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Transcript of Papers of Dialogue - 2 - 2013 - English
April - June 2013
M A G A Z I N E
2
DE KERCKHOVE & ROSSIGNAUD
The digital persona
SAMIR FRANGIEHNew Media and
the Arab Public Opinion
BAHRAINPioneers in
Social Networking
DIGITALIDENTITIES
Papers of Dialogue | 03
The digital revolution is rapidly changing all aspects of our life. The mass
adoption of the Internet triggered a global democratisation as to the
creation of multimedia content and citizens are more and more becoming
‘netizens’, active producers of knowledge and ideas. Social networks have already
profoundly changed the way we interact with each other and the world, and the
pervasive penetration of smartphones is causing a fundamental makeover in how
we communicate. This phase is opening up unprecedented possibilities on a global
scale. As Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen write in their book The New Digital Age:
“Through the power of technology, age-old obstacles to human interaction, like
geography, language and limited information, are falling and a new wave of human
creativity and potential is rising.” In this issue of Papers of Dialogue we explore
some aspects of these transformations, and of the new energies they are
unleashing. As Derrick de Kerckhove, one of the leading thinkers of the Information
Age, states in his article, together with Maria Pia Rossignaud, the interactions
between people and the digital data around us are reshaping our identities, leading
to “a radical reformulation of both the personal and the social contract”. This is
further explored in our exclusive interview with Samir Frangieh, in which the
Lebanese intellectual reflects on the Arab revolutions. He argues that new media
are allowing people to affirm their identities, to the point that the emergence of the
individual could be considered “the Arab world’s true revolutionary outcome”. The
digital revolution is also contributing to the empowerment of Euro-Mediterranean
women, as political analyst Suhair El Qarra explains in her contribution. On the
whole, there are few doubts that the peoples of the Mediterranean and the Middle
East are emerging as protagonists of the digital age. We also consider as case
studies two Middle Eastern countries whose experiences are paramount. The first
is Bahrain, where the state news agency has become a leader, among Arab and
Gulf states, in social networking. Muhannad Suleiman, the Bahrain News Agency’s
Director, narrates its success story. The second country is Jordan, which leads the
Arab world in terms of high-tech start-ups. Zubi Al Zubi, chairman of the Business
Department at the University of Jordan, explains how his country’s achievements in
information technology demonstrate that developing economies can create thriving
environments for innovation and entrepreneurship. In the last article of this section,
we consider the challenges faced by the tech-savvy digital youth who played an
important role in the Arab uprisings. This allows us to move to our next section,
which focuses on geopolitics. The first article, written by University of St Andrews’
Ahmed Fahmy, considers the power relations between the political forces in Egypt.
The second, by Italian journalist and researcher Giuseppe Acconcia, analyses the
possible rapprochement between Cairo and Tehran. Maria Luisa Maniscalco,
professor of sociology at Roma Tre University, explores the complex reality of
European Islam, through the prism of the different dynamics of integration. In the
last section, dedicated to cultures, H.E. Habeeb Al Sadr, Iraqi Ambassador to the
Holy See, looks at the importance of Christians in the Middle East throughout the
centuries. Finally, Rasha Al Maleh, reporter for the newspaper Al Bayan, writes
about the Dubai Marine and Heritage Festival, an event which tried to preserve and
celebrate the Emirate’s unique history and traditions. We sincerely hope you will
enjoy this latest chapter of our Papers of Dialogue. Editorial
ROBERTO IADICICCOEditor in chief
April - June 2013
M A G A Z I N E
2
DE KERCKHOVE & ROSSIGNAUD
The digital persona
SAMIR FRANGIEHNew Media and
the Arab Public Opinion
BAHRAINPioneers in
Social Networking
DIGITALIDENTITIES
Papers of Dialogue:no 2 April-June 2013
Editor in chief:Roberto Iadicicco
Editorial team coordinator:Daniel Atzori
Marketing & Communication:Laura Brunetti (Coordinator), Patrizia Arizza
Photography:www.123rf.com (cover, 04, 16, 42) www.pictures.reuters.com (pages 08, 13, 25, 31 )www.corbis.com (pages 11, 24 )
Editing and production:AGI – Via Ostiense, 72 – 00154 Rome – Italy
Consultancy:Global Services Incorporation
Badaro Trade Center Building – Beirut – Lebanon
Printing:Raidy | www.raidy.com
Translated by:Roma Congressi
Publisher AGI SPA:Chairman: Gianni Di Giovanni
CEO: Daniela Viglione
General Director: Alessandro Pica
AGI – Via Ostiense, 72 – 00154 Rome – Italy
www.agi.it
www.agi.it/english-home
www.agiarab.com
www.papersofdialogue.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS03
04
08
12
16
20
24
27
31
34
42
38
Editorial
Roberto Iadicicco
Digital world
The digital persona
Derrick De Kerckhove
& Maria Pia Rossignaud
The emergence of the individual: the Arab world’s true
revolutionary outcome
Interview with Samir FrangiehNicole Hamouche
Euro-Med women: the high-tech backlash
Suhair El Qarra
Bahrain News Agency: a pioneer in social networking
Muhannad Suleiman
Jordan’s high-tech miracle
Zubi Al Zubi
The challenges of the digital youth
Anna Prouse & Jacob Burke
Geopolitics
Egypt, two years after
Ahmed Fahmy
Improving relations between
Egypt and Iran?
Giuseppe Acconcia
Understanding the mosaic of European Islam
Maria Luisa Maniscalco
Cultures
Arab Christians, a history
of dialogue
Habeeb Mohammed Hadi Ali Al Sadr
Celebrating Dubai’s Heritage
Rasha Al Maleh
31
4238
04
The digital persona
Our identities and personalities are undergoing a process
of radical reformulation as the Internet increasingly
impacts our lives. The concept of ‘digital persona’ arises
from the strong interaction between the persons and their
digital data, in a global context marked by a shift from a
society of persons to a society of networks.
Derrick De Kerckhove & Maria Pia Rossignaud
Digital world
Papers of Dialogue | 05
Digital world
It is a bit of a stretch to jump shift from the
concept of digital identity to that of the digital
persona1. Taken literally, digital identity is a
rather simple affair; the term is acknowledged as
merely describing the codes and procedures that
verify that the user is truly the person or the entity
genuinely associated with the current transaction.
But in an extended sense digital identity also
brings to mind the kinds of profiles that emerge
from a selection of cross-checked digital data. The
selection can change so one can have as many
“digital identities” as are needed for as many
operations. Such data constitute an association of
recorded habits and traits, i.e., an emerging digital
personality that serves as ground for all the
services proposed, from medical to commercial,
and others perhaps less desirable2.
Some of these identities are more or less under
one’s control, most of them not. One can manage
one’s profile on Facebook, but not the ones that
Facebook manages for us. Data mining plucks
information from various databases, selected by
the miner or simply collected from the available
material in the open data sphere. That information
can have, and often has, an impact on a person’s
life. To the extent that profiling goes on largely
unbeknownst to the profiled, the condition is
reminiscent of the unconscious. Digital personas
arise from the unpercieved unconscious digital
ground just as psychological personas are
deemed to arise from the very specific and
individual psychological unconscious.
