04
October - December 2012
The wind of change
Interview with the Italian Minister Andrea Riccardi
Change in the Middle East
Cultures
04
October - December 2012
The wind of change
www.agiarab.com Papers of Dialogue: no 4 | October-December 2012
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Interview with the Italian Minister Andrea Riccardi
Change in the Middle East
Cultures
TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview 04 Cooperation, a key priority Interview with Italy’s International Cooperation and Integration Policies Minister Andrea Riccardi Gaia Vendettuoli
Change in the Middle East
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10 Beyond the fear of the unknown Interview with Professor John L. Esposito Daniel Atzori 15 The challenges of Turkish foreign policy Yavuz Baydar
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18 The Silk Road goes through Beirut Nicole Hamouche 22 Jordan’s way forward Zu’bi Al Zu’bi
Cultures
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26 Art without borders Interview with Resmi Al Khafaji Jalal Sabir 30 The real value of interreligious dialogue Interview with Father Paolo dall’Oglio Jalal Sabir 34 An Italian in Cairo’s Arabic Language Academy Azzurra Meringolo 37 Theatre, a critical interpretation of reality Giulia Doninelli 40 Ramadan in Milan Rassmea Salah
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Biographies
Interview
Interview with Italy’s International Cooperation and Integration Policies Minister Andrea Riccardi
Cooperation, a key priority by Gaia Vendettuoli Journalist at AGI (Italy)
The promotion of international cooperation and development is not only just and fair from an ethical point of view, but it is also an investment for the future in terms of stability, security, environmental preservation and economic opportunities. Thus, fostering “development diplomacy” should be one of the main concerns of Italian foreign policy. Development diplomacy could be an integral part of international policymaking and an investment in the future in terms of stability, security, environmental safeguards and even growth opportunities. Italy is ready to face that challenge beginning with the Milan Forum on International Cooperation. Here is an interview with Andrea Riccardi, Minister for International Cooperation and Integration Policies. Cooperation fuels more cooperation. The core objective is to bring about that cultural shift, that new vision for Italy and its role in the world which will – at last – lead us to view cooperation as an investment in our country and its future, in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Cooperation “benefits the entire national framework, as it is a matter of interest for the good of our country”, stressed Andrea Riccardi at the National Forum on Cooperation, which was held in Milan in early October. Mr Riccardi himself strongly advocated for and organized the two-day forum. It was a politically intense event and left its mark, as borne out by Prime Minister Mario Monti’s speech and a video message from Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. The latter made a clear appeal: “Cooperation
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should be reinserted into our core foreign policy in the noblest sense of the term.” The establishment of a Ministry for International Cooperation and Integration for the first time in the country’s history should be viewed through the same lens. The forum in Milan is the first step on a new path, albeit one fraught with difficulties, such as spending cuts exacerbated by the economic crisis and 15 years’ worth of failed attempts at legislative reform. The road that lies ahead may not be obstacle-free, but it constitutes “a unique opportunity to leverage and revive Italian development cooperation.” Let’s look at cooperation in times of crisis: the three years between 2008 and 2011 were devastating from a resource standpoint: 78% of public development aid funds were cut and Italy’s public development aid now amounts to 0.12% of GDP against the 0.5% allocated by virtuous countries such as Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. Yet at the end of 2011 a Ministry for International Cooperation and Integration was set up for the very first time. Have we reached a turning point? I believe it marks a very important step. By
Interview
establishing a cooperation ministry, the government sent out a clear message: Italy’s cooperation sector can no longer bring up the rear in Europe. How did it happen? Because it has always been viewed as secondary compared to Italy’s international policies and has always been considered something useless, or driven by kindheartedness, or an after-thought to the country’s international policy choices, while it is in fact something much more substantial than that. A country which fails to engage in cooperation may appear to be introverted. It’s no coincidence that this very period has seen Italy turning inward on itself as far as international relations go, and that has not only affected its image but also caused political, economic and I would even go so far as to say cultural damage. Africa, for example, has a considerable vacuum where Italy is concerned. That vacuum is filled by others and that is a shame, for both Italy’s and Africa’s sakes. Think back to the wave of Muslim protests sparked by the blasphemous video of the Prophet Mohammed or the terrorist attacks in the Sahel. Cooperation means you’re there - sharing and engaging. It’s no coincidence that law 49/87, though outdated, defines cooperation as an “integral part of foreign policy”. Are we then to believe that “development diplomacy”, as a priority instrument pertaining to international relations, can play a role? I truly believe that it can. I think cooperation is a key factor in our country’s international policy-making. But it comes with its own set of values; that’s not to say that it’s against foreign trade and traditional diplomacy, but it entails a somewhat original approach, and a globalized world is one which requires multiple approaches. Meaning what? We need to forge a cultural battle in Italy, and not merely settle for asking the state for
Andrea Riccardi, Italian Minister for International Cooperation and Integration Policies
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In 2013, Italy’s cooperation sector will be allocated some 174 million Euros against 2012’s 133 million. Of the funds that have been earmarked for next year, some 43.5 million will go toward paying the relevant international organizations their fees. The 2012 Economic and Financial Document states that the government will target “concrete action to gradually realign Italy with international standards” in the 3 years spanning 2013-2015. Measures are to include a “gradual increase, on a yearly basis, equivalent to at least 10% of funding allocations provided for by law 49 from 1987, using 2011 as reference year”.
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... Law 49/87 On February 26 of 1987, the “New rules governing Italian cooperation with developing countries, came into effect, and they are still in force. Among other things, Law 49 sets out the following: - the definition of development cooperation as an “integral part of Italian foreign policy”; - the coordination of cooperation policies entrusted to the Interministerial Committee for Development Cooperation (CICS), which was abolished in 1993 when some of its tasks were transferred to the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning (CIPE); - that the Treasury is the competent body for the management of contributions to development banks and funds; - the centralization of administrative and technical functions; - the creation of an extra-budgetary Special Fund to finance donation initiatives (abolished in 1995); - that the Revolving Fund, established in 1977, was to be managed by a bank in charge of issuing assistance loans; - the establishment of a Commission for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and an Advisory Committee, both of which were abolished in 1996; - that a yearly report be drawn up reflecting the outcome of cooperation activities and that a public database be set up for the insertion of all such initiatives (never implemented).
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funding. That battle is needed to raise awareness among Italians as to the fact that cooperation is morally right in the spirit of solidarity among nations and their peoples. And that it’s also convenient: it’s an investment in the future, in terms of stability, security, environmental safeguards and even economic opportunities. In a globalized and increasingly interdependent world, growth involves everyone. In this context, the Forum on Cooperation should be more than a platform through which to rant against a state which has reduced funding; it ought to be used as a cultural campaign to educate Italians on the importance and value of international cooperation. Failing that, in the absence of ideas, funds will also remain scarce. So we could build cooperation knowledge and appreciation… We could build ‘popular’ culture concerning
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cooperation knowledge and appreciation aimed at the very fabric of our country, because so many little fragments and components come into it. Cooperation does exist in Italy in the small country made up of minor council and parish projects. But there’s a different side to the country, one where local bodies and the like produce major initiatives. That’s the Italy we must get to know, whose potential we should harness. To that end could the forum, through the countless stakeholders who make their voices heard there, represent a handbook of sorts, with guidelines and priorities which can lead the way in 2013? Of course. From that point of view, I must say I was quite surprised to see so many different people and such diversity among the stakeholders who took part in the forum, though they were all of major caliber: not only institutions, partners, associations, and representatives from the private sector and the world of finance, but also a great deal of civil society representatives. The world of NGOs is often portrayed as one in which people pound the pavement and complain. It isn’t so; it represents an attractive side of Italy - Rossella Urru’s Italy. A side of the country where there are more women than men, a country which feels the need to broaden its horizons, to look beyond its own borders and conquer the world’s frontiers. It represents a wealth of human capital for our country. Yet the economic crisis has heightened the differences between all those NGOs and put the spotlight on a breach which might hamper attempts at revamping the Italian cooperation sector… Our production sector is facing those very same problems, vis-à-vis large and smallscale companies. The same goes for Italian NGOs. The real problem lies in the fact that a cooperation ministry, along with all the different departments and dedicated institutions, need to present a united front. We’re not suggesting that NGOs merge, what we’re asking them to do through the forum is agree on a scheme in which each of
Interview
them, with their own specificities, individual nature, extremely valuable ideals, and insights that define them all play a specific role. Basically, we’re not blaming NGOs for the lack of a common vision. It’s up to others to achieve that. Do you think the new post, Minister for International Cooperation and Integration, will last? Will the new ministry last or will the old model used by the Prodi administration be reinstated, with the deputy foreign minister in charge of the cooperation portfolio? I think there ought to be a cooperation minister. That is what this government has witnessed: a cooperation sector which used the bare minimum in terms of resources and got back on track. It has been hailed as a positive experience across the board. I think accountability to political authorities is important: consulting with and liaising with the prime minister, foreign minister and economy minister. Cooperation should be what it once was, an Italian undertaking. Forecasts say funding will increase 10% compared to 2010. That realignment plan is not a lie, it’s a plausible commitment. What legacy will this technocratic cooperation ministry be leaving in terms of the results it has yielded and challenges for the future? The return to Africa, leveraging everything we do in that continent, enhancing Italy’s presence in the Sahel, strengthening our presence in Lebanon. And, above all, a targeted cultural campaign on cooperation. I’ll say it again: cooperation is not a hangover from the days when the spirit of solidarity prevailed; it is merely the first step, and a sign that Italy is changing and growing – it’s a country in motion. What is the current health status of Italy’s development cooperation sector? Aid workers have felt somewhat abandoned, neglected and forgotten. But I’ve met many admirable people the world over who believe in what they do.
