Camel Bechikh
Dear friends, committed believers, peacemakers,
Each of the spiritualities present here has undergone major stages in its history.
Period of foundation, Period of persecution,
Period of expansion,
Period of great division between different currents,
Period of stabilization.
So every one of us here must be aware that globalization, the acceleration of History represent a new stage in the life of his spirituality.
A new stage marked by the closeness with the one who believes in something else or who does not believe. Closeness with the one who is new in his religion but also closeness with the one who leaves it …
All this is very new, it represents an immense challenge and sometimes a painful evolution.
A painful evolution but a necessary evolution because the religious world has considerably receded.
The religious world, which explores, consolidates and elevates the soul, has been receding for almost a century in front of the materialistic ideologies which are subject to the supreme power of finance. A new power nourishing itself from the distraction of souls in favor of the inveterate desires of the bodies.
Therefore, the challenge is great.
As you may know I am a Muslim, I was born and lived in France, a country to which I am lovingly attached, a country shaped by the Catholic spirit, because this country was born by the conversion to Catholicism of its first king in the 5th century.
What France has undergone during almost a century is a reflection, I believe, of the future evolution of our world if the religions do not consider together a response to this destructive globalization of traditions and souls.
France was named « The Eldest Daughter of the Catholic Church », its role was very effective in the history of this religion especially by giving it the largest number of saints, but also brilliant theologians, writers, artists and architects devoted to this faith.
The French Revolution happened in the eighteenth century and it was extraordinary violent against religion: plundered churches, convents set on fire, persecuted and deported priests, monks and nuns, many of whom were beheaded.
After this Revolution, of which the French Republic is very proud, the Church was definitively expelled from national institutions nearly a century later in 1905.
In 1968 demonstrations by young people, magnifying atheism as a liberation, proclaimed « It is forbidden to forbid ».
In 1975 the law on the authorization of abortion was adopted. In 1999, authorization of the union between homosexuals.
In 2014, authorization of same-sex marriage with child adoption.
Today we discuss the possibility of homosexual women to be able to legally procreate.
Today we have the authorization for homosexual men to rent women’s bellies abroad.
But this is only the beginning, since the religions in France have not been sufficiently united to limit these evolutions.
What I wanted to tell you, dear friends, is that beyond our differences there is a set of values that unite us, provided we are aware of the new context of globalization that is destroying us.
You know the one who divides, the one who separates Man from God, who separates husband and wife, parents and children… we call him the devil, diabolo « the one who divides », Shaytan in Arabic has the same root which means division, separation…
On the contrary, there is the angel who has the desire for union for Good.
I would like to thank the organizers for giving us the opportunity to come together, to unite ourselves to each other, this is an angelic act. It is an example for each one of us to reproduce, each one at their own level, this act of union, this angelic act.
For this angelic action to continue we should keep the connection between each of us as long as possible and think about reproducing this kind of gathering. I personally commit to it today, in front of you.
May God keep you, may God protect you, dear friends, committed believers, peacemakers…
Camel Bechikh
