A Muslim at the state funeral for the honorable Frattini. The memory of Pallavicini

I had many opportunities to meet the honorable Frattini, sensitive to the construction of an authentic Islam as a testimony to a universal spirituality. Following this perspective, we have developed bridges from Azerbaijan to the United Arab Emirates, to the EU where as vice president of the Commission he has been able to accompany international security in confrontation with the religious authorities of Europe. The memory of Imam Yahya Pallavicini, Italian vice president of Coreis

“The soul of the righteous is in the hands of God”. This quote from the book of Wisdom was taken from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re in the funeral ceremony in honor of the honorable Franco Frattini in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles in Rome.

It is a quote from the Bible that distinguishes the final torment of sinners from the destiny of saints, a quote of great spiritual comfort for the family and friends of the minister and president Frattini. Distinguished jurists of the Council of State and political representatives attended the state funeral recalling his kindness and rigor in honoring the institutions and his sense of responsibility towards the Italian people, respecting the science of public administration and law together to the art of international relations.

I had many opportunities to meet the Honorable Frattini who is sensitive to the construction of an authentic Islam as a testimony to a universal spirituality and a culture of monotheism, an Islam that is ecumenical and open to dialogue with other religious confessions and respectful of the state order, an Islam that is authoritative in preventing and countering radical and subversive infiltrations. Following this perspective, we have developed bridges from Azerbaijan to the United Arab Emirates, to the European Union where as vice president of the Commission he has been able to accompany international security in confrontation with the religious authorities of Europe. This virtuous model of safeguarding the security and development of culture by modulating a relationship between institutional dignity in modern Western democracies and the value of religious pluralism as an antidote to extremism (of any color or form) was an inspired strategy of President Frattini.

It is striking to have to think that in 2022 they have disappeared Franco Frattini and David Sassoli, two protagonists of Italian politics in Europe so different from each other yet so serious and sensitive to openness and intellectual honesty in serving a declination of the enlightened vision of the West, without ghettos and without corruption. If we add to these two samples also the disappearance of the Minister of the Interior emeritus Robert Maroniwe realize the unbridgeable loss of institutional sensitivity interpreted in an efficient and, above all, depersonalized way.

I recall that at the Farnesina in 2010 we prepared an agreement with Foreign Minister Frattini that would favor the internationalization of Made in Italy products in the food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, tourism and finance programs aimed at the Muslim world with the combination of quality standards to the voluntary Halal Italia certification, avoiding the exploitation of “do-it-yourself” entrepreneurs and the puritanical and formalist mafias of Islamist speculators. One concrete fallout was the annual organization during the month of Ramadan of a reception for the breaking of the fast for diplomats from the embassies of the Muslim world accredited in Italy. A convivial moment that created the occasion to bear witness to spiritual and intercultural sensitivity as a fundamental ingredient for the development of international relations.

Justice in law, in national and foreign policy, in the confrontation between secularism and religions is the training teaching of President Frattini also in the Italian Society for International Organization where the new generations of heirs of a leadership can understand the sense of honor in competence, the value of rigor in kindness, learning the way to be just and relying on God.

(In the photo: from left, Imam Yahya Pallavicini, the UAE ambassador in Italy, WMCC president Ali Rashid Al Nuaymi, president Frattini, an expert from Hedaya Abu Dhabi)