A picture of Brussels

By the following words Gabriele Nissim, Gariwo chairman, commented upon the terror attacks at the airport and the tube in Brussels.

“Gariwo joins the grief for the victims of the attacks that this morning hit Brussels, a city which is a symbol of Europe and our values.

Many people think that terror stems from despair and is a sort of a rebellion against injustice and the West's responsibilities in the face of the Arab world. This reading of the events features many pitfalls. In facts it fails to acknowledge that behind the fanaticism of those who kill people, sacrificing their own lives, actually there is an aberrant thought and project of a society seeking to divide people from each other and eliminate the wealth of human plurality.

It is up to us, today, together with Arabs and Muslims, to carry out a great cultural battle within society to unmask this ideology, which as it happened in the past for the forms of totalitarianism that have crossed Europe, has managed to weave a wide network of consensus. In Brussels terrorists were thus able to hide, because they enjoyed too much complicity.

Unless we manage to win this battle at the level of ideas in Europe and the Middle East, isolating the Isis and all its supporters, we run the serious risk that in our society a climate of fear and clash sets out. This is actually the terrorists' goal. They want in facts to  create an insurmountable wall between the West and the Muslims. 

Gariwo in these two years has brought about  the figures of the Righteous who fight against fundamentalism, to help fight this battle that demands a great deal of effort from the media, the intellectuals and the best forces of our society.

The Righteous who resist this obscurantist and murderous drift not only are our hope, but also empower us to learn from a cultural point of view, as well how to carry out this great battle”.

Gariwo was there at the mourning moment planned at Palazzo Marino last night at 6.30 pm to commemorate the victims of the attacks.