National Forum on Cooperation, Milan, Italy
Is focusing on first-rate initiatives enough to offset the dearth of resources? Coherence, transparency and effectiveness are all fundamental principles in our assistance efforts. But we may be fooling ourselves if we think that it’s about ‘quality, not quantity’. I think we need to demand the very best in terms of quality, but we also need to ensure that standard can be upheld and we do that by assigning it a certain quantity. Parliament has begun proceedings for the reform of law 49/87. What key points will the law contain? Would it be best for the law to be ready by the end of this government’s term? Law 49/87 is old and inadequate, despite having been a good law at the time. I think it
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Rossella Urru
Rossella Urru is a young Italian aid worker. She was kidnapped from Saharawi refugee camp near the Algerian town of Tindouf in October of 2011 along with two Spanish colleagues. She was released in Mali in July of 2012.
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should be reviewed, but that will take time and an in-depth analysis. The cooperation sector is in motion, the forum is out there and it will be up to the next government to review it. We need to wait for the cooperation phenomenon to turn a corner and begin a new chapter. The government has contributed to setting the process in motion, and it requires a new regulatory framework. Over the years the world has changed: several countries had an ‘Arab spring’, cooperation in Latin America has changed, and India and China are no longer poor countries, but emerging markets. Everything has changed, including cooperation. The cooperation-integration duo suggests that development assistance initiatives must be coupled with integration policies in order to be effective. What does investment in integration imply for a country where immigration is a phenomenon dealt with almost exclusively in the emergency context? It is time for us to move away from the emergency mindset. Migrant arrivals have fallen compared to last year. Immigration
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isn’t about Lampedusa - it’s about all the workplaces and schools where adults and children from all sorts of countries coexist in peace and harmony. We need to work on integration which involves both foreigners and Italians to develop the reception and language components as well as the legal and security ones. Italy’s experience of immigration doesn’t merely amount to boat landings; some migrants have been in this country for over 20 years. There are children who were born here, who speak Italian or are learning the language, and are waiting to be given citizenship. We must stop being wary of immigration, because it contributes significantly to our country’s growth and development. Once again, this isn’t an act of kindness we’re talking about, we can’t say “we’re opening up our borders because there’s a world full of desperate people out there”; that doesn’t apply here. That applies to refugees; it’s different. What has your ministry done about this issue and what objectives does it aim to achieve before the end of its term? We have had to face a whole range of constraints, because knowledge and uptake of the notions of immigration and integration have developed at a slow pace. But we’re now striving to stop black market activity, which will in turn enable us to get rid of certain pockets of crime, or at least try to do so. We have adopted an EU directive which allows us to ‘crack down’ on the exploitation of illegal migrants. There is no longer a 5% tax for remittances – it was absurd, because remittances are key in promoting decentralized and participatory cooperation initiatives. So we have achieved something. I think when it comes down to it, we’ll have to readjust many of the foundations within our perspective on immigration, but integration will forge ahead in the meantime. And, above all, Italy’s public perception of immigration has matured considerably. I truly hope that the upcoming election campaign won’t set us back.
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Change in the Middle East
Interview with Professor John L. Esposito
Beyond the fear of the unknown by Daniel Atzori Editorial Team Coordinator of “Papers of Dialogue”
The United States and the European Union should support democratic institutions and processes in the Arab world; the real threats to the West do not spring out of civilizational differences, but from political and socioeconomic realities that breed instability and radicalism. Professor John L. Esposito
“The challenge for American and European policymakers will be to move beyond equating protection of national interests with the stability and security of authoritarian regimes, beyond fear of the unknown and of a process whose outcome it cannot control to a policy based on American and European principles of selfdetermination, democracy and human rights”. In the second part of his exclusive interview with Papers of Dialogue, Professor John L. Esposito outlines his views on the priorities of US and UE foreign policy in the Arab world, and he also warns us on the growing danger of Islamophobia. John L. Esposito is Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University (Washington D.C.), as well as Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. He has published more than fortyfive books and monographs on the history and politics of the Arab and Muslim world. In 2011, you edited a book entitled Islamophobia: The Challenge of Pluralism in
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the 21st Century. Do you see a growing risk of intolerance towards Muslims in the United States and Europe? And what are the roots of this phenomenon? The legacy of the 9/11 and post 9/11 terrorist attacks has been exploited by media commentators, hard-line Christian Zionists and political candidates whose fearmongering targets Islam and Muslims. Islamophobia is fast becoming for Muslims what anti-Semitism is for Jews. Rooted in hostility and intolerance towards religious and cultural beliefs and a religious or racial group, it threatens the democratic fabric of American and European societies. Like anti-Semites and racists, Islamophobes are the first to protest that their stereotyping and scapegoating of these “others” as a threat to all of us, incapable of integration or loyalty, are not Islamophobic. Yet, examples that illustrate the social cancer of Islamophobia that is spreading across the United States, infringing upon the constitutional rights of American citizens, abound. For example, across the US a major debate has erupted over building an Islamic community center a few blocks from
Change in the Middle East
the site of the World Trade Center. Today, opposition to mosque construction with claims that all mosques are “monuments to terrorism” and “house embedded cells”, in locations from NYC and Staten Island to Tennessee and California, has become not just a local, but also a national political issue. Moreover, hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise across the country. What constitutes an Islamophobe? An Islamophobe believes that Islam, not just a small minority of extremists and terrorists, is the problem and a threat to the West, and that the religion of Islam has no common values with the West. Furthermore, they think that Islam and Muslims are inferior to Judaism and Christianity and that Islam is an inherently violent religion and political ideology rather than a source of faith and spirituality. They also argue that Muslims cannot integrate and become loyal citizens and that most mosques should be monitored for embedded cells, and that Islam encourages its followers to launch a global jihad against all non-Muslims, but in particular against the West.
