Posted on 03 July 2018
Dr Mohammad Ibn Abdulkarim Alissa, Secretary-General of the Muslim World League and Rabbi Joseph Levi, former chief Rabbi of Florence, visited the Historical Archives of the European Union on 26 June 2018. They were accompanied by Izzeddin Elzir, Imam of the Florentine and Tuscan Islamic Community, and Msgr. Andrea Bellandi, vicar general of the Florentine archdiocese.
Dieter Schlenker, Director of the HAEU, and Miguel Maduro, Director of the School of Transnational Governance, welcomed the faith leaders to Villa Salviati, during their visit to the European University Institute.
The World Muslim League is an international non-governmental Islamic organization and its members are currently on an extended trip to Italy. During this trip, they are taking part in a series of institutional visits to promote intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
At the Historical Archives, they were given an overview of the documents stored there. Amongst others, they were shown documents from the private archives of Ernesto Rossi, co-author of Altiero Spinelli’s famous Manifesto di Ventotene, and the Council of Ministers files containing the minutes from the ministerial meeting on 25 March 1957 in Rome at the occasion of the signature of the Rome Treaties. The group also toured Villa Salviati, its grotto, as well as the repositories where the memory of the European Union is kept.