<i>Quo vadis Europa?</i>

I have read Francis Attard's article (July 31) with interest and would like to share my personal opinion as well.

Apparently, he is very concerned about Turkey's membership application to join the European Union and is calling everyone, meaning all Christians, to unite and prevent it from happening.

It is obvious that Mr Attard has some knowledge of history, and gave examples to support his opinion. Yes, he is right about Turks being of Asiatic origin. Turks travelled from Asia and settled in Anatolia, which is now called Republic of Turkey, and accepted the religion of Islam. To support his comments even more, Turks are proud of their origin and their choice of religion.

However, when he makes a point that the origin of the Turks is one of the reasons why Turks do not belong to Europe, it makes me wonder who really the Maltese are? He claims that Maltese are true European because they are Christians and influenced by its religion and culture. I have a question to ask Mr Attard. If by chance Turks were Christians, would it be okay for Turkey to join the European Union? If his answer is yes, then we can eliminate his argument that Turks are from Asia and therefore they do not belong in the EU.

This brings me to the same point of phobia of Christians who claim Islam as an inferior and out-dated religion and needs to be treated as a second class religion. Unfortunately, Mr Attard uses the right word of "extreme" Islamic fanaticism as an example which does not represent the true religion of Islam.

I consider Maltese people to be very open-minded and welcoming people but I am sure, if I seek extreme Christian fanatics and their radical beliefs in Malta and use them as an example of Maltese religion and culture, most Maltese would be offended. Moreover, I am married to a Christian Maltese and we do not impose our religions on each other, we respect each other's beliefs!

I am troubled to read that Mr Attard has given the positive examples of Christianity but chose to ignore the periods when people were tortured and burned alive for their beliefs. I do not want to get into the argument of which religion is better or worse but I would suggest Mr Attard reads a little about the history of Islam, especially under the influence of the Ottoman Empire, in which many artisans and scholars were encouraged to be creative.

He may even be surprised to find out that there were periods where science and arts flourished under the religion of Islam. Why cannot we just say that as two of the biggest religions in the world, Christianity and Islam can be accepted with their good and negative points and respect each other, instead of trying to prove to each other that one is better than the other?

He accuses Mr Bush and Mr Blair of diluting European Christian culture with a lower class religion, Islam! I may not always agree with their policy with regards to world events, but I am at least encouraged by their open-minded approach to the changing times in our current history.

They realised that separation of nations because of their religion does not reflect the changes in the world events. However, it is a pity that in the year 2003 there are some people who still live in the years of the Crusaders. This is so obvious that some people chose to accept ex-communist countries in the European Union which are far behind in the economical and cultural levels of Europe, just because they are Christians.

Mr Attard is so worried that he uses the word "disaster" when considering the thought of Turkey joining the European Union. Actually, his paranoia is very clear the way he ends his article: Let us defend Malta, Europe and the European Union.

When I read this, I thought I was back in the middle ages, when armies were marching to invade other nations. I have a better suggestion to Mr Attard, so that he can feel more secure in his very superior Christian club of Europe. Maybe the countries of Europe should build a fence, like Israel is doing, covering the whole continent and call back the "Knights of Malta" to protect them all from those invading Turks!

I will finish my comments by saying; I wish peace and understanding among nations, cultures and religions. May God open our blind eyes and minds and see the light of what it means to be a true believer of God.