Although it has been proposed and defined by
Roger Clarke, the “digital persona”3 does not exist
as such. Indeed, there is no truly independent
“person” out there that is constituted uniquely by
digital data. But digital data extend personality
traits and contribute to define the person. People
carry their data as they carry their shadows. Or
their masks. However the mask is usually meant
to reflect a living person so a living person can
indeed be endowed with a digital personality. At
any rate, there is certainly a strong interaction
between the person and the digital data about him
or her. As Ivo Quartiroli observes:
“The Net encourages us to have a personality that
is “liquid,” ever ready to change shape as the flow
of information pulls us in different directions.
Without a well-defined personality built by real
relationships, mentors, and life experiences
combined with inner awareness, we identify
loosely with transitory mental stimuli. Lacking a
narrative and continuity, our personality is never
well-defined and solid”.
In his enlightening book, The Digitally DividedSelf 4, Quartiroli goes deep into the matter. Let’s
follow some of his key arguments and think about
how they might play out in different cultures equally
affected by digital networks and social media:
“Human relationships and direct contact, the most
important elements in forming the personality, are
more and more mediated by the Internet – where
“friendships” can be established and ended by a
simple click, and personal profiles, connections,
and sites themselves can change, be born, and
die capriciously. With this instability, it is difficult to
develop authentic and long-lasting relationships
which allow us to know our self more deeply
through interacting with others.”
It is worth observing that the Internet in all its
guises invites a quasi permanent “extrospection”
rather than introspective tendencies and habits.
As I look out through the screen, my mind is
focused outwards, my hands keep moving on the
mouse and the keyboard. What people loose in
depth, they gain in surface. Facebook (among
others) compensates for the lack of temporal
continuity by offering a spatial alternative: instead
of cultivating oneself within, the internaut spreads
out; there occurs a shift of emphasis of
personality-building from an internal to an external
process, a shift that has also been explored by
Nicholas Carr in his famous article “Is Google
making us stupid?”5. According to Quartiroli:
“One of the appeals of Facebook is that it provides
a neat and orderly way to integrate our various
online sub-personalities. It is a collector of our
object relations that offers us a feeling of a
rounded, connected personality that is supported
by the people in our friends list. With kids and
teenagers spending so much time on social
media, part of the process of personality
construction takes place inside Facebook itself.
Their attachments and object relations – the very
building blocks of personality – are being shaped
by Facebook which, not metaphorically, can
reshape and manipulate their personalities”.
To support this suggestion Quartiroli offers this
telling example:
“As a “digital native” once told me in an email:
1 There is a site that offers digitalidentity services that calls itself‘digital persona’(http://www.digitalpersona.com/).
2 For example, Google has profileson its users that enable it toimprove its searchingperformance by giving priority toanswers that correspond best towhat it is already known aboutthat user; Facebook collects userdata to recommend potentialfriends that the profiled personmight like. The profile guides thetargeting of products andservices to the user, but it canalso provoke denial of access, ofservice or worse in case ofinformation revealing featuresdeemed inapropriate.
3 Clarke, Roger, The digitalpersona is a model of theindividual established through thecollection, storage and analysisof data about that person(http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/DigPersona.html).
4 Quartiroli, Ivo, The DigitallyDivided Self: Relinquishing ourAwareness to the Internet,Silens, 2011. Note that theAmazon site offers manyimpressive endorsements of thebook(http://www.amazon.com/The-Digitally-Divided-Self-Relinquishing/dp/8897233007).
5 Nicholas Carr’s article inextensor is available here:(http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/).
06 | Papers of Dialogue
Digital world
If not, we can quickly block a person from
contacting us, removing anything that doesn’t
support our expectations.”
Marshall McLuhan, well before Quartiroli and
Carr had predicted that “electricity [would
eventually] wipe out private identity”. Although he
wasn’t clear as to what would replace the private
person, it is now possible to venture a guess.
What is now happening to identity and
personality is not merely the addition of new
masks, it is a radical reformulation of both the
personal and the social contract. As people
become evanescent sets of images, texts,
videos, they become networks of personas
connected to other networks of personas. A
society of networks, as Manuel Castells has
defined the current social mutation, is taking over
from the society of persons.
These networks are not merely local anymore.
Even public opinion is going global. Among the
features of digital identities is that they are
global. In cultures that do not put as great an
onus on the individual, i.e. tribal ones, the
Internet and cellular phones do not encourage
narcissistic proclivities. New media emphasize
dependance on community. Identity is claimed
by groups. Networks expand and support
communities well beyond the confines of the
land and put them in touch well beyond the
national and linguistic frontiers. Thanks to the
Internet, reality is not created anymore
principally in the United States, but everywhere.
A larger reality including the West and the East,
the North and the South, is gradually rising in
world consciousness.
Derrick de Kerckhove is former director of the McLuhan
Program in Culture & Technology at the University of Toronto and
a full professor at the Faculty of Sociology of the University
Federico II in Naples. He is author of a dozen books edited in
more than 10 languages including Italian, Spanish, Polish,
Chinese, Japanese and Korean. He is also research director at
the Interdisciplinary Internet Institute (IN3) at Universitat Oberta
de Catalunya in Barcelona.
Maria Pia Rossignaud is director since 2008 of Media Duemila,
an Italian monthly about digital culture, business and government
now in its 30th year. She is part time professor at the University La
Sapienza in Rome, a consultant and promoter of research. Each
year she organises “Nostalgia di Futuro”, a prize for excellence in
digital practices and research.
Herbert Marshall McLuhan was born
in Edmonton, Canada in 1911 and died in
Toronto in 1980. For more than 30 years,
he was associated with the University of
Toronto. He was a theorist of
communication, and widely regarded as
one of the most influential intellectuals of
the 20th century. His best known book is
The Medium was the Massage: AnInventory of Effects, published in 1967.
His studies were paramount in the
analysis of the influence of the media on
human consciousness.
. . .
. . .
“Paradoxically, for my generation’s sense of loss
and confusion, what the Net offers is like an
anchor.” Technology is taking charge of shaping our
identities”.
A new kind of narcissism arises. Peering into the
screen, Narcissus once again falls prey to a liquid
mirror. But this time he really falls in love. He is not
only seeing his image, he is actually building it. He
becomes what he beholds.
“The psyche has a natural need for mirroring by
others. In building a sense of identity, being seen
and recognized as our real nature helps us
recognize our true self. So sharing our lives online
feels like being seen and understood, a reflection
that most people do not adequately receive – either
in childhood or later in life. On social networking
sites and in chats there is a tacit agreement to give
each other mostly positive feedback.
Marshall McLuhan
Interview with Samir Frangieh
The emergence of theindividual:the Arab world’s truerevolutionary outcome
Samir Frangieh, the ideologist behind
Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution, cornerstone
of the Arab Spring, talks to us about “the
day following spring”. This became also the title
journalist Riccardo Cristiano chose for his book, Ilgiorno dopo la primavera, a collection of
interviews with Mr Frangieh. The current interview
on the aftermath of the Arab revolutions falls
within the scope of another revolution: that of
social media and digital identities.
