Nicolini-Zani Islamic-Christian Report

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An Islamic-Christian Live-in for Young Italians

[Note: The Italian original contains more photos]

The third gathering of an Islamic-Christian live-in for young people, “inSiEME,”[1] ended on July 27, 2025. It was sponsored by the Community of Bose in collaboration with the interreligious youth movement “Astri nella notte” (Stars in the Night) in Milan, and was supported by the Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of Piedmont. The initiative brought together thirty-six young Christians and Muslims, between 18 and 35 years of age, in Bose for five days of communal life aimed at getting to know each other, dialoguing about life and faith, and weaving fraternal relationships.

Coming from Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria, Triveneto, Emilia Romagna, and Tuscany, young men and women were able to experience moments of prayer, dine and work with the brothers and sisters in various areas (among them, vegetable and flower gardens, the orchard, the production of jam, and the bakery), and engage in study, reflection, and exchange based on each person's specific religious identity. Along wiith some of the monks and nuns of Bose, the young people visited the Mohammed VI mosque in Turin for Friday prayers, followed by an intense conversation with Imam Ibrahim Gabriele Iungo, whose friendship and collaboration has supported our journey since its inception.

This year, we chose to explore the topic of hope. In a dark moment for humanity, we who believe in the God of life and not of death wanted to give particular attention to this theme, which Imam Iungo described as “heroic and untimely.” We began by examining our respective Scriptures to rediscover words of peace that we had in common and then by listening to two witnesses of hope who encouraged us to promote actions of peace: Hamdan al-Zeqri, delegate for interreligious dialogue and assistance to prisoners of UCOII (Union of Islamic Communities in Italy) and Islamic minister of worship in the Sollicciano prison, and Don Claudio Burgio, priest of the diocese of Milan, founder of the Kayros community for minors and chaplain of the “Cesare Beccaria” juvenile detention center in Milan.

Their presentations were another gift on our journey—a journey that is “kind and responsible,” as our friend Hamdan described it, a journey that God is supporting with his grace and mercy and which, inshallah, already anticipates the next step to be taken together. This shared anticipation is now deeply rooted in our hearts and was well expressed by the words of one of the participants who asked as he bid us farewell, “Have you already set the dates for next year?”

With this look of desire and hope, we want to thank God and each of the participants, who in recent days have not only spoken of hope but have contributed to sowing seeds of hope and nurturing their growth. Hope for peace and brotherhood in a time of widespread and atrocious conflict and violence. For “every dialogue is disarmament, every outstretched hand is a barrier against the next war”: words that Djenebou Sony, a young woman from Mali who now lives at Rondine Cittadella della Pace (Arezzo), wanted to convey to those present through a “poem of peace,” a prayer that invites us all to be “united and determined to build a world of peace.”

Poem of peace

Our voices, our struggles — the sweet sadness of peace to be built.

We were not born to recount

our sorrows, our pains, or these burning tears.

Why offer the world the scars of our hearts,

when war already weaves so many broken stories?

And yet...

Under the ashes of our silences, a fragile breath resisted.

Before Rondine in Italy, before dialogue, before the courage to understand,

we thought our stories had no weight.

But today we know:

even the most trembling voice can become light.

Even a whisper can break the chains of hatred.

We are children of Lebanon, Palestine, Armenia, and Azerbaijan,

of Congo, Ukraine, Mali, and so many other places of war.

Black or white, women and men, united by pain and hope.

Born under skies pierced by bullets,

where lullabies fade away under the roar of guns.

Where classrooms become precarious shelters,

and every lesson is an act of resistance against oblivion.

Because where weapons destroy, education rebuilds.

Knowledge has been our lantern in the night of conflict,

our shield against ignorance and terror.

Our mothers, often unlettered, were our first schools,

their eyes reading the dreams they could not write.

They taught us that “the tree that bends in the storm does not break.”

We have seen cities torn apart, families scattered,

girls raped, sold, mutilated under the silence brought about by bombs,

children torn from their childhood, soldiers against their will.

We have seen women bear endless grief,

victims of a patriarchal system that uses them as weapons of war,

but which can never extinguish their light.

“When women stand tall, the people stand tall.”

And men too, trapped in their roles as protectors,

crushed by the weight of duty, fear, and unspoken wounds.

Many have fallen. Many have cried in silence.

Because war spares neither gender, color, nor age.

We have gone through grief, epidemics, attacks,

we have buried friends, seen our fathers collapse,

seen orphans carry burdens too heavy for their shoulders.

“When the pillar collapses, the whole roof shakes.”

Hatred could have consumed us.

Brothers and sisters in faith, may your prayers become living bridges between mosques, churches, synagogues, and forgotten temples.

May love for one's neighbor, engraved in every verse, every gospel, every psalm, become a balm for bleeding lands.

Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, believers of every faith, let us kneel together on this wounded earth to lift up the souls broken by war.

Where bullets pierce walls and silence, may our voices of peace cry out louder than guns, until they pierce sleeping hearts.

For God, under all his names, weeps for every empty cradle, every orphaned gaze—and blesses, with a breath of eternity, every hand that reaches out to heal.

Today we are young lawyers, religious teachers, humanitarian workers, volunteers,

but above all we are bearers of voices, voices for those who are constantly silenced.

Voices that gather the tears of widows, exiles, survivors, carrying their weight with dignity, without judgment.

“Those who bear the pain of others also lighten their own.” And you, even if war seems not to concern you, have a role to play.

Because no one is immune to the ashes of conflict. Silence is complicity. Indifference is a weapon.

Every dialogue is disarmament. Every outstretched hand is a barrier against the next war.

Yes, conflict devastates homes, snatches away fathers, crushes mothers, steals children's dreams.

But education remains the most powerful weapon, said Nelson Mandela.

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Djenebou Sony, I come from Mali. Today, here, before you, we launch this appeal: listen to the silenced voices.

Support education, especially for girls, in wounded areas.

So that no little girl is torn away from her schoolbooks,

so that no woman is silenced by fear,

so that no man remains a helpless spectator to the tragedy of his society.

Break down the walls of silence, reveal the invisible violence.

Invest in peace, not weapons. Choose compassion over revenge.

Give a chance to the dreams that someone wanted to bury. Because choosing life means choosing love instead of hate, forgiveness instead of revenge,

rebuilding instead of destroying. “Where hatred sows death, let our love bring life back to bloom.” Beyond the wounds, we are still here. Standing.

United. Alive. And determined to build a world of peace.

Note

[1] The Italian word insieme means together; seme means seed

Matteo Nicolini-Zani is a monk of the Community of Bose (Italy) and coordinator of the Italian Commission of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue. He holds a Master of Arts Degree in Chinese Language and Literature. His main interest of research is the history of Christianity in China, a topic upon which he published several articles and books. His most recent book is The Luminous Way to the East: Texts and History of the First Encounter of Christianity with China, published by Oxford University Press (2022).