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Nasrid’s palace courtyard.

Alhambra in Granada, Spain

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form of schism and neutralises any potential weapon of conflict. Brotherhood between men is grounded on their similarity in the creation, for we have all arisen from the clay.

During his farewell pilgrimage the Prophet Mohammed (peace and honour to Him and His family) likewise emphasised the single origin and the shared destiny of all human beings: “Oh people! Your Lord is one and your father is one. You are all children of Adam, and Adam was created of dust. In the sight of God, the most noble of you is the most pious. Know that there is no superiority in an Arab over a nonArab, or in a non-Arab over an Arab, save by virtue of piety“.

Therefore the need for coexistence must be the primary goal which human beings strive to achieve. Yet we have to recognise that what is easy to understand in theoretical terms is fraught with difficulties and

complications when it comes to practical application. Indeed, mankind’s first test in the model of human coexistence was a failure, and the sons of Adam, the first inhabitant of the earth, confirmed for us from the very dawn of creation that coexistence must perhaps be classified as a mere dream. Cain committed the first crime on this earth when he killed his brother Abel; and we in our turn came onto the earth as descendants of the killer, not of his victim.

And yet, notwithstanding our bloody history and the continuous failure of attempts at coexistence, the challenges facing mankind today must be a spur and an incentive for us all to interact, coming together and linking our hands, be they black or white. Likewise, our creeds must interleave, despite their diversities and differences, as long as our destiny on this earth is a shared destiny and the challenges and dangers facing us are one.

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Newly-painted roots

by Marta Bellingreri Cultural Mediator

H

e never thought he would stay in Italy so long. One, two, three years. He already experienced the feeling of losing his homeland – his grandparents’ homeland – Palestine. The homeland he used to speak about when he was in the refugee camp in Amman, capital of Jordan, where he was given his nationality. The very same place where he found a haven for his family and his struggle.

Now he has two homelands, because he never went back to Jordan, not since a master course and an Italian girlfriend took him to the capital of Italy. Another capital, another story.

Jordan is in his telephone calls with his family and friends, when they speak during the holidays, when he receives a poem to comment, when he is asked to translate a novel into Italian. And now Ma’moon is already thinking about his own novel. He is thinking of writing his first novel in Arabic, in Italy – a country he has depicted through his serigraphies.

He did not know that by going to learn Italian language he would learn an art and a craft. He saw his dream come true: a bookshop, a small publishing house and, later, a serigraphy workshop. Writing, painting, scribbling on tshirts, on notebooks. Taking his colors to classes and then bringing them back home.

And his life has started to turn colorful, because he loves Rome and is happy.

“Asinitas”, the Italian School in Rome, gave him training in the art of serigraphy. Ma’moon, together with many other young men and women, started printing books, with the drawings and the words they learned in Italian language classes. First Radici – those were a certainty. A book made of roots and trees, with drawings and stories about them.

A book that travels across many countries: from Bangladesh to Eritrea. A book that through Ma’moon makes several stops: through the blurred drawings of Palestine to

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The orchestra of Piazza Vittorio in Rome, one of the symbols of the city’s multiculturalism.

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the sharper views of Jordan. All together, woven with the stories told by his grandmother, to whom he used to play tricks.

Before meeting me, Ma’moon saw and heard me speak Arabic, in an interview on 15 May 2010, anniversary of the nabka, and wondered whether I was an Arab or not, and then decided I was a lubnaniyye – Lebanese. And then found out that I had been living, for nine months, in Jordan, with his best friends Mahdi, Mohannad and Mo’aita. It was his favorite Jordan, the one of his friends – singers, poets, actors and crazy writers, the one I had cherished not knowing that him, who by then was living in Italy, felt it also belonged to him.

And we finally met in Rome: as if we already knew each other, through the sound of his friends’ laughter and the land he had lived in,

and I was returning from. Sharing different and opposite migrations. And these are the stories of migrations – his own and those of others – he is still writing about. Printing books with the serigraph, which means toil in the night, a never-ending amazement, and invention. He shares the silence of Roman nights when he goes back home. He no longer goes to Italian language classes as he now speaks Italian perfectly well. But his t-shirt is always full of thawra and hurrya – revolution and freedom – because although many of his dreams have come true, he will not forget his struggles nor his colors.

Nostalgia of long-time gone colors, now re-found, to paint his life in the country that is hosting him.