What fuels the fires of discrimination against Muslims? There is no lack of hate speech in the media and in print to empower Islamophobia. The media, whose primary driver is sales and circulations, caters to explosive headline events: “What bleeds, leads”. The primary focus is often not balanced reporting, or even coverage of positive news about Muslims, but on highlighting acts and statements of political and religious extremists. Political and religious commentators write and speak out publicly about Islam and Muslims, asserting with impunity what would never appear in mainstream broadcast or print media about Jews, Christians and other established ethnic groups. If one takes out the word “Muslim” and substitutes “Jew” or “Catholic” in many of the articles targeting Muslims, the negative public reaction would be monumental. The net result? All Muslims have been reduced to stereotypes of Islam against the West, Islam’s war with modernity, and Muslim rage, extremism, fanaticism, and terrorism. The rhetoric and hatred of a violent minority has been equated with the antiAmericanism or anti-Westernism of a peaceful,
Rashid Ghannouchi, leader of the Tunisian Islamist movement Ennahda
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Change in the Middle East
Muhammad Morsi, President of Egypt
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Far from seeing the U.S. as a leader, Arab countries surveyed viewed U.S. “interference in the Arab world” as the greatest obstacle to Middle East peace and security
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mainstream majority, all lumped together in the question (more a belief) “Why do they hate us?”. Islam and Muslims, not just the small minority of Muslim extremists and terrorists, are cast as the peculiar and demonized “other” with serious international and domestic consequences. What are, in your view, the opportunities of the current historical phase in relation to intercultural dialogue? The current transformation in the Arab world offers new opportunities for rebuilding ArabWest relations. The challenge for American and EU policymakers today is to construct a new narrative and framework to replace a failed paradigm and conventional wisdom, based on support for authoritarian regimes and the “democratic exceptionalism” in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Policymakers must move beyond policies that equated protection of national interests with the stability and security of regimes and were driven more by fear of the unknown than support for Western principles of self-determination, democracy and human rights. This policy, while attractive to authoritarian allies and their entrenched elites, fed anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism, fears of Western intervention, invasion, occupation and dependency. Gallup’s offers important insights for Arab-West relations, discrediting the old conventional wisdom. These beliefs included support for authoritarian regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere; that the Arab culture of Islam is incompatible with democracy; and that these regimes were a
necessary bulwark against the triumph of Islamists, “other Irans” and the imposition of Islamic states. The Gallup report underscores the need for a new narrative and the extent to which a past history of influencing or intervening in Arab politics has backfired and sown the seeds of distrust. Two-thirds of Egyptians surveyed think the U.S. will try to interfere in Egypt’s political future as opposed to letting the people of the country decide alone. A similar number disagree that the U.S. is serious about encouraging democratic systems of government in their region. Thus, Egyptians, especially those who most admire America’s democratic principles, want to forge their political future independently. Almost 90% of Egyptians, who see the U.S. as a political model for their country, oppose U.S. aid to political groups in their country more than those who hold this view among the general public (75 percent). Perhaps as a result, 52 percent of Egyptians oppose accepting economic aid as a whole – 43 percent among those believe Egypt should look to the U.S. model of democracy. As the recent Zogby international poll for the Arab American Institute Foundation reported, far from seeing the U.S. as a leader, Arab countries surveyed viewed U.S. “interference in the Arab world” as the greatest obstacle to Middle East peace and security (61 percent), all but tied with the continued occupation of Palestinian lands (60 percent). What is your opinion on both Arab regimes and Western governments’ long-held fears of popular support for “other Irans”? The uprisings revealed a broad-based prodemocracy movement that is not driven by a single ideology or by religious extremists. What has occurred is not an attempt at an Islamist takeover, but a broad-based call for reforms. Thus, for example, although the overwhelming number of Egyptians affirm the importance of Islam in their lives, they have virtually no interest (1 percent) in modelling their political system on Iran’s Islamic Republic or any theocracy. Most Egyptians (69 percent) think religious leaders should be limited to an advisory role to government authorities. Mainstream Islamists are also part of a generation of Arab youth and
Change in the Middle East
other reformers, diverse and different, united in their desire to topple entrenched autocrats and establish more democratic governments. Responding to the political realities of their societies in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and other Arab countries, they have become part of the broader landscape. They reject an extremist vision of imposing an Islamic state and have embraced a democratic electoral process and political pluralism. What could be the consequences of the emergence of new Arab governments on the relationships between the Arab world and Israel? More populist Arab governments will be more independent and critical in their approach to Israel. While steadfastly assuring Israel’s security, the U.S. and the EU need to let Netanyahu feel Israel’s growing isolation in the international community. The US and EU response to Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel’s obstructionism and flouting of democracy and human rights are critical to their credibility and relations with new emerging governments. The fallout from the perceived failure of the US administration and the EU to strongly criticize Netanyahu’s policies and pressure the Greek government not to block the flotilla was compounded by the Obama administration’s ostensible stated opposition to and lobbying of EU allies and other members of the international community to vote against U.N. General Assembly resolution recognizing Palestine as a state. What do Muslim nations think of the United States and European Union policies? The Bush legacy in the Muslim world leaves America with a significant credibility gap to overcome. While the spread of democracy has been the stated goal of the United States, majorities in some 35 Muslim nations surveyed by the Gallup World Poll did not believe that the U.S. was serious about the establishment of democratic systems in the region. For example, only 24 percent in Egypt and Jordan and only 16 percent in Turkey agreed that the United States was serious about establishing democratic systems. In Egypt as in Tunisia, many question
whether the US and EU have really accepted the winds of change. Ironically, they ask the same question that in the West has been asked about Islamists: “Do they double speak?” Many Egyptians, like Tunisians, remain concerned, if not convinced, about possible U.S. and European interference in their political affairs. According to the Gallup World Poll, about twothirds of Egyptians think the U.S. will try to interfere in Egypt’s political future as opposed to letting the people of the country decide alone. A similar number disagree that the U.S. is serious about encouraging democratic systems of government in their region. What could the US and the EU do to build trust and strengthen relationships with emerging Arab societies? They should continue to stand for democratic principles, not political parties or individuals. It should be clear that entrenched elites of the old order (military, political leaders and bureaucrats, and illiberal secularists) are a potential threat to stability and security and to a truly representative constitutional process that restores power to a democratically elected civilian government. Western governments should ensure that projects they support to strengthen democratic institutions and the democratic process are inclusive of diverse political trends, and are not seen to be strengthening certain groups over others. Support for authoritarian regimes and their military must now give way to economic, educational and technological aid for economic and educational development and job creation, in particular through the mobilization of private investors as well as relevant international agencies like the World Bank and the IMF and especially Gulf state allies who are in a financial position to do so. Despite inevitable differences, relations must be based on mutual understanding and respect, a recognition and acceptance that all countries have a right to act in their national interest and that it is in the national interest of all to find a common ground of strategic political, economic and military interests. The possible consequences of attempted political engineering are contested election outcomes, violence, and a surge in
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Change in the Middle East
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The fundamental problem for development and long-term stability in the Arab and Muslim worlds is not the religion of Islam or Islamic movements, but the struggle between authoritarianism (culture and values) and pluralism.
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anti-Americanism. While they and they alone control their destiny, the EU (and the US) and other world democracies can best achieve their national interests by assisting in this transition, and building new partnerships based on the reformulation and implementation of foreign policies rooted in democratic principles and values. For the foreseeable future, religion will remain a significant political and social force because majorities of Muslims today stress the importance of its role for the progress of their societies. Thus, it can be viewed as part of the problem if we focus on an extremist fringe or as part of the solution, sustaining Muslim majorities with their values of human rights, mutual respect, and cooperation between communities intent on the same goals. What is the biggest problem for the Arab and Muslim worlds? The fundamental problem for development and long-term stability in the Arab and Muslim worlds is not the religion of Islam or Islamic movements, but the struggle between authoritarianism (culture and values) and pluralism. Hence, the primary focus should not be religion, but rather political, social, and economic change where Muslims live. Foreign policies have been unduly influenced by the vested interests of secular and religious dictators and extremist groups (social movements, military and security forces, and militias) who attempt to impose their will through repression, violence, and terrorism. Our efforts have not been directed first and foremost toward identifying, and then promoting, those conditions that foster and sustain viable stability. Policies should be crafted in response to events and designed to serve these interests rather than to underscore or enhance religious or cultural divides. The threat to the West will not come from civilizational differences, but from the political and socioeconomic reality that breeds instability and radicalism. Majorities of Muslims around the globe clearly do not see conflict with the West as primarily religious or civilizational. Rather, they distinguish Western powers by their policies. We, in turn, need to disaggregate the ‘‘Muslim world’’ into distinct countries whose conflicts originate from the specific policies of
each nation and its leaders. The solution for Washington and its European allies is not more dictatorship, but institution-building and civil society. This better protects American and EU interests and strengthens Muslim-West relations in the long run. American and many European policymakers have often been caught in a catch-22 situation. Their support for dictators to contain Islamists guarantees that Muslim governments remain institutionally weak, making Islamism a perpetual challenge. Perpetuating the culture and values of authoritarianism and repression will only contribute to instability and an antiAmericanism that empowers the terrorists. In conclusion, what is your suggestion to policy makers? Policies in the Muslim world require a realistic, long-term view. The transformation of political culture, values, and institutions that make for a strong civil society does not happen overnight. It is a long, drawn-out process, accompanied by battles between contending voices and factions with competing visions and interests. It entails experimentation that is necessarily accompanied by success and failure. The West’s transformation from feudal monarchies to democratic nation-states took time, trial, and error. It was accompanied by political as well as intellectual revolutions, which rocked both state and church. We tend to forget that the American and French democratic experiments emerged from revolutionary experiences. The nascent American democracy, which was challenged by a horrendous civil war, functioned for decades during which equal rights remained an illusion for American blacks, Native Americans, and women. In a world of multiple models of modernization (of modernity or post modernity), Western secular liberal democracy is ‘‘a’’ way (one of many possible paradigms), not ‘‘the’’ way, the only path for modernization and political development. The Muslim world is not the only arena for change. One of the great ironies of history is that despite our apparent development and sophistication, too often we are bound by our own cognitive (failed conventional wisdom and policies) and religious ghettos.
Change in the Middle East
The challenges of Turkish foreign policy by Yavuz Baydar Columnist at Today’s Zaman (Turkey)
f we disregard perhaps China or Iran, and those with a limited scope of reasons related to the subject – there is no other country in the world whose foreign policy performance attracts, puzzles, confuses, and engages us today more than Turkey. It is with justification, for as former US President Bill Clinton once or twice remarked, whatever happens with Turkey will define the course of many global issues and the common future. The prophecy has proven to be true, and now is the time to test it. Given the nature of profound changes and prospects for countries under the spell of the so-called Arab Awakening, whatever happens in them will be, one way or another, influenced by the Turkish foreign policy, which has under the current Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, been thoroughly revised in content and strategy – and implemented with a new choreography. There are opposing views in the Arab domain about the new Turkish policy, which stretches from Iraq and the Gulf to Morocco. Some opponents raise doubts about the policy’s impact, while others sound almost lyrical about what they see as a guiding force. The truth is somewhere in between.
