La Civiltà Cattolica and Catholic Responses to Islamic Terrorism

A Clash of Civilisations or a Dialogue of Faiths? La Civiltà Cattolica and Catholic Responses to Islamic Terrorism Marco Ceccarelli 10403320 B.A. (Honours), UWA, 2007 M.A., UWA, 2010 This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia School of Humanities History and European Studies 2014 Abstract This thesis examines the discourse of the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica and its implications for the broader debate on transnational Islamic terrorism in the twenty- first century. Given the large body of post-9/11 secular political literature on this modern phenomenon, the response of Catholic intellectuals has not received the critical analysis it merits. The examination makes an original contribution to scholarship on religion and violence by framing the Jesuits’ propositions as an alternative “soft-counterterrorist” approach based on interreligious and intercultural dialogue. Jesuit scholarship has been a traditionally potent manifestation of the Catholic viewpoint on global affairs. The Jesuits’ most significant journal, La Civiltà Cattolica, has regularly contributed to the international discussion on the nature of Islamic terrorist violence. The journal’s “semi-official” status allows it to transcend boundaries imposed on official organs of Catholic information and still reflect the views of the highest Vatican authorities. This study analyses La Civiltà Cattolica’s discussion of the relationship between Islam and violence over the past thirteen years and attributes the journal’s adoption of a less critical, more pro-dialogue, approach to the controversy surrounding Pope Benedict XVI’s 2006 Regensburg lecture. The study also frames the Pope’s lecture as a watershed moment that simultaneously rocked Christian-Muslim relations and set in motion numerous interfaith initiatives. The views of the journal have challenged established political and academic understandings that see a direct link between Islam and violence, instead considering Islam as a religion of peace that has been manipulated by extremists. The thesis provides two chapters of contextual information and three of discourse analysis. The contextual chapters interpret the change in the Catholic response to the Islamic religion in general and to the phenomenon of political violence in particular. In the analytical chapters, emphasis is laid on the non-violent measures favoured by the Jesuits, including collaborations between peace-seeking Christians and Muslims aimed at countering both hard counterterrorism strategies and the propaganda of violent extremists. i Declaration The thesis is my own composition, all sources have been acknowledged and my contribution is clearly identified in the thesis. This thesis contains only sole-authored work, some of which has been published under sole authorship. Parts of Chapter 5 have been published in The Journal of Religion and Violence: Ceccarelli, Marco. "Catholic Thought as Soft-Counterterrorism: La Civiltà Cattolica on non-Violent Solutions to Islamic Terrorism." The Journal of Religion and Violence 2, no. 1 (2014): 6-44. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Marco Ceccarelli ii Acknowledgments I would like to express my immense gratitude to my supervisors, Professor Robert Stuart and Associate Professor Kati Tonkin, for having mentored me throughout these years of doctoral candidacy. I feel greatly indebted to Rob and Kati for their professionalism, outstanding support and for their ability to patiently guide me through the more challenging periods of this research project. I am also greatly indebted to the College of Writers at La Civiltà Cattolica in Rome for having given me unrestricted access to the material in their library and for their availability to discuss many of the issues raised in this thesis. The University of Western Australia’s school of Humanities and Graduate Research School provided ongoing financial support in the form of scholarships, research funding and through teaching in European Studies, which significantly contributed to the successful completion of this doctorate. I acknowledge and thank the schools for the opportunities they offered me in pursuing my scholarly interests. I also warmly thank the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies, the ACIS Cassamarca scholarships committee and the selection committee for the Éperon Fund for European Studies. The generous support given to me by these two institutions and the interest they showed in my topic greatly facilitated my access to the primary source material used in this thesis and my ability to network with scholars in this field of research. There are number of individuals who kindly assisted me during my research trips. First, I express my gratitude to Dr Nicole Touati and Laurent Lazzareschi at the Logan’s Centro