The Maison des Services in Paris held on conference on Integration to celebrate May as the month of the Richness of Immigration. Ghaleb Bencheikh and G’rard Leroy head the list of conference participants to debunk the myth of a war of civilizations between Islam and the West. Bencheikh, doctor of theology, science, and physics, is a representative of Islam. Leroy, his counterpart, is a Christian theologian, ministerial counselor, and moral philosophy professor at the Catholic Institute in Paris. They urge Europeans to see diversity as an opportunity to live in harmony, without feeling threatened by difference. National identity, moreover, is not a monolithic entity that draws on one denominational or ethnic identity. Even Rousseau understood that nations were enriched by diversity. They agreed that instead of producing traumatic clashes, Muslims and Christians can and should strive to find areas of common ground.