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The main features of the Turkish foreign policy under Davutoğlu Doctrine are the application of soft power, economic interdependence and constant dialogue. As a matter of fact, Davutoğlu’s predecessor in the ministry, the current president Abdullah Gül, was part of its architecture by developing a multi-dimensional policy, which meant a deepening of relations with the West. It also enhanced them towards Central Asia beyond Caucasus and towards the Middle East and North Africa. It was also successful in particular with the emerging, hard working merchant classes of Anatolia by increasing trade with a high number of countries in Turkey’s east and south. While the trade levels were kept to around 40 percent with the EU, additional volumes were noted with Iraqi Kurdistan and elsewhere in Africa. As a key component of this policy, Davutoğlu’s offices were busy lifting visa restrictions with more than 60 countries in the aforementioned new domains. If there is truth about the possible “magic” of Turkey, as an influence in countries that count within the Arab Awakening, it should be taken optimistically, but also with caution. Is Turkey a role model for Egypt, Tunisia or
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Change in the Middle East
Ahmet Davutoğlu, Foreign Minister of Turkey
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others? That is, to me, too strong a term. The truth of the matter is, despite the skeptics. It is an ongoing experiment in democratization which has proven itself worthwhile to monitor carefully through its three dimensions that are political, economical, and cultural. Politically, Turkey is presenting interesting similarities in terms of political Islam, moving from the periphery to the center while remaining keen on diversity and pluralism. Economically, it has remained a success story for over ten years. Culturally, it has been a magnet of attention through endless TV series. In all, it must be understood that Turkey’s inspirational magic is above and beyond its foreign policy. If the source of inspiration is a reality, it is the story of Turkey itself, rather than the party itself, the AKP, that has been ruling it for a decade. When Arab people look at Turkey, they do not focus solely on its political engine, I believe, but on the whole fabric of society and its institutions.
First of all, what inspires us is the story of identities as they struggle to enlarge their sphere and consolidate their role in political life. In this developing story, the AKP has shifted from a rather hardline Islamism toward postIslamism by adopting domestic and international pragmatism. The AKP has the unfinished task of becoming Muslim Democrats, following the democratic tradition of the West. This means that the AKP must implement fundamental reform and rebalance civilian-military relations in favor of the former. It has to successfully confront Kemalism (as a source of inspiration for Baath movements and its derivatives). It still has a way to go to establish the rule of law. Most importantly, it has to prove its good intent by helping adopt a constitution which will be based on an anti-authoritarian format of secularism, replacing the current one. All in all, Turkey’s path to shake its destructive, oppressive past of tutelage is the main source of inspiration for the times to come. On another level, what should be inspirational is the way, however thorny, Turkey has been dealing with its own Pandora’s Box, which by the glasnost policies of the AKP is now wide open. It is dealing with its dark past, and turbulent present. Many Arab countries, complex in social fabric, with mixed religions and ethnicities, have reason to focus on how Sunni-Alawite, Muslim-Christian, TurkishKurdish divides will – if ever – be overcome in a peaceful way. On yet another level, gender equality will remain interesting. Turkey, with its vocation to be an inspirational source, is in the midst of these challenges. Its domestic evolutionary pace has slowed down lately to the point of stagnation. The harder the Kurdish, PKK – related opposition shows itself to be, the more undecided the AKP becomes on its reform path. This complicated issue, coupled with the Alawite discontent, places stumbling blocks, particularly in the way it approaches the devilishly difficult Syrian conflict. The way it
Change in the Middle East
Turkish kids
has been developing, it is also forcing Turkey to either choose or stay away from being a “regime changer”, which is nonexistent in the current vocabulary of the Davutoğlu doctrine. Its application of soft power has proven to be most successful in Iraqi Kurdistan, in economy and culture. Iraqi Kurds are now Turkey’s second largest partners after the EU. But problems and limitations are a fact when dealing with the Shia dominated central government of Baghdad. The Shia block’s entrenchment around the Assad regime – Iran, Maliki Administration and Damascus – runs counter to Turkish policies. Egypt and Tunisia remain keen on reading Turkey’s story carefully. Morsi and Ghannushi, as well as the conservative
intellectual elites of both countries, desire to develop relations with the new post Islamist elite of the AKP as well as deepen relations with Fethullah Gülen’s “Hizmet” Movement, an engine of the economy, education and culture from Anatolia. Closer ties and political assistance are possible, with the conditions that both Morsi and Ghannouchi are successful moving their parties to the rational center, and that Erdoğan’s AKP acts without discrimination in its approach to all the political players in both countries – Ikhwan, liberals, socialists, Salafi, Christians, seculars and others. Turkey has another task, and that is at home: the swifter and more decisive it is in establishing domestic peace with solid democratic institutions, the closer it will be to being regarded as a model country.
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Many Arabs, particularly the young segments, have their eyes on Turkey as a source of inspiration.
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Change in the Middle East
Jewel by Selim Mouzannar Classic Sun Cabinet
Nada Debs
The Silk Road goes through Beirut by Nicole Hamouche Journalist at l’Orient le Jour (Lebanon)
A new generation of entrepreneurs and craftsmen is changing the way of doing business in Lebanon. By combining local traditions with a cosmopolitan outlook and identity and memory with modern styles and materials, they are renewing the charms and spells of the Silk Road. hile the country was recovering from a ravaging 15 year war, talent was burgeoning in the nineties to give birth at the dawn of the twenty-first century to beautiful entrepreneurial success stories that essentially reflect a dialogue between East and West, East and East, here and there, today and yesterday… simply, a dialogue of culture. They are the war generation that grew up between Lebanon and Europe or Lebanon and the East (Middle or Far). They have studied abroad in London, Paris, and the U.S. They knocked about the globe: in
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European capitals as well as in more exotic places such as Thailand, Istanbul, and Damascus. Like Amin Maalouf’s hero Baldassare, after having gone around the world, they have come back home to settle and to offer their creativity to Beirut. They have created small businesses that have slowly grown to become recognizable names across the borders. Their names are: Nada Debs, Selim Mouzannar, Bokja, Mosaic Marble, Milia M, Rabih Keyrouz, Karen Chekerdjian… From a small workshop in which they started creating, they now all have flagship boutiques in the trendiest areas of Beirut and have put their
Change in the Middle East
Nude
Milia M. Fas hion desig ner
names and Lebanon on the global map, as their wares are sold in the most happening cities of the world. You can find Mosaic Marble in the Royal Academy of Music in London, in Harrods, at the Congolese President or Oprah Winfrey’s homes – and the company is about to open a show room in Notting Hill in London; Bokja’s couches and sofas are found in stores such as Liberty in London, ABC in NYC, Crawford in Hong Kong, but also in the homes of Julia Roberts and Salma Hayek, as well as of Sotheby chairwoman, Melanie Clare and U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton; Milia M dresses are available in L’Eclaireur in Paris and Amarees in Los Angeles. And as much as you would recognize Bokja’s couch in famous shoe dresser Louboutin’s stores all over the world, you would also recognize Nada Debs’ products in Mondo Collection or Twenty First Gallery in New York as well as in the Bloomingdales in Dubai; or a Selim Mouzannar ring amongst all others in a window of the Bon Marche in Paris or Harrods in London or even in Midnight Express in Istanbul, the hub of jewellery. Each of them has their own unique imprint; yet, they have in common this blending of modernity and tradition, of East and West, the magic of nostalgia with the ardor of the present… They dare to introduce mixes that are not
Taline Assi
generally admitted; the confrontation between materials and styles, the flirt across the borders, the conversation they could not have as the violence of bombs in their youth did not leave room for dialogue. Prisoners of a war that dictated categories, their creations reflect their quest for an identity that is free from these strictures. The ‘East & East’ concept of Nada Debs is the translation of the minimalistic ideals of the Far East and the contrasting warm patterns typical of Arabesque. Debs has dared to deviate the craft from its classical use; “the craft itself had become sacred for the craftsmen as well as for the Arabs, so people were hesitant to change what was considered to be classical Middle Eastern”, the designer says. Because of her multifaceted background, she was not held back by atavistic fondness. Taline Assi, the founder of Mosaic Marble, which offers 5000 designs - the largest choice amongst all mosaic providers globally - is looking to fuse a touch of modernity into this ancient art of mosaics. She’s working on a black and white line and a gold one as well. Similarly, Mouzannar says “I don’t like to be wedged up in an entity”. Alongside his Beirut collection, a tribute to Beirut’s vanishing old homes, he has created a collection called Moscow, inspired by the domes of Russian cathedrals for the sense
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Change in the Middle East
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From a small workshop in which they started creating, they now all have flagship boutiques in the trendiest areas of Beirut and have put their names and Lebanon on the global map, as their wares are sold in the most happening cities of the world.