Much has been said about the role of social
media in the Arab revolutions. What really set
the tone for the 2005 Cedar Revolution was
your Beirut Manifesto, which was relayed
through traditional media in June 2004. It was
a long appeal to people’s conscience, a call for
New media allow people to communicate
independently without interference from the
authorities and create a platform to assert
one’s own identity. It is precisely the
emergence of this form of autonomy that is
essential to the Arab spring. As such, social
media not only put people in touch with
each other, but they also encourage
individual responsibility.
Nicole Hamouche
Digital world
Samir Frangieh, Lebanese politician and intellectual
08 | Papers of Dialogue Papers of Dialogue | 09
revolution. Could it have been written and
interpreted as it was through new media
outlets? Aren’t traditional media more
powerful than social media on their own and
do these new tools merely feed into pre-
existing ones?
New media allow people to communicate
regardless of the control of authorities, but that’s
just part of it. More importantly, they allow people
to assert their identity as individuals. They
enabled the emergence of a type of independence
which is the hallmark of the Arab Spring. We have
begun to speak as people, rather than as a group.
Individuals are speaking as individuals, speaking
for themselves, for the first time, and are learning
to see themselves as fully fledged individuals in
their own right. Before, the approach to politics
Digital world
Cedar Revolution
Lebanese Parliament
during the Arab Spring, can it also build an Arab
citizenry?
New media help us establish a connection with one
another within the Arab world. They help us find out
what intellectuals in the Arab world are writing, they
facilitate an exchange of views. You get to know
people, you’re connected, you know what the other
person is doing, you know what he is facing. That
allows the emergence of an Arab opinion. For
example, that’s how Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, an
activist who promotes Islamic-Christian dialogue in
Syria, got in touch with me. He had heard of my line
of thinking through a website... But new media
alone are not enough to define an Arab citizenry.
Their role not only involves forging links, but also
generating accountability. They allow people to post
live video footage. When you witness something,
you become responsible, to a certain extent. You
can no longer say you didn’t know about it. Thanks
to mobile phones, people were able to tape the
massacres which took place in Syria. Those crimes
are right there, and there’s no denying they
happened. What about Lebanon’s Hezbollah
supporting a notorious criminal such as Bashar Al
Assad, thus turning itself into an accomplice of
sorts? Actually, many Shi’as within Hezbollah are
not comfortable with that stance.
In your book, Voyage au bout de la violence,
you said that the collapse of the regime in
Damascus would represent the Arab Spring’s
culmination. Do you still believe that? What will
the post-Assad period look like? What about
Saudi Arabia?
Everyone is talking about Syria’s Salafist group, the
Al Nusra front, but it isn’t as serious as it might seem,
due to its limited membership. There are four million
Syrian refugees living outside Syria. Whoever takes
over, their priority will be to bring back the refugees,
not politics. As for Saudi Arabia, it’s going through a
transition. It’s giving out mixed signals: on the one
hand, Saudi Arabia played a part in quashing the
Bahrain Spring; on the other, women have been
granted access to the previously all-male Majlis AlShura (parliament) – and with an even bigger quota
than in Lebanon. The end of the regime in Syria will
mark the end of Iran’s Shi’a destabilising politics.
Iran will no longer have the means to back up its
politics should the Assad regime fall. That would
bring the issue of regional peace to the fore again.
In 1972, Golda Meir said that peace will only be
Nicole Hamouche contributes to several publications of
the Lebanese L'Orient-Le Jour press group, among them
L’Orient Littéraire, a monthly literary supplement of
L'Orient-Le Jour.
Papers of Dialogue | 11
achieved once Arabs will have upraised and
once democracy takes root. Forty years
down the line, this is happening... do you
agree with her comment today?
This Arab Spring has, to an extent, marginalised
Israel. The Arab world as a whole is now in favour
of democracy. Israel is no longer nestled in that
totalitarian bloc that was the Arab world. Israel
can no longer claim it does not have any
interlocutors. Those who are against non-secular
regimes, that is the West, China and so forth, and
the Arab world, can no longer support that sort of
regime in Israel. Therefore, the Arab Spring
poses a huge challenge for Israel. Regional
peace is, especially now, a global concern, and of
particular interest to the United States. During his
first term, President Obama announced that he
would fight that battle. So far, that commitment
has not really been fulfilled; the big speech he
delivered in Cairo in 2009 went unheeded.
Digital world
10 | Papers of Dialogue
Digital world
‘‘New media helpus establish aconnection withone anotherwithin the Arabworld. They helpus find out whatintellectuals inthe Arab worldare writing, theyfacilitate anexchange ofviews.
’’
already drowned in the virtual mass? What can
virtual masses do, on the ground? Isn’t the
new media spirit about reactivity and
instantaneity? Can we build anything in that
spirit and at that pace?
Before the advent of Facebook, I would have been
considered a Zghortiote, a Maronite, Hamid
Frangieh’s son… Thanks to Facebook people can
view my picture, see what I like, read what I write
and so on. You can look beyond the labels which
are pinned on an individual. However, discovering
individuals’ independence is not enough to foster
change: what we need is a tangible link, not just a
digital one. Empathy intrinsically involves someone
else’s attention. That involvement allows a link to
be forged, and, in turn, a common project to be
born. For example, in Lebanon the March 14
Alliance bonded through opposition: the coalition
was built with the objective of defeating the other.
When that’s the case however, it is that other one
who takes the lead, not you, which, in itself is
already a kind of weakness. Being against
something is not a project in itself. There was that
exceptional moment in Lebanon on March 14,
2005, but after that we began to tread water,
because there was no plan for the future to fight for.
That’s why we need to think about what the plan is
as a follow-up to the Arab Spring… In Tunisia, the
Ennahda party tried to implement its plan, while the
liberals didn’t have one of their own; hence their
failure and Ennahda’s success. Be it Ennahda, or
the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt – whose plan is
unfeasible – we would be heading toward a Muslim
democracy the likes of which we witnessed during
a certain period in Europe, Christian democracy.
You know something changed when a major player
from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Abdel
Moneim Aboul Fotouh, talks about “relative
secularisation”. Democracy in the Arab world now
faces two challenges. The first is to build a system
with nuances allowing the emergence of something
other than the traditional political system or the
Islamist system. The second consists in finding a
way to merge pluralism and citizenship in a part of
the world where different ethnicities and faiths live
side by side: Kurds, Arabs, Sunnis, Shi’as and so
on. In Iraq a civil war between Sunnis and Shi’as is
on the horizon. The issue of reconciling citizenship
with pluralism hasn’t been addressed yet. That
needs to be done as soon as possible.
If new media contributed to organising protests
President Barack Obamaspeaking at Cairo University
always involved tapering, where a group is
reduced to a party and the party to its leader. That
could sometimes create caricatural phenomena,
with at times, an underlying religious dimension.
