Abdellah Redouane, Ph.D.
Rome, Italy
No Matter Where I Am
I think that faith, any faith—needs to be lived with serenity everywhere. Evidently, the particularity is that the world unfortunately is divided by faith, geography, nations, etc. and what that does is… individuals don’t see themselves from the part of their human dimensions, but from categories of their faith. I personally always experienced this.
I first experienced this before I came to Italy, when I was a student in France. I went to France to study in the university, where the objective was the studies. My faith has nothing to do at all in regard to my daily life in the university. Faith has to be an individual matter. Evidently with numbers it becomes a phenomenon, but I always experienced it, making a difference between the official activity and the individual activity, and also in the community group. I don’t have a need to be in a community. I say this because I’m talking about my own experience. I don’t have to be in a group to adore God. I can adore him everywhere. In my country of origin, here in Italy, when I go to the United States of America… everywhere. Faith must remain the fact that connects the individual to their creator independently from the other aspects of life.
Daniel’s Reflection
Dr. Abdellah Redouane was the first person I interviewed in Rome. Italy was one of the very first countries I went to on this Portraits in Faith journey. Remarkably, Dr. Redouane was then, and in 2025 is still, the Secretary General of the Islamic Cultural Center and Grand Mosque of Rome. With the upcoming Portraits in Faith event at the Vatican, I was eager to look back at my interview with Dr. Redouane and reflect on his message of the role of the individual versus the community in one’s faith journey.
Abdellah Redouane is originally from Morocco but went to France for his university studies. He was then called to Rome to head up the Islamic Cultural Center. He faced pressures in France, presumably because its Muslim population from North Africa and the Middle East was growing. So, his reflection that faith should not depend on where you are geographically rings true. I experienced this as a Jew growing up in the American South in the 1970s. My connection to the Divine is an intimate and personal one regardless of my definition of God. As Dr. Redouane said: “I don’t have to be in a group to adore God.”
This raises the question of whether we can practice our faith only alone or if we must be in community. Judaism is very interesting in that it limits solitary prayer, and certain important prayers can only be recited when 10 people are present (traditionally men, but that has changed for the more liberal denominations). Again, I resonate with Dr. Redouane’s assertion that faith can be enhanced by community but cannot solely rely on it. If we do rely on it, we risk becoming “cultural Jews” or “cultural Muslims” or “cultural Christians,” all enjoying the foods and the holidays and the community without doing the deep personal soul-searching work required of a spiritual journey.
I find this all fascinating to reflect upon from the leader of the Muslim community in Rome. It’s a great reminder that community can get us started and can enhance and sustain us, but that we must each develop a faith that works to deepen our personal relationship to God as we understand God, regardless of where we find ourselves in the world.
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