Arab Intellectual Forum Meets [Archives:2001/28/Culture]

The Arab Intellectual Forum (ANF) organized last month, the seventh meeting in Al-ssaraya Hall. A number of interested people in thought and culture together with specialists in this field participated in the forum. It was attended by a number of Arab diplomatic corps, the media, and the Arab Intellectuals. The meeting focussed on the theme “The way for a unified Arab culture”. The participants discussed the current situations of Arab nations, such as the political disputes and discords among the Arabs .They stressed the necessity for the Arab Unity. Intellectually there shouldn’t be any barriers or hindrances among the Arab cultures. They called for the necessity for the use the classical Arabic as a political approach for the cultural unity among Arabs .The participants also clarified that the restricted local dialects disunite people. During the forum, the Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Asha’al mentioned that the Zionist conflicts is not a military conflict but a a conflict of values and stressed the classical Arabic amongst the Arabs. He also drew attention to the condition of the Arabs after the Gulf War, and the current situations in the occupied land. In conclusion, he recommended adherence to the perennial values which constitute the intellectual foundation of the nation and said that the Arabic language is indispensable factor to shape its cultural unity. His Excellency, Dr. Shareef, the Ambassador of Algeria discussed the notion of Arab culture. He said that culture is a form of behavior and a matrix of values .He mentioned that there wouldn’t not be any obstacles hindering the way of the unified Arab culture. This can’t be achieved unless the freedom of expression and creativity, the right selection of the rulers and the freedom of criticism and jurisprudence are ensured. A conformity and equilibrium, between the stability and instability and between modernism has to be achieved and post-modernism. Challenges ,including the revolution technology and its consequences on our Arabic culture, politically, economically and culturally should be successfully met. In reply to the effects of the revolution technology and globalization Dr. Atef Al-eraki, a professor in philosophy at Ainshams University ,said that globalization constitutes a huge trouble to all Arabs. He also dealt with the problems of learning and education suggesting some solutions to the educational problems through the objective and scientific methods so as to re-crystallize the minds against evils of ignorance and backwardness. All the deliberations focused mainly on the classical Arabic, education, the necessity of the cultural and Islamic union as a way of confronting the challenge before the Islamic nations. The meeting ended at one o’clock after midnight. The journalist, the responsible for the Voice of Arab (Sout Al-Arab), Ameena Sabri thanked all the participants for making the meeting a success.
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