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of humility, of grandeur and of safety – yet, their ongoing exploration and having come Mouzannar is not religious. His collection, to understand that identity is not set, but is Istanbul, is a homage to the High Gate for rather in perpetual construction. the legacy of beautiful things it provided to They are socially conscious as well: in an Beirut, notably jewels, as the country was increasingly global industrialized and under the domination of the Ottoman empire undifferentiated environment they all are to preserving local for a long time. Mouzannar moves freely committed between one world and the other, and in his craftsmanship and restoring pride to it. It is mind too. It is the same for Bokja’s ladies, also this personalized, handmade work that Maria Hibri and Hoda Baroudi, blond modern marks the difference between Mosaic Scheherazade who freely travel the world Marble and its bigger Chinese competitors from Afghanistan to Nepal and Japan to pick that only use machine cuts. It is the capacity those multicultural Lebanese up fabrics they will blend with vintage basic of entrepreneurs to bridge the gap between the furniture, which they find in Lebanon to create dispersed craftsmen in the one of a kind pieces, the Levant and the price of which can sophisticated and range from $3000 for demanding international an arm chair up to consumers, and it $20,000 for a sofa. makes a difference. People are ready to Most of them have pay these amounts, as reached a phase of there is an affective their expansion where dimension to Bokja they need to raise products that funds to be able to often blurs the line go global and take between art, craft, their story to and design. It is for another dimension, this strong social Peacock settee by Bokja but it is difficult to find personality rather than for private equity money in pure functionality – as Lebanon – and in this part of every Bokja design is layered in memories and points to events of the world in general – for this size of our time – that the brand was invited last investment, especially in the current political October to exhibit at the prestigious Institut du environment; and local banks are anything but Monde Arabe in Paris around the Arab Spring aggressive in their lending. International theme. Aren’t they, Bokja, Debs, Mouzannar, funding might represent another means of Mosaic Marble, Milia M, etc … the best pursuing the dialogue between cultures. ambassadors of an Arab renaissance? With Wasn’t trade on the Silk Road a significant the attention they pay to memory, to factor in the development of civilization in heritage, to detail, to singularity, to the China, India, Persia, Europe and Arabia; world they live in, to the experiences their and didn’t various technologies, religions hectic origins have driven them to; with their and philosophies travel along the Silk curiosity and their ferocious lust for life; with Route as well?
Change in the Middle East
Jordan’s way forward by Zu’bi Al Zu’bi Chairman of the Business Management Department, University of Jordan
Jordan has remained relatively unscathed by the political turbulence of the Arab spring, but its economic status has been weakened. The country must rely on its growing class of entrepreneurs to bring the country back to prosperity. he past two years have seen the revolutions and uprisings of the Arab Spring. At the same time, the global financial crisis, which crippled the world’s largest economies, has resulted in the shifting of economic power to Eastern countries, primarily China, India and the Arab Gulf
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countries. These events have led to enormous changes in the global economic and political landscape, particularly in the Middle East, at the heart of which lies Jordan. Only six years ago, in 2006, Jordan was upheld as an example of economic success in the Middle East without reliance on natural
Change in the Middle East
Amman, Jordan
resources. This was the fruit of the economic reform programme implemented in 2002, which focused on opening the Jordanian market to foreign investment. As a result, the International Monetary Fund in 2006 viewed Jordan as amongst the most advanced and open economies in the Middle East. Events of recent years, however, have threatened this position. Jordan was affected by the global financial crisis of 2007, as were most countries around the world, and the careful policy planning was rendered largely ineffective from that point on. The Arab Spring that followed in 2011 forced Jordan to make a series of uncalculated economic decisions. Lying in the centre of the Arab region and surrounded by turbulent Iraq, the never-ending conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis, and the civil war in Syria, Jordan could not remain unaffected by the Arab Spring. While there were few protests and little
violence, the desire to quell any discontent spurred the King to make significant reforms, including the plans to transit from a palaceappointed to a democratically-elected prime minister. Amongst his economic reforms were the injection of more cash into the market, primarily through increased salaries and subsidised infrastructure, food, water and energy, which was intended to placate the country’s poor. Furthermore, the government increased spending by almost 8 percent, which increased the budget deficit to 7 percent and the public debt to $16 billion, or 61 percent of GDP. These decisions, along with the economic downturns experienced by Jordan in recent years, made many experts and senior officials pessimistic of the country’s future. It is therefore pertinent to consider the strengths of Jordan, and the potential it has to drag itself out of this
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Rock bridge in Wadi Rum desert, Jordan
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position. The global financial crisis resulted in gaps left by collapsed firms in the West, and devalued currencies that can be filled by smaller economies. It is into this role that Jordan can fit. For a country ranked 103rd among nations for its per capita GDP of $5000 in 2012, Jordan stands to gain much from a shifting of global economic power to developing countries. The government has implemented a number of strategies to boost the economy, including more concerted marketing of Jordan as a tourist destination, and greater efforts to attract direct foreign investment, the policy that held so much promise a decade ago. However, it is likely that the saving of the Jordanian economy will come not from new policies, but from the people themselves. Jordanians have proved themselves to be an entrepreneurial people able to develop new product solutions and new services, and able to predict and provide for the needs of the country and the region. The
professional classes in Jordan are, in general, well-educated and English-literate, and this thriving environment, as well as lower living prices, has seen the return of entrepreneurial expatriates to Jordan. The entrepreneurial spirit of the Jordanian people has led to the start of many great projects. After studying and working in the U.S., Dr. Amjad Aryan moved to Jordan to establish his own business and founded Pharmacy1. With a commitment to customer service and a transparent employment structure, Pharmacy1 changed the norm by which pharmacies do business in the Middle East, and by 2012, had opened more than 50 stores throughout Jordan and Saudi Arabia. For Aryan, a Palestinian by birth, the move to Jordan enabled him to establish a business with less competition than in the U.S., and it is in this environment that he has thrived. The traditional hospitality of Jordanians has found great expression in entrepreneurial
Change in the Middle East
ventures, exemplified by the TcheTche café, which changed the way people in the Middle East enjoy the coffee shop experience. From its humble beginnings in 1998 as a single coffee shop, it rapidly broadened its offerings to caféstyle food and sheesha, and subsequently expanded throughout Jordan and the Middle East. TcheTche was a frontrunner in modern social dining, combining the appeal of restaurants and traditional Arabic coffee houses in a new way. As the TcheTche brand is franchised, it will provide an avenue for young entrepreneurs within Jordan and across the region to gain experience in business and hospitality before embarking on novel projects. A final example of Jordan’s entrepreneurial spirit is in the information technology industry. The Middle East and North Africa have recently experienced an explosion in Internet use, with the Arab Spring attributed in part to social media. The Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that Jordan hosts up to 75 percent
of all web-based Arabic content. Consequently, Internet entrepreneurs in Jordan have thrived on increased traffic across the entire region. Jordan has therefore proved itself as capable of standing firm amidst regional uprising, and has been able to capitalise on economic instability elsewhere, with entrepreneurs providing services to those in conflict-striven countries. While entrepreneurs within Jordan have primarily provided goods and services to the Arab region, extension of this to the rest of the world will serve to further boost the economic effects. The events and effects of the Arab Spring are far from over, as seen through the protracted conflict in Syria. Jordan’s economic prosperity relies on its ability to stand firm against discontent and uprising. If the palace and the government are able to maintain peace, Jordan’s entrepreneurs will be able to do the hard work to see the growth of the Jordanian economy.
Wadi Rum desert, Jordan
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Jordan has therefore proved itself as capable of standing firm amidst regional uprising, and has been able to capitalise on economic instability elsewhere, with entrepreneurs providing services to those in conflict-striven countries.
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Interview with Resmi Al Khafaji
Art without borders by Jalal Sabir
Born in Iraq, artist Resmi Al Khafaji now lives and works in Florence. His fascinating and multifaceted art blends different styles, experiences and memories to produce an extraordinary example of cross-fertilisation between cultures.
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esmi Al Khafaji, who was born in Diwaniya, Iraq, now lives and works in Florence and Prato. He graduated from Baghdad’s Institute of Fine Arts and, subsequently, Florence’s Accademia di Belle Arti (Academy of Fine Arts). He took part in a number of exhibitions in Iraq until 1977, when he moved to Italy due to political reasons. His life and art constitute an extraordinary convergence of Iraqi and Italian culture.
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you’ve now been living for 35 years. Do you think of yourself as an Iraqi artist, an Italian one or both? As far as I’m concerned, art has no borders; it is always, without fail, international. In my specific case, it’s based on my Iraqi experiences as well as my Italian ones. For example, some of my watercolor pieces show the Tuscan hills with Arabic writing. Emotionally, I live in both worlds, even in terms of my memory.
Mr Resmi Al Khafaji, you spent 32 years in Iraq. Then you moved to Italy, where
You attended art courses in both Baghdad and Florence. Did you notice
Cutures Cultures
any differences in the two establishments’ teaching methods? If so, what were they? Yes, I noticed there were significant differences. In Iraq, I also taught art education for ten years. In Europe, students don’t only grow as artists in school, but also in their surrounding environment - for example, in museums. In Iraq, the learning process primarily took place within the school itself, and here it mostly happens outside. In Italy, all you need to do to grow as an artist is walk down the street. In Iraq, I only saw the contents of museums
through pictures... once I moved to Italy, I saw those works of art firsthand.
La luce delle parole, 2010
What sort of impact did European art, and Italian art in particular, have on your work? To be honest, my teachers in Baghdad were avant-garde. When I got to Italy, it became clear to me that they, having gone to school in Europe and mostly in Italy, had been greatly influenced by Italian art. When I was young, I was influenced by Chagall, because he had ties with the East and fairytale imagery. Later, Giacometti and Delvaux became important influences, especially at
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that stage in my life when I turned to oil painting. I then entered a black and white stage, which drew me away from any sort of European influence. Could you describe the fundamental elements that your work contains and their meaning? My work is based on my view of art: I think art should either have an emotional impact or ask a question. Everything I do is based on that notion - my definition Resmi Al Khafaji of art. My work is realistic, but it’s noticeably abstract. For example, unless you read the title of my “Watermelons” painting, you would never know that’s what you’re looking at. All my paintings are noticeably abstract and profoundly realistic all at once.