Social networks engender public opinion. Egypt is
one example: the country’s Islamist movement
has reshaped itself into a political party while the
product of its liberal movement is public opinion.
Despite the Muslim Brotherhood’s electoral
victory, six months later social networks played a
key role in shaking things up again. In the same
vein, a Salafi MP, lawyer Mamdouh Ismail, was
forced to issue an apology after he was
bombarded with more than a million insults on his
Facebook page for reciting the call to prayer
during a legislative session. In Lebanon, social
networks put pressure on the government to
recognise Kholoud Sukkarieh and Nidal
Darwiche’s civil marriage [the first in the country],
and to consider the issue. Cyberactivism also
crushed the proposal for a so-called “Orthodox
law”, a largely confessional one, promoted by MP
Elias Ferzli as a basis for the upcoming
parliamentary elections. Public opinion is gaining
clout, particularly in the Arab world. Is it enough to
engender change? No, it’s crucial but, clearly not
enough. We also need a real political system.
Isn’t the individual that you mentioned earlier,
Papers of Dialogue | 13
Digital world
‘‘The youngestgenerationsalready thinkdigitally. They are“digital natives”and have grownup with adifferentmindset: with agreaterpredisposition tohigh-tech jobsamong women.
’’
associated with masculine traits. Many
stereotypical male careers are simply a byproduct
of unintentional bias among parents and
educators in schools. People tended to
discourage women’s potential by assuming that
males are more competent in maths and science
compared to their female peers. This is a
tendency that may have limited women’s progress
in traditionally male fields including ICT.
Dispelling some of the stereotypical myths seems
anything but an easy task, but changes can be
made by companies. Women schedules should
be flexible so that the demands of family life can fit
in with their work responsibilities. We need a
structured approach that fosters a culture focusing
on the impact some technical competences can
have on a woman’s career, and the economic
opportunities that accompany it. Companies must
acknowledge that encouraging women to build
technology related careers isn’t only about gender
equality, it is also about innovation,
competitiveness, and workforce sustainability. In a
global economy driven by innovation, gender
diversity in ICT means a larger and more
competitive team and the ability to create wider
and innovative technology.
Unexpectedly, the high-tech boom of the last
decade has shown a trend reversal. As
technology is woven into everything, women
started to realise they were missing out on
opportunities by not going into ICT. Technology
careers became interesting and appealing to
women as well. The youngest generations already
think digitally. They are “digital natives” and have
grown up with a different mindset: with a greater
predisposition to high-tech jobs among women.
The continuing so called “Arab season” has
confirmed among the youngest the importance of
high-tech when it comes to dealing with issues
such as health, media, mobility, energy and
security. Muslims are also encouraged by their
religious principles to strengthen technological
knowledge and development: “Allah will raise
those who have believed among you and those
who were given knowledge, by degrees. And Allah
is acquainted with what you do” (Surat Al-Mujadila
[58:11] – The Noble Qur’an – ).
Over the last year, Council of Europe Secretary
General Thorbjørn Jagland has repeatedly
emphasised the role of women in high-tech as a
transformative force in contemporary societies.
He stressed their ability to be key drivers of
economic growth in Europe and worldwide.
The young generation of women on the two
Gd≤ôGB¿ GdμôË
Euro-Med women:the high-tech backlash
From the northern to the southern shores of the
Mediterranean, women face serious barriers that limit their
opportunities in high-tech fields. However, recent trends
show this now seems to be changing.
Suhair El Qarra
Digital world
Mediterranean women working in
Information and Communication
Technology (ICT), face a complex set
of gender barriers. There are relatively few
females in the IT industry. Their number has
increased, but not enough. Research on the
high-tech workplace shows the sector is not
biased against different cultural or ethnic
backgrounds, but gender stereotypes have
always worked against women participating in
this male-dominated field. Gender inequality is
still the most common of the problems faced by
many Euro-Med technical women.
Technology, as a culture, has often been
Arab Media Forum, Dubai, UAE
12 | Papers of Dialogue
14 | Papers of Dialogue
Digital world
Suhair El Qarra is an Italian-Jordanian political analyst of
Palestinian origin. She was educated in Europe and the
Middle East. Ms El Qarra is a member of the Euro-Med
Women Network of the Council of Europe. She is also founder
and CEO of “The Meta-Hybrid Project for Peace, Security and
Social Change”, an international think tank that blends
cultural mindsets through interaction and analysis.
shores of the Mediterranean are aware that
technology is an important tool that can be used to
demand opportunities to lead and contribute to the
revitalisation of their societies and economies.
Addressing the barriers to women’s participation
in cities creates a situation where women’s
potential is more fully realised. Households,
communities and governments also reap rewards
and benefits of Mediterranean women’s
empowerment in the service and ICT sector.
Until now very few women in the ICT male-
dominated arena have been successful in
becoming IT entrepreneurs. They are generally
smart women with a strong personality who
embarked on a high-tech career with passion and
determination and are on track to become female
models and mentors for future generations.
Tamara Abdel-Jaber, for instance, is one of the
first female IT pioneers in the Middle East. Her
company, Palma, has been recognised as one of
the 30 fastest-growing companies in Jordan.
Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Digital
Agenda, has made the Forbes list of the world’s
100 most powerful women five times in the last six
years.
Maria José Mirandam, NetApp drives country
manager, from Spain and Bruna Bottesi, country
manager, from Italy, have key roles in European
field sales operations, IT and storage.
The Iraqi web-designer and naturalised Lebanese,
Sukaina Al Nasrawi, in 2010 joined United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
(ESCWA) Centre for Women after passing a highly
competitive examination within the UN Secretariat.
Since then she has been monitoring gender
development within the Arab world. She believes
that “technology can even make a difference by
enhancing women’s socio-economic status”.
Technology is also used as a tool for peace
keeping. Many projects have been developed
among Israeli and Palestinian students, particularly
women. The training is aimed at helping women
find work in the high-tech industry, improving the
status of Palestinian and Israeli women and helping
to increase tolerance and understanding between
their communities. Scientific cooperation between
Muslims and westerners could contribute to
international peace and security and reduce
technological and nuclear threats.
Despite the quantitative shortcomings, high-tech
female entrepreneurs seem to have all the
requirements to encourage young generations to
follow in their footsteps. Within a few years we will
see more young women choosing ICT careers. At
the moment they are a minority group who must
daily demonstrate they can do just as well as men
in the workplace. The irony is that their efforts to
fight against gender-based stereotypes mean that
women in high-tech tend to be wrongly labeled as
unconventional because the field is still associated
with masculine traits. The real high-tech gender
backlash will happen once women are able to be
themselves without pretending to just be one of the
boys. It will happen when companies realise that
their success depends on different roles and skills,
and that women can bring a strong and innovative
contribution to those roles.
Tamara Abdel JaberCEO of Palma
Digital world
16 | Papers of Dialogue
World Trade Center, Bahrain
The agency has become a leading news agency
in the Gulf and Arab states, and perhaps
worldwide, thanks to its awareness of the role of
modern media and the employment of social
networking tools. Thus, it has managed to
support communication and bridge the gaps
between the authorities and public opinion at
local and international levels.
