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Presentation of a book by Fr. Scattolin
Rome, Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Fr. Giuseppe Scattolin, a Comboni Missionary from Pinzolo, Italy, has just published a new book in Arabic entitled “Reflections on Sufism and on inter-religious dialog.” This book, says the missionary, “represents a little bit the synthesis of my vision of dialog between world spiritualities and with Islamic spirituality, namely with Sufism, in particular.” The official presentation of the book will take place in Cairo, Egypt, on May 12, in the hall of the General Organization of Egyptian Books, with various comments from important representatives of Egyptian culture.
Fr. Scattolin himself explains the inspirations that moved him to write this book: “Due to the devastation caused by globalization which reduces the human being to ‘mere commercial value,’ namely marketing, and also due to the resurgence of various religious, ethnic and cultural tribalisms, humanity seems to be destined to an increasing form of decadence, up to the point where the human being will be reduced to the state of a robot, interchangeable at will by the Super-Robot who from above controls the entire robotic system. Religions, but above all the spiritualities that give them life, hold a great responsibility in proposing an alternative way which will not be only theoretical, but based on lived experience, in order to save the humanity of the human being in all of its dimensions.”
Fr. Scattolin, who has lived in the Arab world (Lebanon, Sudan and Egypt) for about 40 years, maintains that “the aim of this book is to describe this problem which touches all of us and to show possible paths of life, thought and action, especially in the Moslem world, currently in the hands of political Islam, where the mixture of religion and politics risks to drag it completely down a chain of devastating wars and conflicts.”
The famous Egyptian writer of rather liberal views, Ammar Ali Hassan, has written about this book: “In conclusion, this book is a clear and open invitation to all to return in a committed manner to the essential values of life, in particular to cooperation, coexistence and brotherhood. Only in this way humanity can be spared many evils, and above all saved from falling into a destructive and dark nihilism.”
Another comment worth mentioning comes from Mahmud Azab, counselor of the Iman of the Azhar for inter-religious dialog: “This book calls the reader to enter deeply into inter-religious dialog, exposing the ways of Sufism and of spiritual life as the deepest and most sublime aspect of the religious life of any religion.”
Fr. Giuseppe Scattolin, professor and researcher, has already written other books and many articles in various languages on Islam and Islamic mysticism. “Reflections on Sufism and on inter-religious dialog” was printed by the General Organization of Egyptian Books (government run) and costs 20 Egyptian pounds (a little less than US$3.00).