Civil Society

ICDS Weekly Forums during the Month of February 2006

By Mina Khalil

During the month of February, the Ibn Khaldun Center addressed the topics of “Despotism in the Arab World” and “Cultural Diversity.” 

Tackling the problem of “Despotism in the Arab World,” attendants of the forum, which generally range from politicians to everyday civilians, and its speaker Ahmad Abou Matar pointed to deeply-rooted despotism as the principal cause for the lack of development in the region.  With a comparative eye on European states living under credible democratic systems that cherish and maintain principles of freedom and human rights, the group acknowledged the democratic façade of their own Arab authoritarian governments which continue to repress civil freedoms and which have made little, if any, in the way of real democratic change. 

On a societal level, the group also insightfully criticized education in the Arab world for fostering in their children fear and respect of authoritarian states, rather than democratic values.  Specifically, the group decried the inaccurate propaganda works of ten different Arab authors in 17 popular books, which extol hyperbolically Arab authoritarian leaders.  While being sensitive to freedom of speech, the group wisely pointed to this worry trend of disingenuous popular works and their effect on public awareness and democratic change.  The group listed Egyptian author Emeel Iskander’s pioneer work Hussein: a Human and an Intellectual (1991) and similar propaganda works by Fouad Matar from Lebanon, Adel El Gameely from Iraq, and Hamidan Nanae from Syria as contributing to the consolidation of Arab despotism.

The group concluded in this forum that unless they, as Arab citizens, demand and take action to guarantee their freedoms through peaceful means, despotism will endure amongst them.  Viewing endemic violence in the Arab world, they also realized the crucial responsibility of every Arab citizen to articulate his or her rights in a peaceful and tolerant manner. 

The second ICDS forum explored “Cultural Diversity” among nations and civilizations, in the past and present.  The forum’s attendants and its speaker Ahmad Shaaban Mohammed emphasized the continual exchange of ideas, practices, and culture throughout history between the East and the West.  For example, it was exposited how mathematical concepts such as trigonometry, as well as the contemporary numbering system originated in Egypt and India respectively, and how they were transferred to the West.  Along with this also came the Arabs’ contribution to the preservation (through translation) of the West’s principal philosophical works of Plato and ancient Greece.  Not only did this discussion provide the forum’s attendants with an important historical perspective on the mutually-beneficial interaction that has existed between the East and West, but it also served as an exemplary model for the necessary work to encourage and to facilitate the acceptance of Western democratic concepts and institutions in the contemporary Arab world.  Acknowledging that their culture and civilization has contributed to the scientific and overall progress of other civilizations, Arab citizens may more easily adopt the progressive scientific and political ideas of other civilizations in their own culture and societies.