Papers of Dialogue | 17
Digital world
Bahrain News Agency:a pioneer insocial networking
Muhannad Suleiman
Bahrain News Agency (BNA) has
continued its efforts to promote and
develop the tools of the information
business, while taking confident steps to reflect
the radiant face of the Kingdom. It has achieved
this through its desire to create openness which
allows the modernization of public information
facilities and is supported by the informed
leadership of the state institutions.
The agency has become the leader at the Gulf
and Arab states level based on this legacy and
due to the increasing demand and reliance on
modern media, particularly social networking.
BNA has succeeded in harnessing these
networks and tapping into their potential to
promote the achievements of the state and
counter the misinformation campaigns launched
against it. The agency has managed to support
and ensure communication and bridge the gaps
between the authorities and public opinion at
local and international levels.
BNA is one of the leading institutions promoting
social networking. The agency uses tools such as
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, among
others, to achieve its aims. These include ensuring
the highest levels of visibility, transparency,
credibility, as well as enhancing community
participation and raising public awareness.
pupils’ knowledge of public affairs so that they
can become news correspondents.
It was developments like these that attracted
many people to become interested in the
agency’s use of modern media. The number of
daily visitors to the agency’s website rose from
an average of 6,000 to about 22,000. Now the
agency ranks first among the social networking
sites. The number of Twitter viewers in Arabic,
English and French, reached about 133,000 with
an estimate of more than 66,000 tweets. The
agency is preparing to launch its services in
Italian in collaboration with the Italian news
agency AGI as well as running its Italian website.
The agency has also launched live broadcasting of
events and conferences on its website. The
agency is the only one that provides such
coverage in Bahrain and also the only one that
broadcasts graphic news.
However, BNA went even further. Arab Ministers
of Information have accepted its proposal to
open one account for all the Gulf news agencies
on YouTube. The channel will carry live
broadcasting and link to the social networks. The
agency has now been awarded the Gold medal
for excellence and quality of services in the
region by the Arab League Organization for
Administrative Development.
BNA has become a leading news agency in the
Gulf and Arab states, and perhaps worldwide,
employing social networking tools and being
aware of the role of modern media. Its new
website uses many services to keep pace with
the latest techniques in the field of electronic
media. The agency has also placed a “BNA
Video” on various social networking sites and
totaled over five million clicks on YouTube alone.
This, as well as a number of other services, is
considered to be the first of its kind from news
agencies in the region. These include “BNA Kids”
– a pioneering exercise in youth participation in
more than 50 public schools to help develop the
Digital world
18 | Papers of Dialogue
‘‘The agency is theonly one thatprovides suchcoverage inBahrain and alsothe only one thatbroadcastsgraphic news. ’’
Media City, Bahrain
The signature of
the partnership
agreement between
BNA and AGI
21st meeting of Ministers of Information of the
Gulf States. The Kingdom will also arrange
exchange visits of graduate students from
European and American universities,
particularly from the colleges of political
science, international relations and
information. Bahrain is also to host a
symposium on the “current changes and the
role of news agencies in future”, next year.
Bahrain is also to host the Third Media
Summit in 2014.
The agency has signed several memoranda of
understanding and cooperation with its Arab
and international counterparts to expand its
scope and promote best practice. These
memoranda reflect the visibility of the agency
and the confidence of other news agencies.
These agencies hope to coordinate with BNA to
build on its successes and benefit from its
pioneering experience. The most prominent
agencies that signed memoranda include those
in Italy, Spain, Russia and India.
The adoption of the proposal confirms the
evolution of the experience and performance of
the agency in information and media in general,
and in social networking and electronic
communication in particular. Neighboring
countries now wish to benefit from BNA’s
success and to build on the huge strides it has
made. The agency is willing to help initiatives and
projects launched by neighboring countries. The
One Account Project on Twitter was considered
by the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation
Council as the fastest project launched since its
adoption at the 14th meeting of News Agencies
Managers of the GCC States.
These successes go hand in hand with other
concrete achievements. The Kingdom was
chosen as the capital of the Arab media for 2013-
14 during the opening ceremony of the 10th
session of the Arab Media Forum, which was
held in Kuwait with the theme “The Media and
Peace”. This confirmed the leading role of
Bahrain in the information world and the
increasing prospect of freedom of opinion and
expression. The Kingdom was also awarded the
title of the capital of the Arab press by the Arab
Youth Media Forum in 2012.
Bahrain will also host the First Media Forum
of the GCC States this year, as well as the
Papers of Dialogue | 19
Digital world
Bahrain News Agency
Muhannad Suleiman is the Director of Bahrain News
Agency (BNA).
The Hashemite Kingdom, a small country in terms of its
population and economy, punches far above its weight when
it comes to high-tech startups. It has the fastest growing
information and communications technology sector in the
Middle East and looks set to do well into the future.
The Hashemite Kingdom, a small country in terms of its
population and economy, punches far above its weight when
it comes to high-tech startups. It has the fastest growing
information and communications technology sector in the
Middle East and looks set to do well into the future.
Digital world
High-tech” is a term that has traditionally
been used to describe technologies at
the cutting edge. Today it is generally
used to refer to firms like Google, eBay and
Apple. High-tech startups have historically
thrived in the U.S., particularly in Silicon Valley,
but recently high-tech companies have
developed across the world.
In the rapidly-growing market, high-tech startups
20 | Papers of Dialogue
Jordan’s high-tech miracleZubi Al Zubi
are able to generate great wealth for the country
where they are based. They are a valuable
source of revenue so it is essential to consider
what they can offer countries with more limited
resources, such as Jordan.
Jordan leads the Arab world in high-tech
startups even though it has a small population
compared to other Middle Eastern countries. It
had more than 35 internet and technology
“
Zubi Al Zubi
Papers of Dialogue | 21
startups in 2011, which outstripped the 11 in the
United Arab Emirates, although they invested
more heavily in startups at the time. Egypt, with
a population more than 13 times larger, had only
nine startups in 2011.
Jordan’s supremacy is likely to be partly due to
its traditional strength in the information and
communications technology (ICT) sector. This
sector is the fastest-growing in Jordan,
Digital world
King HusseinBusiness Park,
Amman, Jordan
H.M. King Abdullah IIIbn Al Hussein,Amman, Jordan
22 | Papers of Dialogue
Digital world
contributing 14 percent of GDP in 2010, the
same as tourism. Jordan is the main
telecommunications provider in the Middle East,
hosting three-quarters of all Arabic content on
the internet. Internet use in the Middle East is
relatively low, 29 percent compared to 68
percent in Europe, but two-thirds of internet
users are under 30, so this market is likely to
continue to grow.
The Jordan Business website tells the story of
many successful start-ups in the country. Among
them are khodarji.com, founded by Nasr
Shammout, an online site selling fruit and
vegetables, and alhoush.com, a digital
Nour Eddine Fatty
marketplace for artists which is popular across
the region.
