• On the Fringes of the Symposium

On the Fringes of the (Inter-Arab East – West Dialogue) Symposium

'Al-Arabi' magazine has held its annual symposium on the theme 'Inter-Arab East West Dialogue Diversity in Unity'. The symposium provoked such constructive dialogues and revealing discussions that require devoting a book exclusively to them. But the symposium's theme itself aroused a number of Arab concerns and issues which should not be disapproved of as subjects of conversation and discussion.

Far from political unity, there are many other practical, useful and endurable forms of unity, including the unity of pan culture in our Arab world.

'Al-Arabi' emerged as a cultural bridge linking all parts of the Arab world, and its annual symposium is an extension to its philosophy of emergence, in a spirit of innovation.

As the symposium came to a close and the last of the dear guests representing the Arab intellectual elite left Kuwait, it was an apt time for some rest. In such moments, reflection is an involuntary mental response after such exhausting discussions, contributions and arguments as well as historical and philosophical references by the participants who are scholars and leaders in their fields of specialization and expertise, which were relevant to the symposium's theme. Surprisingly, such moments of reflection do not usually stop at particular points in the dialogues, but tend to move towards the wider framework and gist of the discussions and interesting comments, and go beyond the specific theme to the overall Arab situation past, present and future.

The Need to Open Doors and Windows

Dr Ahmed Zaki immediately came to mind. He was the pioneering Arab scientist and prominent writer and thinker who was ahead of his time. He was the first editor in chief of 'Al-Arabi', carefully and successfully selected by the early generation of cultured Kuwaitis at formal and popular levels alike and by general Arab approval. He was perfectly acceptable to every fair, impartial and knowledgeable person. However, he couldn t help treading very warily on minefields of Arab sensitivities. That was perhaps the reason why I recollected the memory of that great man in the moments of reflection following the success of a symposium which, thank God, I believe ventured to approach some of such minefields, without setting off or injuring anybody.

I recollected Dr Ahmed Zaki's editorial in the January 1966 issue of 'Al-Arabi', which marked the seventh anniversary of the magazine. The editorial was given the heading : "We have started a blessed eighth year". Despite its radiant heading, the editorial couldn t hide some concerns and worries in the Arab life expressed under the significant subheading "Unmentionable Subjects". Surprisingly, after the lapse of almost four decades, many thorny Arab issues are still considered embarrassing or shocking to be spoken about, though they deserve frank discussion as a first step towards resolving problems and surmounting obstacles. Dr Ahmed Zaki expressed some of his concerns as editor in chief of this publication, which is truly pan-Arab par excellence, thanks to the will of its founders, writers and readers : "One thing we regret in terms of the choice of subjects. As 'Al-Arabi' enters all Arab countries, and in view of the current differing intellectual mood, certain topics which involve the future of the nation are regarded as taboos and can't be considered, even from a neutral point of view.

To us, there are two types of knowledge : a useful one which 'Al-Arabi' is allowed to carry and enter all Arab countries, and another useful one which 'Al-Arabi' is banned from carrying and entering one or more Arab countries, thus depriving readers of a lot of material which is neither taboo nor offensive.

Old and New Sensitivities

That was the remark made by an Arab thinker nearly forty years ago about inter Arab sensitive matters which are tolerated here and prohibited elsewhere. He gave two examples of such matters: the first : socialism, which was adopted by certain countries and rejected by others, and writing about it was therefore a risk depending on adoption or rejection, whereas openness and brainstorming were more appropriate to establish the truth early and could thus have saved a lot of energy wasted for decades and provide a safe middle road for all. In this context Dr Ahmed Zaki wrote: "Socialism has today become a loose cloak which covers whoever wears it and whatever meanings he carries. It is a serious, controversial issue, worthy of objective investigation and should not be looked at as unmentionable as far as culture is concerned.

Given the current concerns of the people, the above example many seem a remote one which was not given per se, but was meant to show such degree of sensitivity that prevented the discussion of topics closely related to culture as they represented ideas and philosophies subject to discussion and criticism. Furthermore, the writer gave other examples, the most relevant of which to our Arab topic being unity, which the symposium addressed its cultural aspect, in the non-political sense of the word, and in an approach closest to culture. In this connection Dr Ahmed Zaki wrote: "Another example of unity is Arab unity, which we strongly supported, as did others. That was when conditions were favourable, but in a changed, unfavourable climate, the atmosphere became gloomy and, as a result, people's interest in unity began to flag.

Celebrating unity, complete unity, is impossible in all climates, as that requires a favourable climate, but when there were dark clouds in the Arab sky people abandoned the idea of unity, and so did we. It was wrong of me to say that I did that in solidarity with peoples, as it should not be said that peoples' enthusiasm for unity waned because they suffered a lot from it. Anyway, when we honestly talk about unity and take off the mantle of politicians and ideologues, we may say that pan Arab unity retreated for the time being in the Arabs' eyes in consequence of the painful experience and events. Talk today ought to be about the unity of each country individually ... internal unity without which external unity is impossible. As far as we Arabs are concerned, the unity of hearts, of love, will suffice for not a short time to come.

