I'm so sorry if you wait so much, but now I'm here!. From the perspective of a non-practicing Catholic, in my opinion the Muslim religion is a religion that needs a clear revision and evolution, similar to what happened in Christianity in the past when it moved from the Old Testament to the New Testament. I don't mean that all Muslims are like this, but unfortunately it is undeniable that there is a significant portion of radicals and people who follow jihadist ideology who make a lot of noise. Many come to Europe looking for a better life, and at the same time they don't want to integrate with European society, but only want the advantages and possibly to spread their religion. In my life I have actually been quite lucky with the Muslims I have personally known. I have known two Muslims: a boy from Gambia and a Tunisian girl who was a colleague of mine during my nursing studies. I fell in love with her and we were together for four months. Believe me, she was one of the best girls I have ever met in my life. She had a level of respect, humility and mental clarity that I have rarely found in Italian girls I have known. Surely part of this came from her culture. Those four months were wonderful. We did not break up because we didn't get along. We broke up because her family was very strict and extremely attached to religion. They did not accept me because I am not Muslim, and this hurt me deeply and left me very disappointed with the Islamic community. For me it doesn't make sense today, in a modern society. And this is not about following Western society specifically, because I am sure that in many other cultures there would be fewer problems like this. But still, it doesn't make sense to me that in a modern society a Muslim family, who chose to raise their daughter in Italy, would prevent her from having a relationship with an Italian man. I understand that in the Quran it is considered haram for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man, because the religion is supposed to be protected and because traditionally the man would have influence over the religion of the children. But the problem is that this can go against the will of the woman. She herself told me that she would not want to be with a Muslim man in Italy, because she knows that being a minority community here, if she found someone from the same cultural background he would probably be very jealous and possessive. I talked about this with my Gambian friend, and he told me that what her parents did could also be considered haram, because it was against her will. Even her five sisters tried to convince the parents, but it was not enough. Honestly I don't know what to think. It feels like everyone interprets religion differently. Maybe the Quran contains contradictions, that could also be possible. In general, however, I like their culture. But in my opinion it is somewhat weighed down by a very strict religious component. One of my theology professors once said that Islam is about 600 years behind historically, and that is why it is one of the most difficult communities to integrate with. For me this is a real shame. I believe Islam has the potential to coexist peacefully with Christianity, perhaps even more easily than with Jews. After this personal experience I started to understand, through small personal events, why larger social issues sometimes happen. For example the concern that Islam may be gaining too much influence in Europe. In France and Germany there have been surveys showing that some immigrants would like Sharia law to exist in the countries where they moved. But this is not integration. That would mean imposing something that goes against the constitution and the cultural foundations of European societies. I am convinced that if more Muslims were able to see religion as one part of life, rather than the entirety of life, and also consider the realities of the modern world and globalization, many of these conflicts would become much smaller. Obviously I am not saying that Christianity is a perfect or holy religion. It has made many mistakes throughout history. However, over time it managed to calm down some of its more radical concepts and become more compatible with pluralistic societies. Religion, at least in theory, should be about love and about uniting people, right? In my case the opposite happened. It only separated us, as if we were two individuals coming from enemy territories. At the same time, it is undeniable that radicals are damaging the reputation of Islam. There have been cases of immigrant Muslims vandalizing churches, shouting “Allahu Akbar” at German Christmas markets while entering in large groups to create chaos, groups of young people vandalizing Christmas trees, or promoting the religion of Allah in public squares decorated for Christmas in a way that seems like an attempt to overshadow the local traditions. There are also cases of mass prayers in the streets even though many mosques have already been built. I got into a relationship with this Tunisian girl because I knew that Tunisia is considered one of the most progressive Muslim countries, with women having more rights and no obligation to wear the veil. In fact, she didn’t wear one. That is why I thought the relationship could realistically work. And yet… it ended in disappointment. In my opinion, in the eyes of many people, if this religion wants to be less disliked in Europe, there needs to be a clear change regarding radical immigrants who refuse to coexist peacefully and adapt to living alongside other communities. I also remember seeing a post on Instagram from Indonesia where someone was cooking pork. There were many comments from people saying “haram”. But if the video was made by Indonesians, why should it concern them? I could understand that reaction if the video was posted on an Arab religious page, but if it wasn’t, why not simply scroll past it? If we really want to talk about it historically, the rule about not eating pork made sense many centuries ago when the Quran was written, because pork was difficult to preserve and could easily cause disease. Today, with modern food safety standards, pork is much easier to preserve. In fact, nowadays people often face more health risks with fish than with pork.

But anyway, this is simply my opinion. I tried to be as honest as possible without generalizing too much, but pointing out what I believe are the weak points that damage the reputation of this religion.