BIOGRAPHIES Giorgio Gomel was born in Torino in 1949. He graduated in Political Science from the University of Turin and obtained an MPhil. in Economics from Columbia University in New York. In 1976 he joined the Economic Research Department of the Bank of Italy, where he worked in the domestic economy and balance-ofpayments section. From 1982 to 1984 he was Assistant to Italy’s Executive Director at the IMF. He was then appointed head of the International Division of the Economic Research Department and in 1999 of the newly created International Relations Office. He now heads the International Economic Analysis and Relations Department. He represents the Bank of Italy in a number of international committees and institutions. He is the author of numerous articles on international monetary economics, LDCs’ external debt, migration, EMU and the economies of the Mediterranean.

Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at the Oxford University (Oriental Institute, St Antony’s College) and also teaches at the Oxford Faculty of Theology. He is Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies (Qatar), Senior Research Fellow at Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan) and Director of the Research Centre of Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) (Doha, Qatar). He holds an MA in Philosophy and French literature and PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. In Cairo, Egypt he received one-onone intensive training in classic Islamic scholarship from Al-Azhar University scholars (ijazat in seven disciplines).

His latest book is “The Arab Awakening: Islam and the New Middle East” (Penguin, April 2012).

Roberto Formigoni has been the President of the Region of Lombardy since 1995. Born in Lecco in 1947, he graduated with a degree in Philosophy and also studied Political Economy at the Sorbonne University in Paris. In 1973 he was one of the founders of the ‘Movimento Popolare’. He was elected twice to the European Parliament (in 1984 and 1989) where he held the office of Vice President for 5 years. In 1987 he was elected to the Italian Parliament and in 1993-94 he served as Undersecretary in the Ministry for the Environment. In December 2004, he was awarded an honorary degree in Communication Sciences and Technology from the IULM University. In his capacity of President of the Region of Lombardy, he developed a model of good governance to be applied at national level, promoting the Lombard socio-economic model worldwide. He is member of the Popolo della Libertà President’s Office and, as of August 2011, he is Commissioner General for Expo Milano 2015.

After years of research between Europe, South America and the Middle East, Azzurra Meringolo became an enthusiast of the Arab world. Working as a freelance reporter for Italian newspapers and magazines since 2008 and after having lived in Jerusalem and traveled through the Middle East, she obtained a Ph.D. with a doctoral thesis on contemporary anti-Americanism in Egypt from the University Roma 3. Straddling between research and reporting, in the summer of 2010 she arrived in Cairo where she witnessed the revolution of the 25th of January to which she devoted a book entitled I ragazzi di Piazza Tahrir, published by Clueb.

Valentino Cattelan, PhD, is Lecturer at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy. His research interests comprise legal and financial pluralism, property rights theory, Islamic law, comparative law and EU law. In relation to his expertise he has been awarded by the European Commission a grant for the teaching module “Integrating Islamic finance in the EU market” (Sept 2010-Aug 2013).

He has published widely on EU law, Islamic law and finance, and he is the editor of the book “Islamic Finance in Europe: Towards a Plural Financial System” (Edward Elgar, forthcoming).

Habib Ahmed is the Sharjah Chair in Islamic Law and Finance at Durham University. Prior to joining Durham University in August 2008, he worked at the National Commercial Bank and Islamic Research & Training Institute (Islamic Development Bank Group) in Saudi Arabia and taught at the University of Connecticut, National University of Singapore, and University of Bahrain. Professor Ahmed has authored/edited more than 60 publications that include articles in international refereed journals, books, and other academic monographs/reports.

His recent research interests include contemporary applications of Islamic commercial law, product development in Islamic finance, and integration of waqf and financial sector.

Mehmet Asutay is a Reader in Middle Eastern and Islamic Political Economy and Finance at School of Government and International Affairs (SGIA). He is the director of the Durham Doctoral Training Centre for Islamic Finance. Dr Asutay is also the programme director for DBS’s MA/MSc in Islamic Finance and the Director of the Durham Islamic Finance Summer School.

Mehmet is the Managing Editor of the Review of Islamic Economics and is an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. He is also the

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Honorary Treasurer of BRISMES (British Society for Middle East Studies) and of the International Association for Islamic Economics. He teaches and supervises research on Islamic moral economy, Islamic banking and finance and the political economy of the Middle East.