Studi sul Terrorismo in Rome. Their generosity in offering me a study space at their headquarters, as well as frequent professional advice, was invaluable. The kind hospitality of Giovanna Mulas must also be acknowledged as it facilitated my mobility in Rome. I thank Dr Roberta Gisotti, head director of Vatican Radio and Lecturer at the Salesian Pontifical University. Roberta’s availability and professional guidance throughout my research trip in Rome greatly contributed to the restructuring of this thesis. I also want to thank Dr Rico Sneller and the organisers of "The Root Causes of Terrorism: A Religious Studies Perspective" conference held at Leiden University in 2011. My involvement in the presentations and discussions of this conference was of enormous value and greatly empowered my thesis. This research project would not have been possible without the support of my family and friends. In particular, I want to thank my father, Francesco, my mother, Carla, and my brothers and sisters, who have stood by me from the very beginning of this project. I also thank my fellow post-graduate colleagues Ashok Collins, Matthew Crowe, Golnar Nabizadeh, Samuel Hutchinson and Josh Brown for their friendship and for reading and providing feedback on my work. Finally, I thank my wife Emanuela. Emanuela provided invaluable support and thoughtful advice at every stage of this research project. I dedicate this thesis to her. iii Table of Contents Abstract i Declaration ii Acknowledgments iii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 Walking an Unsteady Tightrope: Tracing the Response of the Catholic Church to Political Violence in a Modern European Historical Context 29 Just War Theory and Legitimate Violence 30 Catholic Social Doctrine on Political Violence: A Shifting Pattern 33 Re-evaluating Just War Theory: The Catholic Church and Political Violence in the Twentieth Century 38 The Catholic Church and IRA Terrorist Violence 42 The Catholic Church as Defensor Italiae: Italian Red Brigade Terror 48 The Church and Terrorism Yesterday and Today: Lessons from the Past 53 CHAPTER 2 Between Confrontation and Dialogue: A Historical Overview of Christianity’s Relations with Islam 59 Early Christian Responses to Islam: Two Conflicting Traditions 60 Patterns of Ambiguity: Armed Conflict and Cultural Interaction 65 Changing Balances of Power, Missionaries and Imperialists 68 Steps towards Rapprochement: The Catholic Church and Islam in the Twentieth Century 76 The Second Vatican Council: A Turning Point 82 Interreligious Dialogue 87 iv CHAPTER 3 Analysing the Ideological Roots of Islamic Terrorism: La Civiltà Cattolica on Islamic Fundamentalism and Radicalism in the Twenty-first Century 93 Fundamentalism: Meaning and Origins 94 La Civiltà Cattolica’s Giuseppe De Rosa on Islamic Fundamentalism, Radicalism and Terrorism 98 A Shift in La Civiltà Cattolica’s View of Islamic Fundamentalism Giovanni Sale on Jihad in Islamic Thought 106 Belligerent Jihad 113 Political Islam and Democracy: Destined to Incompatibility? 117 CHAPTER 4 A Challenge for the Twenty-first Century: La Civiltà Cattolica on Christian Minorities in Islamic Countries 127 Christian-Muslim Relations in the Islamic World: Isolation or Interaction? 128 La Civiltà Cattolica on Christians in Saudi Arabia and Egypt 139 Islam in Africa 147 Religious Pluralism in the Islamic World: A Possibility? 150 Interfaith Initiatives: Breakthroughs and Obstacles 157 CHAPTER 5 Catholic Thought as Soft-Counterterrorism: La Civiltà Cattolica on non-Violent Solutions to Islamic Terrorism 164 Using Soft Power to Counter Islamic Terrorism in Europe 165 The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 171 Criticism of La Civiltà Cattolica’s Pro-Dialogue Position Towards Islam 179 A Soft Weapon against Terrorism: Self-criticism, a Challenge to Relativism and the Rediscovery of Europe’s Christian Identity 188 Conclusion 197 Bibliography 203 v Introduction Since the Islamic terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Western media has frequently referred to American theorist Samuel P. Huntington’s “Clash of Civilisations” theory in public debate.1 Huntington’s idea that post-Cold war conflict would be dominated not by ideological but by cultural and religious contention seemed, to many, the best way of making sense of an event that would in the following years be repeated in other Western countries. Despite criticism by numerous scholars that Huntington had misinterpreted the history of civilisations,2 his prediction of the kind of intercultural and interreligious clash that would affect the twenty-first century makes his theory a suitable starting point for this thesis. Huntington’s theory continued to make headlines throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century and was especially used in the month of

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