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The latest generation, the computer generation, can’t even look at a normal, figurative painting; they’re keen to look at something that’s in line with their times, with their view of the world.
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What made you decide to move away from figurative art and turn instead to abstract art at one point in your career? I personally believe that an artist should never stop. An artist needs to flow with time, to be at one with it. If we stop, we get left behind. I need to keep growing as an artist. I need to grow internally so as to be able to achieve my goals. The latest generation, the computer generation, can’t even look at a normal, figurative painting; they’re keen to look at something that’s in line with their times, with their view of the world. That’s why I want to get to a place which allows me to create works for today, not for yesterday… from oil to watercolors, from canvas to paper, and on to video... It’s about
using modern means, it’s not about nullifying everything else. All artists are free to do what they like, to fulfill themselves. Why did that choice prompt you to limit your palette, going from color to black and white? I see the presence of every color in these black and white paintings. Not a single one is missing. That change stemmed from my return to Iraq in 2003 after I’d been away for 28 years. Following that trip, when I came back to Italy, I underwent a change; it sparked something inside me. Perhaps it was the suffering I witnessed. When I went back, it seemed to me like my country had moved backward 50 years compared to when I’d left, due to the destruction caused by war... that
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destruction was economic and cultural in nature, and also had repercussions on a human level. War leaves a lasting mark. Back then, life had no worth whatsoever. Now people are starting to eat again, to study, to engage in the mechanisms that make up a normal life. What are the main trends that contemporary art in Iraq encompasses? In Iraq, culture came to a standstill in the ‘80s, due to the war with Iran, the embargo and the dictatorship. How can art evolve in the absence of a connection with the world? There was no satellite TV, nor were there any computers or phones. Things have changed now. In the ‘60s and up until the end of the ‘80s, Iraq was the most advanced country in the Arab world – it was progressive. That was followed by an intellectual and artistic brain drain. I’m a case in point. Those who stayed were forced to become slaves to the government and its politics. Just like any other country living under a dictatorship, culture had to serve the interests of those in power. Iraqi artists who lived and and still live in Europe are avant-garde, whereas those who have stayed in Iraq and are still there are completely cut off.
What changes are underway in Iraq from an artistic standpoint? Intellectuals now have the freedom to see the world. Many artists have returned to Iraq. I went back for several months to get in touch with local artists and take part in debates and exhibitions. Culture is expanding in Iraq, albeit slowly. Those Iraqi artists who stayed in Iraq did not witness contemporary art’s gradual development. What’s normal to us is shocking to them. What projects are you currently working on? Several. More specifically, I’m working on a video about the Bologna massacre. It’s an Italian-born project linked to the 50th anniversary of the advent of video in 1962. One hundred artists from across the world took part, and made 100 videos about every year between 1901 and the year 2000. Each artist had to work on a specific year, which was assigned through a draw. I happened to pick 1980, and chose the August 2 Bologna massacre as a topic. I recorded some live footage on the anniversary of the massacre. As artists, we need to take advantage of every single minute of our lives. What we do is of use to both us and others. http://www.resmiarte.eu/ The fourth state
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Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria
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Interview with Father Paolo dall’Oglio
The real value of interreligious dialogue by Jalal Sabir
Dialogue has a huge potential to pacify and harmonize the world, as well as to open the youth to be inclusive of all religious perspectives. It is the task of spiritual people of all religious traditions to build a civilization based on love and friendship.
eace arises from a catechism of peace, both Christian and Muslim. In the streets, hatred originates from the loathing conveyed by religious media from hate-TV. There are websites and TV networks that disseminate hatred, both among Muslims and Christians. The encounter between civilizations must lead to an interpretative effort (ijtihad) of reciprocity, of good neighbourly relations, of complementarity and, at times, also through controversy”. Father Paolo, a Jesuit priest known by the Arab name of Abuna Paolo, lived in Syria for thirty years, where he founded the monastic community of Saint Moses, “Deir Mar Musa” in Arabic, after refurbishing a location in
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In fact, in Abuna Paolo’s opinion, Syria must constitute the pivot of the balance between Western Asia and the Mediterranean region.
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which monastic life deficiencies as much as presumably dated back to gratefully welcoming other the 6th Century. Father people’s gifts. Paolo was expelled from Syria in June 2012 Historically speaking, is it pursuant to his possible to build a engagement in the Syrian civilization based on people’s struggle against theological love between Assad’s regime. When the people of the Book? meeting with politicians Friendship is a worldwide, Father Paolo fundamental key to has bravely underscored hermeneutics; the Texts the need for Syria to can be made instrumental constitute a regional to enmity, revenge, peace-building and violence and to the phobia development-promoting of others, thereby dictating Father Paolo dall’Oglio hub without being the consequent subjected to the private interests of any of behaviours. Instead, a heart full of the regional or global forces implicated in the friendship, a heart open to others, becomes conflict. In fact, in Abuna Paolo’s opinion, a hermeneutic instrument, a source of Syria must constitute the pivot of the balance interpretative courage (ijtihad). Christianity between Western Asia and the and Islam are often experienced as two Mediterranean region. For thirty years, he universalities, two competing Catholicisms has been a promoter of inter-religious while they must instead be together at the dialogue with the Muslim world. After service of a universal human harmony. graduating in Arabic from the University of Naples and in Theology from the Gregorian Have there ever been historical periods in University, he was ordained a Syro-Catholic which this harmony was achieved? priest in 1984. He has recently authored a There have been historical eras that were book titled “Innamorato dell’Islam, credente collectively idealized like Al Andalus, Palermo in Gesù” (“Enamoured with Islam, a believer under Frederic II, Baghdad at the time of Harun of Christ”), published in Italian and French, in Al Rashid and the Umayyad Damascus. They which he expresses what he defines as his were times of cultural fertility, of conscious “dual belonging” to the Christian religion and religious integration which now enable us to to Islam. Among other things, in his book he imagine this Christian-Islamic-Jewish utopia affirms: “I want to be part of Islam, to devote and also even more inclusive scenarios myself to loving it and to loving primarily stretching out to the world of India and China Muhammad, the peace and blessing of God as well as to new contemporary spiritual be upon him and his ummah (community) ”. movements. Father, how is it possible to stop the hatred between cultures and religions? Hatred is stopped through theological love, by practicing theological love. Charity cannot be reduced to merely bending over one’s wounds, but rather marvelling at the giftedness of other people. It is not a question of complementing other people’s
And, in your opinion, where does this synthesis lie? It’s not a question of mixing: every historical process is synthetic and syncretic; the syncretism is only basic, but the synthetic capacity can be highly constructive, capable of embracing and respecting the great consistency inherently necessary to any
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tradition, which in turn corresponds to coherent initiation processes. On meeting, dialoguing, coming together, two stones give off a spark of a synthetic and apophatic divine experience, but that is nonetheless consistent with different ways of expressing dogmas. Only spiritual people can understand each other as they perceive the presence of that spark in the other’s heart. The event, represented by the giving off of a spark, does not occur in an extra-religious vacuum but arises from the maieutics of religious, cultural and doctrinal initiation. This is what makes inter-religious dialogue so valuable in building peace and harmony around the world and in opening inclusive religious perspectives for the young, without which religion becomes a school of sectarianism and of obtuse self-referential particularism.
Deir Mar Musa Al Habashi (the monastery of saint Moses the Abyssinian), Syria
Are consumerism and materialism a threat for achieving this objective? Of course, it is an unsustainable tragedy from all points of view. The Holy Land and holy places are being stripped of their essence through the attempts made to subject them to a monopoly of the symbolic world in order to make a profit from them. At the end, the only sacred thing that is left is the God-loving beggar standing on the pavement. Do you think that this historical period is ripe for a renewed harmony among peoples? It is now up to prophets and spiritual persons to provide the seminal contents for the global democracy. The issue here is not sharing according to an aristocratic paternalism, but rather to make individuals and groups shoulder their responsibilities, because people look up to spiritual leaders for the inspiration to drive their political commitment. Indeed, there are blessed moments in which the best in people is transfigured, glowing with its own inner light, becoming transparent.
