By the mid-18th century AD the Islamic state had expanded dramatically, and it remained firm for three successive centuries and only the Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Crete were later added. Thus there was an Islamic empire almost similar in terms of size and population to the Roman Empire. Only the Tang dynasty in China matched these two empires.
Thousands of Arab intellectuals and thinkers eagerly awaited the outcome of the Arab Cultural Summit’s first preparatory meeting which was attended by representatives from official cultural organizations and private cultural associations as well as Arab Writers Union, Arab Publishers Union, members of the Arabic Language Academies, the Arab Theatre Organization, translation institutes, Arab research and studies centres, media organizations, and thinkers, writers, poets and dramatists from 18 Arab countries.
There was once a fisherman who lived with his wife in a pigsty, close by the seaside. The fisherman used to go out all day long a-fishing; and one day, as he sat on the shore with his rod, looking at the sparkling waves and watching his line, all of a sudden his float was dragged away deep into the water.
As history reveals, ancient nations and current civilizations undergo tests which may continue for decades or centuries and experience cycles of decline in which nations and civilizations lose their sense of direction and identity before they appeal to their people to get them back on the right track, so they either recover or perish.
When I look into the conversations taking place in private and public gatherings, read newspaper or periodical commentaries or listen to the news on the radio and TV, I feel as if we were in a vicious circle, with a single source of information and news.
The year 2010 witnessed the passing away of a number of Arab icons of enlightenment and creativity; hard times, during which pages were filled with obituaries and eulogies, as is usual upon the death of persons, especially those altruists who carry out a mission for their nation and act as a model for future generations. A relevant question here is : When should we stop mourning and continue the mission of the deceased?
Analysts have for decades been describing the Arab younger generation as unreliable and even responsible for the ills of the present and the failures of the future. But the Egyptian youth days which started on 25 January this year dismissed these allegations and have not been just a change of the political power in Egypt, nor have they been a revolution of these young men and women alone, but, overall, have become a revolution of an age, which we have to think about and consider its philosophy, tools and worldwide implications.
We take for granted persistently recurrent phrases in the Western media and keep repeating them blindly in our Arab print, broadcast and visual media. The most serious of these allegations is that the Israeli state of occupation is the only democracy in the Middle East, a fallacy promoted by the West, which created Israel in our Arab region sixty-three years ago.
It is interesting to note that there are clear indications which show that the West is not fully aware of the realities of our life as Arabs and Muslims. This is seen in the appearance of such terms as conflict of civilizations and clash of civilizations over a number of decades. It is also seen in the West s relation with Asia which manifests itself, e.g. in military action and continued conflict in Afghanistan or tense relations with Pakistan and other Asian countries.
As explorer, colonialist, researcher and settler, the West has influenced the creation of a negative image of the communities in the East it believed to be less civilized and developed. Citizens have equally been influenced by such an image, and they see themselves through Western eyes.
Among the many unmistakable signs amid the current popular uprisings is that those million-strong protests are in essence a public rejection of the region s history of division and isolation as well as regional cultures and sectarian, tribal and class/group interests at the expense of national culture based on common ground and destiny.
Democracy has become today one of the key, and possibly the most widely used, words in the Arab media since the recent developments in the Arab region, which have revealed a number of changes in the political arena, including the rise of new groups of liberal political parties and the transformation of organizations and political forces, mostly Ishamist, which were not allowed to form legitimate political entities, to political parties as customarily recognized in civil communities.