Benedetto Ippolito is currently a professor for the History of Philosophy at Roma Tre University. He teaches the same discipline at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. A member of the Board of Directors for the Telecom Italy Foundation, he is also a member of the Strategic Committee IPALMO (Institute for International Relations between Italy and the countries of Africa, Latin America, the Middle and Far East) and the Board of Directors CISEM (Interdepartmental Centre for Ethics in the field of Military Studies). He is also the author of numerous scientific publications, and writes for the SISPM (Italian Society for the Study of Medieval Thought) and the SFI (Italian Philosophical Society).

Rubens Piovano was born in Aosta in 1949 and graduated in Philosophy with honors from the University of Turin. Between 1975 and 1980 he was Professor and Coordinator of Adult Education courses.

In 1979 he taught Italian Language and Culture at the University for Foreigners in Perugia. Between 1980 and 1987 he was commissioned by the Italian Foreign Ministry to teach Italian Language and Culture at the University of Seville. From 1987 to 1994 he was appointed Director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Italian Culture Institute) in Seville and from 1997 to 2003, he headed the same Institute in Los Angeles in the capacity of acting and deputy director; from 2006 to 2012, he was Director of the Italian Culture Institute in Rio de Janeiro. Since August 1st 2012, he was appointed Director of the Italian Culture Institute in Tripoli. He performed important organizational roles in significant international events such as the Seville Expo 1992 and ‘Momento Italia Brasile’.

Nicola Bonacasa is Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology at the University of Palermo and member of the Accademia dei Lincei. He was born in Trapani on the 6th of November 1931 and graduated from Palermo University in 1954 with a doctoral thesis on a topic related to Alexander the Great. He studied with Achille Adriani, Doro Levi, Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli. He did his post-graduate studies in Rome and Athens, and started his archaeological excavations in Italy (Satricum) and in Sicily (Levanzo, Soluntum, Himera), in Crete (Patrikiès), in Turkey (Jasos on the Isle of Caria), in Pakistan (Saidu Sharif ), in Egypt (Alexandria) and in Libya (Sabratha, Leptis Magna, Cyrene). He is Chief Editor of a Book

44 | Papers of Dialogue

Series and of a number of magazines and has organized exhibitions and conferences, in addition to founding schools and university courses.

Angelo Iacovella was born in Rome in 1968. He is an Arabic language and literature professor at Rome’s LUSPIO University. Though formally trained in Medieval studies, he has now turned his focus to the history of Arabic-Islamic mystical literature. He has taught at Naples’ L’Orientale University, and at other universities in Calabria, in Rome (La Sapienza) and in the Tuscia region. He has written papers and monographs on Islamic civilization and published, among other titles, L’epistola dei settanta veli (The Epistle of the Seventy Veils) by Muhyî al-Dîn Ibn ‘Arabî, Il pettine e la brocca. Detti arabi di Gesù (The Comb and the Pitcher. Jesus’s Arab Proverbs) and Il concerto mistico e l’estasi (The Mystical Concert and Ecstasy) by Abû Hâmid alGhazâlî. Furthermore, he edited the collection volume, Il fondamentalismo islamico (Islamic Fundamentalism) with Alberto Ventura.

Amer Al Sabaileh is a University Professor and journalist currently living in his native Amman. He has a degree in Modern Languages and Literature with a specialization in English and Italian. In 2003, he obtained a Master’s Degree from the University of Rome in “Educating for Peace, International Cooperation, Human Rights and European Union Policies”, completing his dissertation on women’s rights in Jordan. He lived in Pisa from 2004 to 2007 to take part in a University project on cross-cultural and interreligious dialogue. Since 2007, he is Professor at the Department of European Languages of the University of Jordan in Amman, holding courses on literature, the media, contemporary thinkers and human rights.

Among his works are Contemplations (taámulat); When Cultures Talk (The Figure of Ali in the West); Limitations of America’s Public Diplomacy in the Middle East; and Managing Dialogue (The Figure of the Prophet Mohammed in the West). There are five more of his books currently being printed.

Marta Bellingreri is a keen Arabist from Palermo and an aspiring journalist; her degree in Eastern Languages and Civilizations and specialization in the History of Islamic Countries was an excellent excuse to travel across the Middle East, where she lived, studied and worked, sharing her tales and experiences from Palestine and Jordan. In Sicily and in Rome she teaches Italian as a second language courses and works as cultural mediator for unaccompanied foreign minors, aside from writing about and denouncing human rights violations. She is fervently awaiting her next trip to “her” Arab world.