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An Italian in Cairo’s Arabic Language Academy by Azzurra Meringolo Journalist based in Cairo
Professor Giuseppe Scattolin, an Italian scholar on Sufism, has been appointed a member of the prestigious Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo. Such a decision not only acknowledges the status of the academic, but also reveals to what extent this revered institution has been open and welcoming to the contributions of foreign researchers throughout the decades.
e is the second Italian citizen in history to have become a member of Cairo’s Academy of the Arabic Language, founded in 1934 in order to preserve classical Arabic and analyze the effects of science and culture on the Arabic language in Egypt and on its development. Before him, only one fellow national had been granted access: Carlo Alfonso Nallino (1872-1938), the pioneer of Italian Orientalism, who was named a member of the then Royal Academy in 1933. Giuseppe Scattolin, born in the province of Trento in 1942, shares Mr Nallino’s passion for Arab and Muslim culture, along with a deep fascination with Egyptian literature
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and poetry. Father Giuseppe is a Comboni Missionary and also lived in Lebanon and Sudan prior to settling down in Cairo. He teaches Islamic Mysticism at the Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e di Islamistica in Rome and at the Dar Comboni Institute for Arabic Studies in Cairo. In Egypt, not only is he a member of the local philosophy society, he also works as a researcher for the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies and the French Institute for Oriental Archeology. Father Giuseppe has been deeply immersed in Egyptian society for over thirty years, and the country that became his second home has completely won him over - hence his
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Cairo, Egypt
prolific scientific research into Islamic mysticism. Giuseppe Scattolin, who is an expert in Sufism, has published some 50 works, including books and science articles. One of the research endeavors to which he dedicated the most energy was the publication of an annotated analysis of the Arabic version of the “Diwan of Ibn al-Farid”, a collection of verse by the Sufi ascetic who lived between 576 AH (1181 AD) and 632 AH (1235 AD). Another enthusiastic scholar of the works of Ibn al-Farid, who was celebrated in Arabic literature as Sultan al-Ashiqin, the Prince of Lovers, was none other than Carlo Alfonso Nallino. Before turning his attention to the
influential poet, he published a book in 1900 about Egyptian dialect, and his love of Arab science and culture endured throughout his life. Mr Nallino was then fortunate enough to come into contact with Fuad, who was to become king of Egypt, and who agreed to let him teach at Cairo’s Khedive University. His students included the likes of Taha Hussein, one of Egypt’s most renowned intellectuals within the country’s enlightenment movement and who was appointed Education Minister in 1950. Mr Nallino was promoted to the rank of full professor at Rome University. In 1921 he was among the founding members of the Istituto per l’Oriente (Institute for the East), which is still standing and which was
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“Mutual understanding is the first step on the road to dialogue and peaceful coexistence”
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established thanks to a group of ambassadors, high-ranking public officials and university professors who saw fit to endow Italy with a working research tool into the Islamic Near and Middle East, an area which was undergoing fundamental changes in the wake of World War I. At the institute, Mr Nallino ran Oriente Moderno (a magazine about the modern-day East). Over time, the publication came to be one of the best journals of contemporary issues in the Near East, and still exists today. “Few scholars can even begin to grasp the works of Ibn al-Farid”, according to Ahmed Hassan Anwar, a Sufism researcher whose PhD thesis Professor Scattolin supervised. “It’s a nearly impossible endeavor even for native Arabic speakers. Only researchers who have a thorough understanding of the Arabic language and Sufi culture can try to tackle his poems”, Dr. Ahmed noted. Indeed, few facts about the poet’s life are truly known; all he left for posterity was his collection of poems, as there were no other writings which might clarify his interpretation of Sufi philosophy. To make matters worse for those who take a stab at the poet’s works, the language he used was defined by Mr Nallino himself as enigmatic, a “constant puzzle”. Building on the work of the pioneer of Italian Orientalism, propped up by a meticulous analysis of the manuscripts he recovered from Konya, Istanbul, Berlin, Beirut, Cairo and Aleppo, Father Scattolin was able to improve on the pre-existing anthology, thus producing a critical review of the original “Diwan”. Throughout the entire process he sought to understand the specific meaning Ibn al-Farid had assigned each individual term; the poet’s words tend to conceal philosophical concepts which often stretch beyond the scope of a straightforward approach to the text. That is precisely why the academy made Giuseppe Scattolin a member, so that he
might help them gain an insight into how Sufism, and philosophy as a whole, influenced the meaning of Arabic words and how they evolved. The gesture also masks an underlying message of openness, an act of acceptance on the part of this historic Egyptian institution. For the last 16 years Father Scattolin has dedicated part of his efforts to promoting interreligious dialogue. In a bid to foster Christian-Muslim relations, he sets up monthly meetings where Christians, through debate, seek to gain a better understanding of the culture of the mostly Muslim community in which they live. “Mutual understanding is the first step on the road to dialogue and peaceful coexistence”, says Dr. Ahmed, who has decided to name his son Giuseppe after his mentor. “Professor Scattolin’s work is valuable both in the West and the East. Thanks to the dissemination of his research, the Western world can learn about the essence of our culture, but we Arabs must treasure his research too. Only through an extensive understanding of one another can we all dispel the prejudice which hinders harmonious coexistence”. Father Scattolin sees the membership as a sign of friendship on the part of Egypt’s intellectual community, which welcomed him with open arms. He believes “Sufism is one of the most apt fields for promoting dialogue, because it encompasses shared values that can lay the groundwork for convergence. The granting of this membership is a meaningful gesture not only to me, but also to the countless Italian scholars who have approached the Arab and Muslim world with an open mind and in the spirit of understanding and friendship. I hope this new undertaking of mine will help advance dialogue between different cultures and civilizations. Our globalized world is much in need of that dialogue if mankind is to make strides toward new horizons of brotherhood and community”.
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Theatre, a critical interpretation of reality by Giulia Doninelli
The collaboration between two theatre directors, Tunisian Fadhel Jaibi and Italian Renato Sarti, shows many common features between their styles and attitudes. Most of all, it reveals their common goal of informing the public and leading it to the exercise of active citizenship.
recht said that the smallest social unit is formed by two persons. The issue enlivens and enthrals Tunisian theatrical director Fadhel Jaibi. It makes sense: an encounter produces life and knowledge and awareness of oneself and of others.
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And the theatre too arises from an encounter, a confrontation between two persons, two projects, whether they be based on love or conflict. Fadhel Jaibi was born in Tunis in 1945, in the working class district of Ariana, even if he mainly received his artistic training in
Amnesia, play by Fadhel Jaibi
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Renato Sarti, Teatro della Cooperativa, Trieste - Italy
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Paris, where he became enamoured with political plays and studied major European authors, from Strehler to Brecht, thus experiencing first-hand the encounter that engenders knowledge. Nonetheless, most of his production is concentrated in Tunis, where it was hindered, controlled and constantly censored by the regime of Ben Ali, from whom the director drew inspiration for the play Amnesia – Yahia Yaich. As a matter of fact, confrontation is also an encounter and it is Jaibi’s clash with the situation in Tunisia which seems to have shut its doors to free expression and independent culture and that engenders his production through Familia Production, the first private theatre company in Tunisia that Jaibi founded with his life-partner Jalila Baccar. The story that I’m about to narrate is also about an encounter between Italian director Renato Sarti and Fadhel Jaibi. Renato Sarti is Italy’s most eminent director of political plays. Born in Trieste in 1952, he learned acting in Milan, working for many years under the guidance of Giorgio Strehler, and often collaborating with Milan’s famous ‘Teatro dell’Elfo’. He subsequently continued his activity as a playwright, obtaining numerous awards and recognitions until he founded his own company, the ‘Teatro della Cooperativa’, which has turned into a point of reference for Milanese (and Italian) theatrical productions. The collaboration between the two directors began in Milan in 2011 after the staging of Fadhel Jaibi’s Amnesia – Yahia Yaich at Milan’s ‘Piccolo Teatro’, which was founded after World War II by Giorgio Strehler, a figure dear to both directors. Jaibi’s play narrates the days following the fall of an important politician that can be easily identified as former Tunisian President, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
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The play is quite amazing because in Tunisia it was staged in April 2010, months before the wave of revolutionary uprisings that pervaded the country and inflamed the whole Arab world. The encounter is evident: in this case it is between the director and society, with its reality, which leads the director to understand, elaborate and interpret the distress of an entire community. Reality thus became the mega-leitmotif in the collaboration between the two directors in Milan, a collaboration that materialized through the one-month workshop held in the halls of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, which was attended by twenty or so young actors. Reality, the encounter, urgency, citizenship: these were the main issues touched upon during those days characterized by hard work and a continuous flourishing of ideas. They appear to be Gargantuan themes that have little to do with the show-business aspect typical of modern-day theatremaking, but rather represent the essence of political theatre which seems to tell you that if you take an interest in politics, it will take an interest in you, as it happened to Jaibi. During the workshop (which I attended as an auditor), I thought I had been catapulted into ancient Greece to witness the essence of theatre-making in its purest form: communication. Don’t speak unless it is urgent; if you have nothing to say, keep quiet! The directors strictly scold the actors in an attempt to break them free from the typical mannerisms of Italian acting schools that make
it increasingly difficult to improvise as required. During the brief interview that Jaibi conceded me, he said that the most important goal that he sets for himself in all his pedagogical work (he defines himself more as a pedagogue than a theatre director), which has been considerable throughout Europe, is not to teach the actors a new method, but rather to strip them of theirs in order to teach them to grasp the essential. It is the only way for their acting to coincide with the story-telling so that every word spoken becomes acceptable to everybody Theatre director and not only to the Fadhel Jaibi audience. And it is clear that both Sarti and Jaibi, through their critical interpretation of reality, put all this immense work into their plays: the urgency of the word, the need to denounce, the will to inform the public, and the ability to reempower through the exercise of active citizenship. Therefore, this return to the essential appears to be liberating because it can free us of all that society has shaped us into, of all the mannerisms and clichés. Through this liberating act the actor, who also becomes the narrator, leads and ushers the spectators towards a more critical interpretation of the play, enabling them to take a stand, judge, believe and exercise their citizenship too. In light of this worthwhile experience, the project was expanding and has led Milan’s Piccolo Teatro to establish a collaboration with Paris and Tunis and even to schedule a production born out of the fruit of these encounters for 2013-2014.
