Moderated by Luisa Chiodi.
The current and "media-driven" vision of the contemporary world, along with the hypertrophy of the serious issues connected to the geopolitical redefinition of the Near and Middle East, as well as to Islamist terrorism, largely depends on two factors: the scarce and ambiguous historical knowledge of our common past on one hand, and the semantic and lexical confusion between concepts that should remain as clearly and distinctly Cartesian as possible on the other. Cardini's presentation aims to clarify both the historical and semantic-lexical terms of the problem, particularly emphasizing the clichés that have accumulated around the concepts of "crusade," "jihad," and "clash of civilizations," while providing a dynamic and "à part entière" perspective on the relationships between the Western world and Islam, including the corresponding forms of coexistence, convergence, intertwining, and overlapping.
