At the University of Milan a course is being offered  on religion and politics, in the memory of Dr.  Enrica Collotti Pischel, who recently passed away.

Milan (AsiaNews) – Recently we have all begun talking about religion again. Perhaps this is so, since we are forced to understand a type of international terrorism that uses faith to justify its ends. The comparison-clash with Islam pushes us to look at the East, at Asia, the birthplace of the Islamic faith and home to most of its faithful.

The University of Milan is offering a precious opportunity to whoever wants to understand better the impact this religious phenomenon has today on major Asian nations.  

The course has as its theme "Religion and Politics in Asia Today", starting this Jan. 13 and ending Apr. 6. The weekly seminar, which is open to the public, will offer a deepening of knowledge on Afghanistan, China, the Philippines, Japan, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia and Pakistan

The course will meet every Tuesday  (exception: Monday, March 1) at 17:00 in the Faculty of Political Science's Sala lauree. (Via Conservatorio, 7, Milan).

The initiative is the fruit of the cooperation between the Asian History department chair and the Crespi Institute. (International Issues Study Center).

Dr. Francesco Montessoro, who is coordinating the seminar, told AsiaNews the course's objectives: "We want to face the issue of community/ethnic/cultural/religious relations which in recent years have taken on ever more significance in Asia. It does not deal so much with analysing the continent's religious traditions, but with gathering from the history and today's politics of various Asian countries the religious specificity assumed in relationships between different communities and groups." 

"The will be special emphasis on Islamic issues," notes Montessoro. "To such a degree that the topic will be taken up directly in six of the thirteen lectures. Also helping to organize the seminar is, therefore, Elisa Giunghi, the Islamicist in the Faculty of Political Science's international studies department. All the lecturers are teachers or university research specialists in the various geographical areas to be discussed." 

The initiative is not new. The person who has promoted and opened the course to the public and to students of the faculty was Dr. Enrica Collotti Pischel, who held the Political Science Faculty chair in History and Intuitions of Afro-Asian Countries since 1982. 

This year's course is the first one held with out her participation and, thus, is expressly dedicated to her. In recent decades, Dr. Collotti Pischel was among the most respected Asia scholars (particularly China) in Italy. She passed away last April, at 73 years of age, after a long battle with cancer.

• asia
• religions
• politics
• university
• of
• milan
• enrica
• collotti
• pischel