The success of high-tech start-ups in Jordan
has not come about by chance: King Abdullah
II set goals for modernisation, and created
incentives for entrepreneurs to develop
internet-based businesses. Some high-tech
startups were already thriving in the country,
but a second wave of entrepreneurship was
triggered by the new incentives.
It is predicted that Jordan’s technology industry
could generate up to 4 billion dollars a year by
2017. Startups are likely to be important in
creating job opportunities for the rapidly
Office of Oasis 500,Amman, Jordan
CulturesDigital world
growing population of
unemployed university
graduates. The ICT
Association of Jordan
estimates that 5,000
Jordanians graduate each
year with degrees in ICT,
but only 3,000 find jobs.
The 18 startups registered
in 2012 created as many
as 2,000 jobs, and this
could help prevent the
drain of graduates to other
Middle Eastern countries.
There remain a number of
problems in creating and
maintaining high-tech
startups, despite Jordan’s
achievements. Potential
startups are often limited
by a lack of assets, and by
difficulty in getting venture
capital. Banks have taken steps to make this
easier by accepting much smaller deposits on
loans. However, there are many rules and
regulations that discourage new companies. If
an entrepreneur loses 75 percent of launch
capital in the first year the government can
shut the company. Legislation passed in
September 2012 gives the government the
power to severely limit internet freedom, which
could also be a barrier for ICT startups.
The success of Silicon Valley, an area less
than half the size of London, has spurred many
countries to look into the benefits of an area
for high-tech companies. Advantages include
ease of access for venture capitalists, the
possibility of sharing infrastructure and major
equipment, and creating a community of
entrepreneurs and technology specialists. As
a result, there is now the Silicon Wadi in Israel,
Digital Media City in Korea and HITEC City in
Hyderabad, among others. Jordan has
adopted this model, on a smaller scale, by
building business and technology parks. The
King Hussein Business Park, on the outskirts
of Amman, is home to Oasis500, the so-called
“homegrown technology incubator”. Oasis500
is headed by Usama Fayyad, who was global
chief data officer of Yahoo from 2004 to 2008.
Oasis500 provides five-week training courses
Papers of Dialogue | 23
Zubi M.F. Al Zubi is the Chairman of the Business
Management Department at the University of Jordan. He
has been elected to the Fellowship of the Higher Education
Academy in the UK.
Khodarji food onlinedelivery company,Amman, Jordan
for entrepreneurs, as well as up to 15,000
dollars in cash in exchange for equity.
Between 2010 to 2012, the company raised
6 million dollars for early-stage financing,
and invested in 55 companies, of which only
three failed. The setting of Oasis500 at the
heart of the Business Park has helped to
attract firms to the thriving location.
Jordan has shown it is possible for a
developing economy to build a thriving
culture of innovation and entrepreneurship,
as long as there is public and private
support. High-tech startup companies are
certainly not restricted to developed nations,
and countries like Jordan have advantages
in providing technology for its people and its
neighbours. Among the economic
uncertainty throughout the world, Jordan
has carved out a place for itself as a
provider of high-tech.
The challenges of the digital youth
The world watched in amazement as
millions of Egyptians took to the streets in
early 2011 to demand an end to the 29
year rule of Hosni Mubarak. After 18 long days, the
protests turned into celebration as Egypt’s
longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman,
announced that President Mubarak had stepped
down and handed power to the armed forces.
Joyous scenes from the centre of the uprising in
Cairo’s Tahrir Square were broadcast around the
globe. A sense of hope prevailed as it appeared
that Egypt’s darkest days were in the past. The
uprising, ostensibly leaderless but driven by a
vanguard of young activists empowered by social
media websites, was hoped to lead to a new Egypt
in which democratic norms and civil rights would
be protected, rather than trampled upon, by the
government. More than two years later, however,
the youth activist community that spearheaded the
uprising has been marginalised and had little or no
say over the direction of post-Mubarak Egypt.
Ahmed Maher and Esraa Abdel Fattah were
among the small group of protestors that first took
to Tahrir Square on the morning of January 25,
2011. In 2008 the two friends had set up the “April
6 Youth Movement” page on Facebook to call for
demonstrations to support striking workers in the
city of el-Mahalla el-Kubra. Eventually the page
began to serve as a forum for youth activists
throughout Egypt to express their dissatisfaction
with the Mubarak regime, and Ahmed Maher went
on to help set up a group of activists by the same
name. In social media websites such as Facebook,
digitally savvy Egyptian youth activists found for
the first time a relatively safe space to call for
change, relatively being an important qualifier as
many activists were detained, including the first
two protestors. It was on the “April 6 Youth
Movement” Facebook page, and other Facebook
pages and social media websites, that the youth
activist community organised the demonstrations
that would lead to the downfall of the regime.
In Egypt, a vanguard of young activists empowered by social
media played a crucial role in the uprisings that led to the
downfall of President Mubarak’s regime. These movements
have now been largely marginalized, failing to play a role in
the direction of the country’s future. However, despite their
shortcomings, the ‘digital youth’ still maintains hope.
Anna Prouse & Jacob Burke
Digital world
Egyptians celebrateafter the announcementof Egyptian presidentHosni Mubarak’sresignation in CairoFebruary 11, 2011
24 | Papers of Dialogue Papers of Dialogue | 25
Egypt’s digitally connected youth activists were
able to drive the uprising that led to Mubarak’s
resignation, but they proved unable to translate
their victory into success at the polls. Youth
activists failed to gain the political sway necessary
to play a role in determining the direction of their
country’s future. The optimism within the youth
activist community following the uprising quickly
dissipated after the elections held between
November 2011 and January 2012. The majority of
seats went to Islamist forces, such as the Muslim
Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the
Salafist Al Noor Party, which had not supported the
uprising or its ideals in the early days. The hopes
of the youth activists were dealt another blow after
the first round of the presidential election in May
2012. The two candidates who won the right to
contest the final round in June were Ahmed Shafiq,
the last prime minister appointed by Mubarak, and
Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s
nominee. The youth activists were faced with a
choice between a symbol of the Mubarak regime
and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. They
opted reluctantly for Mr Morsi – a man they
perceived as the lesser of two evils.
He went on to win the election and became
Egypt’s first democratically elected president. Mr
Morsi promised to serve as a leader for all
Egyptians in a bid to assuage the concerns of
those, including youth activists, who feared the
Muslim Brotherhood would use the presidency to
aggrandise its power. Since assuming office,
however, Mr Morsi has overseen a campaign that
many Egyptians see as an attempt by the Muslim
Brotherhood to consolidate its rule over the
country. The government issued a decree that
granted Mr Morsi immunity from judicial oversight
in November last year and rushed the adoption of
a new constitution favourable to the Muslim
Brotherhood in December. It has also used the
legal system to try to silence criticism. More
lawsuits have been filed for “insulting the
presidency” during Mr Morsi’s brief tenure in
office than during the entire Mubarak era,
claimed prominent Egyptian human rights lawyer
Gamal Eid.
