YAHYA SERGIO YAHE PALLAVICINI, born in 1965 to a Japanese mother and Italian father is a Muslim-born Italian citizen. He works both in Rome and Milan where he lives with his wife and son, Muhammad Umberto.

2010

·          Vice President and imam of the Italian CO.RE.IS. (Italian Islamic Religious Community) (www.coreis.it).

·          Advisor to the Ministry of Interior in the Committee for Italian Islam.

·         President of the ISESCO Council for Education and Culture in the West.

·          Global Expert for the United Nations, Alliance of Civilisations (www.unaoc.org).

·         Advisor for relations with the Vatican and Italy. Catholic-Muslim Forum. Delegation of 138 international Muslim scholars, signatories of “A Common Word” (www.acommonword.com) addressed to the Christian religious authorities.

·         Founding member of the International Committee of Imams, Rabbis and Christians for Peace presented at UNESCO of Paris. (www.hommesdeparole.org).

·         Member of CEDAR, European Muslim Network-Policy Group (www.thecedarnetwork.com).

Publications

The book, L’Islam in Europa. Riflessioni di un imam italiano (Islam in Europe. Reflections of an Italian Imam) was published in 2004 by Il Saggiatore with a preface by Rocco Buttiglione the Minister for Community Policies and Amos Luzzato, President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, President of the Republic of Tunisia, awarded the prize for Islamic Studies to the French edition of this book at the World Competition in 2005.

His second book, Dentro la Moschea (Inside the Mosque) was published in October 2007 by BUR-Rizzoli and is a collection of the experiences and sermons of first generation Italian Muslims. In 2009 a catholic publisher, Edizioni Messaggero di Padova, publishes Il Misericordioso. Allah e i Suoi Profeti (The All-Merciful. Allah and His Prophets).

In 2010 Morcelliana editions pubblishes La Sura di Maria. The italian translation and commentary of the 19^th chapter of the Holy Qur'an.

In 1997 Yahya Pallavicini became part of the National Committee for Intercultural Education of the Ministry for Education, Universities and Research. In the same year he became a member of the Committee for the Heritage and Memory the Culture of the Mediterranean promoted by the Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Assets.

ISESCO the Islamic Organization for Education, Science and Cultureappointed him to the board

of governors of the Higher Council for Education in the West. The EIC (European Islamic Conference), first Islamic NGO to be recognised by the European Union, appointed him ambassador for relations with the Vatican and then made him responsible for international relations. In 1998 he is invited by the Muslim World League to be part of the delegation of Italian Muslims in the pilgrimage to Mecca.

As Vice President of the Italian CO.RE.IS. (Islamic Religious Community) he met Hassan II, King of Morocco, Hosni Mubarak, President of the Arabic Republic of Egypt and Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel.

He is the Imam of the al-Wahid Mosque in Milan in Via Meda where he coordinates the training of ministers of worship, preparing doctrinal sermons in Italian. In 2000 he became a member of the Council of Administration of the Italian Islamic Cultural Centre of the Mosque of Rome.

In 2004 he was received in the Quirinale by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of the Italian Republic, and by Marcello Pera, President of the Senate as member of the delegation of Italian Muslims, signatories of the Manifesto against Terrorism and for Life.

In 2005 he participated in the First World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace in Brussels, under the patronage of H.R.H Albert II King of Belgium and H.R.H Muhammad VI King of Morocco. In August of the same year he was invited by the Council of Muftis of Russia to be received in Kazan by the President of the Republic of Tartarstan as member of a delegation of Muslims of the European Union. Giuseppe Pisanu, Minister of Interior nominated him member of the Council for Italian Islam at the Viminale where he actively collaborated with Minister Giuliano Amato in the writing of the Charter of Values of Citizenship and Integration.

Since 2006 he has begun to develop transatlantic relations participating in a programme of cultural exchange for European Muslim leaders by the American Department of State. He has dealt with politics for integration and prevention of radicalism in Washington (Migration Policy Institute), Rome (International Organisation for Migration), Berlin (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung), Vienna (OSCE), Brussels (European Commission), Pontignano (British Council) and Doha (Debates for the BBC World News). In light of these experiences he has been invited by ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair to London, visited Jerusalem as Muslim member of the interreligious project organised by the American Jewish Committee and has taken part in the Congress of Imams of Europe promoted by the European Commission in Vienna. He meets Pope Benedict XVI at the end of the First Catholic-Muslim Forum held in the Vatican and attended by the delegation of the 138 International Muslim Scholars and the delegation of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

In December 2008 the mayor of the city of Milan, Letizia Moratti, presented Imam Yahya Pallavicini with the certificate of civil benevolence and, in the same year, the Council of Europe invited him to preside over a session of the meeting of Ministers of Culture in Baku, capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The following year he became the theological representative of an ethics committee for the certification of Halal Made in Italy products, an initiative promoted by the Chamber of Commerce of Milan. He was invited by José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, to attend the reunion on Ethics and Economy of Religious Leaders in Europe.

Since 2009, Georgetown University placed him among the 500 most influential Muslim institutional representatives in the world, in a publication by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre and The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

In 2010, the OIC, the most important institution of the Muslim World with 57 country members, invited him to present a research on the Challenges and the Opportunities of muslim minorities in Europe.