Mario Scialoja

Last updated September 15, 2019

Mario Scialoja (July 29, 1930 Rome, Italy - June 24, 2012) was an Italian diplomat. His last post was as Italian ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996. Upon retiring, he decided to spend his last years serving the Muslim community of Italy.^[1]

A diplomat is a person appointed by a State or an intergovernamental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other States or international organizations. The main functions of diplomats are: representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending State; initiation and facilitation of strategic agreements; treaties and conventions; promotion of information; trade and commerce; technology; and friendly relations. Seasoned diplomats of international repute are used in international organizations as well as multinational companies for their experience in management and negotiating skills. Diplomats are members of foreign services and diplomatic corps of various nations of the world.

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a European country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean sea and traversed along its length by the Apennines, Italy has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. The country covers a total area of 301,340 km² (116,350 sq mi), and land area of 294,140 km² (113,570 sq mi), and shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and a maritime exclave in the Tunisian Sea (Lampedusa). With around 60 million inhabitants, Italy is the fourth-most populous member state of the European Union.

In 1998, Scialoja promoted the opening in Rome of a branch of the Muslim World League, a Saudi NGO with its central headquarters in Mecca. He occupied the position of Vice President and Director General from 1998 to 2006, and, after resigning, remained a member of the group's Constitutive Committee. Subsequently, he was a member of the Consultative Commission for Italian Islam in the Ministry of the Interior, and Counselor of Administration of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Italy, the only Islamic institution officially recognized in Italy by a decree of the President of the Republic.

Muslim World League NGO based in Makkah, Saudi Arabia that propagates Islamic teachings

The Muslim World League is Pan-Islamic NGO based in Makkah, Saudi Arabia that propagates Islamic teachings. The NGO was funded by the Saudi government from its inception in 1962, with that contribution growing to approximately $13 million by 1980. Because of the Saudi funding, the League is widely regarded as promoting Wahhabism. The Oxford Dictionary of Islam says that "the group has acted as a mouthpiece for the Saudi Arabian government, which finances it."

Mecca, also spelled Makkah, is a city in the Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia. 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah, in a narrow valley 277 m (909 ft) above sea level, 340 kilometres (210 mi) south of Medina, its population in 2012 was 2 million, although visitors more than triple this number every year during the Ḥajj ("Pilgrimage"), held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhūl-Ḥijjah.

Islam is an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God (Allah), and that Muhammad is a messenger of God. It is the world's second-largest religion with over 1.9 billion followers or 24.4% of the world's population, commonly known as Muslims. Muslims make up a majority of the population in 50 countries. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and has guided mankind through prophets, revealed scriptures and natural signs. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, believed to be the verbatim word of God, and the teachings and normative examples of Muhammad.

Scialoja converted to Islam at the end of 1988, when he was Deputy Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations.

The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization tasked with maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international co-operation, and being a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. It was established after World War II, with the aim of preventing future wars, and succeeded the ineffective League of Nations. Its headquarters, which are subject to extraterritoriality, are in Manhattan, New York City, and it has other main offices in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna and The Hague. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development, and upholding international law. The UN is the largest, most familiar, most internationally represented and most powerful intergovernmental organization in the world. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193.

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The Society of the Muslim Brothers, better known as the Muslim Brotherhood, is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings spread far beyond Egypt, influencing today various Islamist movements from charitable organizations to political parties—not all using the same name.

Medina, also transliterated as Madīnah, is the capital of the Al-Madinah Region in Saudi Arabia. At the city's heart is al-Masjid an-Nabawi, which is the burial place of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Medina is one of the two holiest cities in Islam, the other being Mecca.

Wahhabism is an Islamic doctrine and religious movement founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. It has been variously described as "ultraconservative", "austere", "fundamentalist", or "puritan(ical)"; as an Islamic "reform movement" to restore "pure monotheistic worship" (tawhid) by devotees; and as a "deviant sectarian movement", "vile sect" and a distortion of Islam by its detractors. The term Wahhabi(sm) is often used polemically and adherents commonly reject its use, preferring to be called Salafi or muwahhid. claiming to emphasize the principle of tawhid or monotheism, dismissing other Muslims as practising shirk (idolatry). It follows the theology of Ibn Taymiyyah and the Hanbali school of jurisprudence, although Hanbali leaders renounced ibn Abd al-Wahhab's views.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy in which Sunni Islam is the official state religion based on firm Sharia law. No law requires all citizens to be Muslim, but non-Muslims must practice their religion in private and are vulnerable to discrimination and deportation. Children born to Muslim fathers are by law deemed Muslim, and conversion from Islam to another religion is considered apostasy and punishable by death. Blasphemy against Sunni Islam is also punishable by death, but the more common penalty is a long prison sentence. According to the U.S. Department of State's 2013 Report on International Religious Freedom, there have been 'no confirmed reports of executions for either apostasy or blasphemy' between 1913 and 2013.

Muhammad Zafarullah Khan Pakistani diplomat

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Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabian dissident, author, columnist for The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government after they had allegedly used Israeli spyware to hack his cell phone. He also served as editor for the Saudi newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi progressives.

During his papal tenure, Pope Benedict XVI focused on building on the outreach of his predecessors towards Islam, particularly on the efforts of Pope John Paul II, who experts say established trust and opened opportunities for dialogue with Muslims. One of the important milestones in the Pope's efforts included a religious and peaceful initiative called A Common Word. This was provoked by an ill-conceived 2006 lecture he delivered at a university in Regensburg, Germany, which prompted Muslim leaders to gather and make overtures to their Christian and Jewish counterparts. Later on, Pope Benedict pursued key initiatives that helped foster Christian and Muslim dialogue. These were founded on the Pope's belief that Christians and Muslims have shared religious experience and that Christianity and Islam are both theologically founded in "God's irruptive call ... heard in the midst of man's ordinary daily existence."

Romanzo criminale is an Italian-language film released in 2005, directed by Michele Placido, a criminal drama, it was highly acclaimed and won 15 awards. It is based on Giancarlo De Cataldo's 2002 novel, which is in turn inspired by the Banda della Magliana true story. The Magliana gang was one of the most powerful Italian criminal associations, dominating Rome's drug, gambling and other kinds of crime activities from the early 1970s to 1992. The gang's affiliates start their career kidnapping rich people, drug dealing from the 1970s they started working with the Italian secret service, fascists, terrorists, the Sicilian Mafia, Camorra and many more. Some gang members are still alive, as inmates of an Italian prison, or justice collaborators. The film is something of a showcase for a number of Italy's leading young film and television actors, notably Favino, who won a Donatello award for his performance as Lebanese. In 2008 a spin-off TV series commenced broadcasting.

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Roberto Ascione is an Italian entrepreneur and global thought leader in the field of digital health. He was founder of Healthware International, and on September 28, 2016, he was named as the Top Global Industry Leader by Health 2.0 organization.

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Mario Scialoja

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