How did the youth activists who drove the 2011
uprising fail so catastrophically in elections,
leaving themselves marginalised and their
demands for democratic norms and civil rights
unfulfilled?
Esraa Abdel Fatah said the failure of the youth
activists in elections should not come as a
surprise. There was no way they could have
competed with the electoral juggernaut that the
Muslim Brotherhood has been building for more
than eight decades. They lacked the keys to the
Muslim Brotherhood’s success: organisation and
funding, she said. Ahmed Maher agreed that youth
activists suffered from “a lack of experience in
Digital world
An oppositionsupporter lifts aplacards near TahrirSquare in CairoFebruary 7, 2011
26 | Papers of Dialogue
Digital world
Anna Prouse is a Principal at the strategy and design firm
Caerus Associates.
Jacob Burke is a Middle East-based MENA Analyst at
Caerus Associates.
organising for elections”. The Muslim Brotherhood
excelled at the polls due to its experience of
competing in elections, despite being ostensibly
illegal since 1954.
Abdel Fatah and Maher believe that youth activists
will one day be able to organise and raise funds to
compete with the Muslim Brotherhood and other
Islamist groups in elections, but with much
dedication and effort. The April 6 Youth Movement
is laying the groundwork for the formation of a
political party. The movement is building a
grassroots network and training its members so
they can gain the expertise to develop a political
programme and serve in office. Maher
emphasised that a real political party is “at least
three years away”. Until then, the movement will
support the opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood
as a pressure and lobbying group, and try to
highlight the “unstable and unfair” nature of the
political situation. Abdel Fatah, a member of
Mohammad El Baradei’s Constitution Party, has
taken a different route, believing that direct
involvement in opposition political parties is the
best route for youth activists to fulfill the goals of
the uprising they spearheaded. “One of the biggest
mistakes of youth activists was their failure to
establish a unified political group directly after the
fall of the Mubarak regime”, she said.
However, a lack of organization and funding is not
the only challenge facing youth activists. Maher and
Abdel Fatah admitted there is also a large
disconnect between the mostly urban, digitally
empowered youth activists and large swathes of the
Egyptian public. Maher said that youth activists need
to interact more with ordinary people and those in
poorer areas who do not have as much access to
social media or the internet. In particular, Maher said
youth activists need to “go to the streets to touch the
pain and problems” of ordinary people and address
their needs, as the Muslim Brotherhood does with its
social service programmes. Abdel Fatah argued that
the predominately Cairo-based youth activist
community needs to do more to visit villages and
bridge the urban-rural divide.
Despite these challenges, Egypt’s youth activists
maintain hope. Social media remain a powerful
tool, but the digitally empowered youth activist
community has yet to translate that potential into a
well-organised political force that can compete for
votes and win elections. Youth activists must step
out from the cyber world they are comfortable with
and appeal to every day Egyptians who are more
concerned with feeding their families than lofty
ideals. It remains to be seen if the youth activist
community will succeed, but one things seems
clear from talking with Abdel Fatah and Maher –
they certainly will put up a fight. As Maher bluntly
put it, “the revolution isn’t over”.
Esra Abdel Fattah, Egyptianinternet atcivist and blogger
Ahmed Maher, co-founder of the April6 Youth Movement, Egypt
Facebook page for April 6 Youth Movement
‘‘Social mediaremains apowerful tool,but the digitallyempoweredyouth activistcommunity hasyet to translatethat potentialinto a well-organisedpolitical forcethat can competefor votes and winelections.
’’
Papers of Dialogue | 27
Geopolitics
Egypt, two years afterAhmed Fahmy
Al Ahram cover page of January 26, 2012 Al Masry Al Youm cover page of January 26, 2012
to the ruling armed forces that Islamists could
not be ignored if the Egyptian State was to
remain intact. The second level was the
Islamist’s overwhelming victory – with of about
75 percent of the votes – in the first
parliamentary elections held in Egypt after the
popular revolution. The defining moment in the
power struggle between the Military Council
and the Islamists came when the council
presented what the media called the “El Salmi
Document”. This was intended to set up supra-
constitutional, binding principles to ensure that
no theocratic state was imposed to replace the
Egyptian secular civil state if the Islamists took
power. It would also grant the armed forces a
semi-independent status, giving them immunity
from the executive and the legislative. The
army dropped its insistence on pushing through
this document, and withdrew it, following the
massive demonstration organised by the
After the historical events that swept
Egypt in January 2011, three political
forces struggled to fill the vacuum that
followed the fall of President Hosni Mubarak’s
regime. These are the state bureaucracy
represented by the army, the Islamists of the
Muslim Brotherhood, and the secular forces
which include liberal, leftist and revolutionary
factions, but with no specific representation.
This analysis reviews three stages in the fight
between these forces that provided the
backdrop to the present ferment of the
political world.
The First Stage: “El Salmi Document on
Supra-constitutional Principles”
In 2011 there was clear evidence of the
superiority of the Islamists on two levels. The
first was their ability to rally, mobilise and
organise massive demonstrations. This proved
Geopolitics
28 | Papers of Dialogue
Tahrir SquareCairo, Egypt
Islamists in Tahrir Square on 18 November,
2011. Liberal and leftist forces had joined the
protest to express their anger at this proposal to
give the military independence.
The Second Stage: Presidential elections
The first round of the presidential elections was
completed in May 2012 with two candidates in
the crucial run-off. The first was Muhammad
Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim
Brotherhood, who was supported by those who
advocate an Islamic project in Egypt, including
the Salafist force with its strong social and
political presence. The other was Ahmed
Shafiq, who represented the traditional forces
in Egyptian society which were the main
support for the political regimes that ruled Egypt
following the revolution of July 1952. These
were the prominent rural families, the remains
of the National Party ruling during the reign of
Mr Mubarak, as well as other non-organised
sectors which believe the Islamist forces do not
reflect the Egyptian multi-dimensional identity,
which includes liberals and Christians. The run-
off ended with victory for the Islamist candidate
with a slim margin. This was despite the
extreme mobilization efforts that ever since
characterized the Egyptian politics and society.
So the election ended with victory for the
Islamist force and with one of its most
prominent leaders becoming president of the
Republic. This is a position which holds power
and authority that no other institution or force
can match, as was established by the exercise
of power and political culture in Egypt during
the rule of the July 1952 regime. However, the
Islamist force only won by a slim margin,
showing that overlooking non-Islamist forces
would have a high political cost. This would be
the case particularly if the Islamists decided to
concentrate the power in their hands and
establish an authoritatian model similar to the
one the January Revolution was launched to
overthrow.
The Third Stage: The Constitution
Reconciliation between Islamist and civil forces
failed during attempts to draft the new
constitution. President Morsi had to issue a
Provisional Constitutional Declaration pending
the adoption of the new constitution. This gave
him unprecedented powers, including refusing
any appeals against his decisions. He was also
able to dismiss the attorney-general, because
he was suspected of supporting the previous
regime. The Constitutional Declaration
provoked the judiciary, who called a strike. This
encouraged the non-Islamist forces to form a
broad coalition and call massive
demonstrations against the Constitutional
Declaration. They also wanted to block any
attempt by the Islamists to unilaterally draft the
constitution after the withdrawal of the civil
political forces from the drafting committee.
