Nacéra Benali, Nacéra Benali, Scontro di inciviltà.[The Clash of Incivility, Italians and Muslims: Ambiguities and Prejudices]

From the prejudice summarised in “Muslims refuse integration” to that one “ Muslims are all terrorists and have too many children”, the author sounds out all commonplaces in use the common language, phrases which crystallise and cage the way a large part of Italian public opinion ( yet valid for European and occidental one as well) tends to consider those who emigrate from Muslim countries, in particular Arabic ones.

Through continuous references to her personal experience, as a journalist who, to spare her life, was obliged to leave Algeria during the most bloody years, and thanks to the constant confrontation between clichés and concrete statistics data, Benali tries to give an accurate picture of the situations brought about by the encounter between communities from diverse cultures and religion. An encounter, if occurring in an atmosphere of mutual ignorance that assumes the features of a “Clash of Incivility” as runs the title of the book.

In backdrop, a bitterness is perceptible, stemming from the sad observation that very often, it seems impossible to seal a solid alliance between all those who, regardless of their geographic or cultural provenance, could stand against all kind of fanaticism and violence perpetrated in the name of a wrong idea of religious belonging.