I have quoted in full the example cited by Dr Ahmed Zaki about unity, as it all but describes our current situation in reverse order: there is marked disintegration of Arab action. I don t mean politics, but something deeper and more useful and effective, namely culture Arabic culture, the only remaning Arab unity, in spite of the rupture and flaccidity it has suffered. It is the unity of the tongue which is still Arabic, in spite of the distinctive dialects and accents. This tongue is not just movement of vocal organs producing an airstream passing though the pharynx, but, in linguistic terms, it carries signs, gets back to historical, material and spiritual roots and represents a rare heritage unmatched by any wealth owned by a community the size of the Arab community which occupies a major part of the world and possesses enormous assets and resources which need to be kept from loss.

A Heritage Worth Preserving

In order to maintain this Arabic cultural heritage and activate and promote it at present and in the future, the efforts of Arab intellectuals, reformers, thinkers, even enlightened politicians and those aware of the key role played by culture in every human action, continued, starting from socialization to internal economic performance, eventually reaching a worldwide status on the surface of our planet. This publication (Al-Arabi) may be an example of these efforts which have continued for almost five decades. In recent years, and thanks to the generous support of key officials of the Kuwaiti government and Ministry of Information by which the magazine and its publications are published without the slightest interference in its editorship, 'Al-Arabi' has been holding an annual symposium the purpose of which is engaging a civilized free discussion of a key issue of culture in general, and Arabic culture in particular. After three symposiums which discussed the issues of child culture, electronic publishing and cultural relations with the West, it was necessary to touch some unmentionable issues in such culture and discuss them in a responsible, open and friendly manner in the best interests of this culture and its lovers. In this context comes the theme of our new symposium, which is an extremely important subject, not only to our magazine but to the current situation of Arabic culture as well. Since its very first issue, 'Al-Arabi' has acted as a bridge between the Arab East and West, North and South, and has always been an ambassador at large surmounting geopolitical boundaries and passing differences. Whoever browses the first issue published on 1 December 1958 finds that it carries three illustrated surveys : one of Bahrain in the extreme Arab East, the second about Iraq's dates, which we hope their palm trees will come back safely with loftiness and friendliness , and the third about the glorious Algerian revolution which was then at its peak to free itself from the shackles of French colonialism. That has been Al-Arabi's policy for nearly a half century, combining on its pages countries, persons, ideas and innovations from the extreme Arab East to the extreme Arab West.

A Culture Facing Challenges

Al-Arabi's officials and staff believe that the real strength of the magazine as a pioneering publication resides in such diversity and its ability to make its pages an arena for dialogue and free discussion of ideas without any geographical or intellectual boundaries. That has been the basic concept guiding Al-Arabi's symposiums, including this year's, which is as important as the current situation of Arabic culture. In these days the winds of globalization threaten all shaky national identities and all but eradicate or marginalize them. Like a number of old cultures, Arabic culture is threatened by such a challenge, as it suffers not only from the common ills of backwardness in Arab society, the limited margin of freedom and suppressed factors of creativity, but also from the greatest threat to this culture, namely its subjugation to the factors of disputes and differences among its elements and their attempts to cancel, exclude, ignore others and diminish their role.

The strength of Arabic culture emanates from its unity in diversity which flows like a river to a single mouth. It emerged with the advent of Islam and spread as it spread. It does not concern a particular country, people or ethnic group, whatever the level of its noble descent may be, but concerns the whole nation. It is the result of the efforts of those looking for the essence of life, divers in the Arabian desert, the fruits of peasants tilling the land on the banks of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates and Barada, and vigorous shepherds on Atlas Mountains. It’s also concerns city dwellers, oasis Bedouins as well as the teachers of outlying villages. It equally concerns the many ethnic groups who live with us and with whom we have many things in common: ties of geography and history and spiritual bonds: Kurds in the north, Amazih and others in the west and African tribes in the south.

The very choice of the theme of this year's symposium was a risk and entry into the area of Arab sensitivities, but the Arab thinkers who enriched the symposium with their discussions made the risk a noble duty, and openness a healthy necessity that maintained friendliness and eliminated the embarrassment of sensitivity. The purpose of the symposium has been to move forward to get rid of recalling past misunderstandings and avoid differences or crying over spilt milk. Regret is an awful waste of energy and can't be built upon. All that is said about the centralism of Arabic culture and the East / West Arab, Arab / Arabist and native / non-native divide is now meaningless and an anachronism as being the remnants of weakness, feud and deterioration. What we need is a common vision, the combination of intellectual and political trends in order to revive and modernize this culture and make it objective and based on reason rather than ignorance and superstitions. We want the culture to influence people and preserve their heritage and maintain whatever is positive and turned to the times. We want it to reflect our character and civilization and help us look forward to progress and not be a sign of backwardness. At this year's symposium, and through twenty four papers and as many sessions, and hundreds of contributions and discussions, which acted as extra papers, I believe we managed to remove sensitivity from darkness to light and thus eliminated or at least minimized its weaknesses.

What was said plenty and important as it was-will definitely be the subject of a separate book and a forthcoming Talk of Talks of the Month.

Sulaiman Al-Askary

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