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The encounter is evident: in this case it is between the director and society, with its reality, which leads the director to understand, elaborate and interpret the distress of an entire community.
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Ramadan in Milan by Rassmea Salah Journalist based in Milan
The Italian city of Milan is home to a blossoming Muslim community. For Eid Al Fitr, the Ramadan Fast-Breaking Ceremony, a great event took place in Milan that gathered thousands. It was an important occasion for Muslims to celebrate together, regardless of their origins, and to build strong relationships with local institutions in order to affirm the rights of the Islamic minority in Italy.
t’s the second biggest event in the city of Milan this year, after the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in June 2012, which brought millions of people here. And it was held in the Arena Civica, a multi-purpose stadium in the historical center of Milan, which was opened in 1807 and is still one of
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the main examples of neoclassical architecture. Some might think I’m talking about the Milan Fashion Week, or the Milan Film Festival, but I’m not. The event I’m writing about, ladies and gentlemen, was held in the heart of the business and fashion capital of Italy on the 19th of August 2012, a month when generally the city is empty because it’s too hot and everyone is on holiday, lying on the long Italian beaches. This event gathered about 20,000 people from the city of Milan and its neighborhoods. Their origins were from all over the world, from Africa to Asia, from the Middle East to Eastern Europe - and what is more, they got together only for a prayer. What I’m talking about, my dears, is The Prayer, the so called Eid Al Fitr, “the festivity of breaking the Fast (of Ramadan)”, which was organized, for the first time in Italian Islamic history, by inviting ALL Muslims, regardless of their communities’ belonging or their mother tongue, or even their ethnic origin. Arabs, Africans, Asians and Italians decided for the first time to pray together without dividing each other into ethnic groups as had always been done. Under a hot sun, we found ourselves
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praying together, led by the Tunisian Imam Abdel Fattah Mourou, who had been victim of a physical attack a week earlier in a mosque of Tunis after having delivered the khutba, the sermon of the holy Friday midday prayer, in which he talked against radicalization and fundamentalism and about moderation in Islam. The organizer of this unique event was the CAIM, the Committee of the Islamic Associations of Milan, which groups 13 Islamic realities among the city. CAIM aims to build strong relationships with the local institutions, both to let them get in touch with the Muslim communities and to claim the rights of the Islamic minority. Unity is strength, as we say in Italian. And it’s what the CAIM believes in: working together to lead projects to empower the Muslim Community both inside – through a special focus on religious and linguistic training – and outside, in relationships with
other religious communities and institutions. During Eid Al Fitr, hundreds of volunteers worked for security, parking, and the cleanup of the place. After the big event, the local authorities even congratulated us for a job well done! As a volunteer, I personally organized a collection of demographics to create a database useful for future fundraising events, and to contact people to invite them to other big events that the CAIM will organize. It’s a strategy to create a network and build a link between all Muslims, regardless of their origin or their language. It was a great experience to see all that multiculturalism during the prayer, an element we do not often see in big cities where groups organize themselves based on ethnic-language origin. There’s usually a rigid separation among the Arabs between Egyptians and Moroccans, let alone between Arabs and non-Arabs.
Eid Al Fitr, August 2012, Milan, Italy
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The ummah (Islamic community) should go beyond the ethnic differences and focus on the Islamic common tradition, becoming a powerful network that can have decisional power on local policy.
’’ The ummah (Islamic community) should go beyond the ethnic differences and focus on the Islamic common tradition, becoming a powerful network that can have decisional power on local policy. The CAIM also tried to organize another big event for Eid Al Kabir, the “Big Feast” or the so called “Feast of Sacrifice”, which commemorates the sacrifice that Prophet Abraham would have done to be obedient to God by killing his son Ismail (in the JudeoChristian tradition the son is Isaac). Unfortunately, we do not yet have a covered place in Milan that can contain 20,000 people to pray in. The situation of Italian Muslims is quite critical regarding places of worship: nowadays, there are just two mosques in Italy – the big one in Rome and a small one in Milan that can house just a few people. Italian Muslims are used to praying in Islamic centers, in garages or in other places used as a prayer room. We are talking about the second biggest religious community in Italy which accounts for more than one million people and for which the existent places are not enough. For the Eid Al Kabir, every community had to organize itself for the prayer, but that day
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we all did a fundraiser for the Syrian people and prayed for them, invoking peace for that area. As many of you may know, Milan will host a big event in 2015, the EXPO 2015, and Muslim citizens want to get ready for it. The dialogue with the institutions aims – among other things – to promote the building of decent places to pray and to create a big mosque in the city, which seems to be just a utopia so far. First of all, this event is the type of emergency that aims to welcome in the best way possible all the Muslim tourists who will come and visit Milan. Hopefully, it’s also a platform for a better engagement between Italian society, Milanese civil society and the Muslims living here. It’s a matter of civil and religious rights for the Muslim minority living in Milan, which is one of the cities that most welcomes Islamic immigrants, and which needs a monument representing that part of it. We hope you can all come to visit the EXPO 2015 and that you will find a new, majestic, clean, big, scented mosque full of Persian rugs and incense that enriches the architecture of Milan!
BIOGRAPHIES Gaia Vendettuoli is a Journalist at AGI. Daniel Atzori is the Editorial Team Coordinator of Papers of Dialogue. Yavuz Baydar has been a journalist for 33 years. His opinion columns are published by the daily Today’s Zaman, where he comments on domestic and foreign policy issues related to Turkey as well as media matters. He has a blog with the Huffington Post, which reflects his views mainly on the Middle East and Europe. Baydar also works as the Reader’s Representative (news ombudsman) with the daily Sabah, and hosts the weekly current affairs programme, Acik Gorus (Open View) at Tv24. Baydar served as president of the International Organizaton of News Ombudsmen (ONO) between 20032004. He is also a member of the World Editors Forum (WEF) and Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ). Nicole Hamouche contributes to several publications of the Lebanese l’Orient le Jour press group. She publishes socio-political editorials; social, health/bioethics articles; and economic investigations. She also has
contributed to l’Orient Litteraire, a monthly literary supplement of l’Orient le jour. After the July 2006 war, she was in charge of communication and media relations for the Humanitarian Aid Department at the European Commission in Lebanon. In addition to her journalistic activities, Nicole has a financial advisory/private equity activity. After graduating from Institut d’Etudes Politiques and from Paris Dauphine University with a Master’s in Economics and Finance, she worked for international investment banks in Beirut and Paris. She speaks five languages fluently. Zu’bi M. F. Al Zu’bi is an independent writer and lecturer of operations and supply chain management. He has lectured in the United Kingdom, U.S.A and Jordan. In addition, he has worked as an advisor for several international, regional, governmental, and private organizations. He is a frequent correspondent for the Jordanian media and has organized and moderated many debating sessions for senior officials and decision makers regarding economic and political issues. He has been elected to the Fellowship of the
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Higher Education Academy in the UK. He is currently the Chairman of the Business Management Department at the University of Jordan. After years of research between Europe, South America and the Middle East, Azzurra Meringolo became an enthusiast of the Arab world. Working as a freelance reporter for Italian newspapers and magazines since 2008 and after having lived in Jerusalem and traveled through the Middle East, she obtained a Ph.D. with a doctoral thesis on contemporary anti-Americanism in Egypt from the University Roma 3. Straddling between research and reporting, in the summer of 2010 she arrived in Cairo where she witnessed the revolution of the 25th of January to which she devoted a book entitled I ragazzi di Piazza Tahrir, published by Clueb. Giulia Doninelli holds a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation from the Università degli Studi of Milan, where she focused her studies on Arabic and English languages and cultures. Her graduation thesis dealt with
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the Tunisian revolution and its cultural background, concentrating on the work of the theatrical director Fadhel Jaibi, with whom she had the pleasure of working with during that period. She has worked as a journalist for the non profit Italian magazine Vita and as a teacher for Arab migrants. After having spent a semester in Tunisia, she currently lives and studies in Cairo, Egypt. Rassmea Salah was born in Casorate Primo (in the province of Pavia, Italy) in 1983. She spent her childhood going back and forth between Milan, Cairo and Mecca, then decided to settle down in Milan with her family. Daughter to an Italian-Egyptian couple, Rassmea belongs to that so-called second generation category, what we could call “new Italians”. She describes herself as “a tree whose roots are sunk in the southern Mediterranean, but whose branches stretch not only toward Europe, but also to the world at large”. To put it simply, she is glocal: a citizen of the world, but also Milanese inside. She has a degree in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation and another in ArabIslamic Studies.