Egypt witnessed waves of protest escalating
sometimes into large-scale acts of violence.
Demonstrators rattled the gates of the
Republican Palace and laid siege to it. The
Papers of Dialogue | 29
Geopolitics
Muslim Brotherhood mobilised members to
defend the palace, and this triggered clashes
with many causalities among the civilian forces.
Nevertheless, the Islamists managed to hastily
draft the controversial articles of the
constitution and hold a referendum. The rate of
participation was low, at about 30 percent, as a
protest against the way the constitution was
drafted. The non-Islamist forces believed the
controversial articles would allow the
establishment of a theocratic rule in Egypt. This
would change the identity of the state, obscure
pluralism and discriminate against those who
did not belong to the Islamist groups and
prejudice the rights of women, children and
minorities. The constitution was adopted by 65
percent, but the fact remains that the legitimacy
of the new democratic regime was fractured as
far as some sectors were concerned. They
believed that the regime represented a project
of reduced scope, reflecting the interests of the
Muslim Brotherhood in particular and the
Islamist forces in general rather than the
identity and interests of all Egyptians.
Muhammad Mostafa El Baradei,Egyptian opposition leader
Muhammad Morsi, President of Egypt
Geopolitics
30 | Papers of Dialogue
Ahmed Shahin Fahmy is a PhD candidate at the School of
International Relations, University of St. Andrews in Britain.
He is the author of The Rise of Iran and the New Cold War inthe Middle East: Security Structure Post-Iraq War, published
in 2010.
Future Perceptions
It can be argued that Egyptian politics is
governed by a critical balance of forces with the
presence of the army as the state’s lifeblood
and two major forces. These are the Islamist
force, mainly the Muslim Brotherhood, and a
coalition of conservative civil forces, which is
the alliance that played the revolutionary role
during the demonstrations of November and
December last year. The Islamists may face
more instability because of their inability to gain
the acceptance of non-Islamist forces and
because they are running the country in the
midst of the worse economic crisis it has ever
faced. This also exposes their cadres’ political
and administrative limits in trying to rule a state
the size of Egypt, and their inability to control
important institutions such as the judiciary and
the media, which may lead to yet more
instability. All this is in spite of their opportunity
to win the coming parliamentary elections, or
any election given the organisational gap
between them and their competitors. However,
this very instability may serve the interests of
the civilian forces and their leaderships, like El
Baradei and Sabahi. It is difficult to overlook the
potential power of the military institution during
times of crisis, especially because of its
withdrawal from the internal political fight while
upholding its image as the last defence line of
state unity. The army will only be involved when
the political or economic situation reaches the
brink of the abyss – otherwise they will be
watching the political scene from the sidelines.
In the coming years the political situation is
likely to remain under the diminished control of
the Islamist force. At the political level, the limits
of their control will be at the fringes of the
military institution and its traditional spheres of
influence. At the cultural level, control would
end at the boundaries of the liberal spheres of
influence with continued skirmishes between
Islamist and non-Islamist forces that represent
no real threat to the new regime. No doubt
these skirmishes will make it difficult for the
regime to impose its will on society and politics.
In any case, it is well established that the saga
of the major political transformation process
that began in Egypt two years ago is not yet
over, but may still be in its first stages.
Egytpian Parliament
For decades, political divisions have jeopardized relations
between the two countries. Today, however, after Morsi’s
participation in the meeting of the non-aligned movement in
Tehran and Ahmadinejad’s visit to Cairo, the relationship between
Egypt and Iran seems to be improving in many areas.
Nevertheless, not everyone is happy about this rapprochement.
Papers of Dialogue | 31
Geopolitics
Improving relations between
Egypt and Iran?Giuseppe Acconcia
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with Ahmed Muhammad Ahmed
Al Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Al Azhar and President of Al Azhar University in Cairo
Geopolitics
In February Iranian President Mahmud
Ahmadinejad attended the Cairo summit of
the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and
visited Al Azhar, the centre of Sunni Islamic
teachings. The visit was central to the
rapprochement now underway between Iran and
Egypt. The last official visit of an Iranian leader to
Egypt was by a Pahlavi family member 34 years
ago when relations between Cairo and Tehran
were cordial. After the 1979 revolution that
overthrew the Shah, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini excluded all the other protagonists,
including liberals and socialists, in the upheaval
from the Majlis, and enhanced the Shiite identity
of the state. Since then Egypt has been
extensively portrayed in Iran as one of its main
enemies. This was mainly because the North
African country was the first Arab state to
recognise Israel. Former Egyptian President
Anwar Al Sadat made his biggest mistake by
signing the treaty of peace with the Israelis,
according to the Iranian authorities.
Since then the countries have taken different
paths. Egypt has been an important ally of the
United States in the Middle East and grants from
the International Monetary Fund were pivotal in
the political and economic agenda of ousted
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The political
ideology of the Islamic Republic of Iran was
informed by anti-Americanism and rhetorical
support for the Palestinian cause. This approach
was taken to help unify the revolutionary front
during the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988.
These political divisions jeopardised relations
between the two countries by portraying Iran as
the Middle Eastern leader of the Shiite
community, and Egypt as leading the Sunnis.
After the 2011 Egyptian upheaval, however, the
two powers appear to have become closer. The
Muslim Brotherhood took over in Cairo, and only
a few days after his oath as the Egyptian
incumbent president, Mohamed Morsi, visited
Tehran for the meeting of the non-aligned
movement in August 2012.
However, a real rapprochement has not been
achieved, according to Ramin Jahanbegloo,
professor of Ethics at Toronto University. “The
two countries have different visions on Islamic
history, any kind of rapprochement is going to
take time. Nowadays, there are improvements
that facilitate trips of Iranian tourists to Egypt,
but the two countries appear still far [apart]”, he
said. The Muslim Brotherhood, however,
considers it a pragmatic decision to improve
trade links with Tehran. Iran is seen as “a
regional force that cannot be ignored”, said
Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mohamed Kamel
Amr. In addition, the Iranian leader had pledged
to make a loan to the cash-strapped country.
“The political geography of the region will change
if Iran and Egypt take a unified position on the
Palestinian question”, said Mr Ahmadinejad. “My
visit will give an impulse to strengthen the
relationships between our two countries”, he said
after meeting Ahmed Al Tayyeb, the Grand Imam
and President of al-Azhar University. However,
these intentions to strengthen relations have not
yet borne fruit.
It is clear these are only the first attempts of a
political rapprochement. Egypt and Iran may
decide to launch commercial flights to improve
and normalise tourism but Cairo and Tehran still
do not have diplomatic representatives and the
two governments have different approaches on
some major political issues. Many analysts
agree that the political divisions between Egypt
and Iran remain frightening. The Iranian
authorities unconditionally support Hamas in the
Palestinian territories and President Bashar al-
Assad’s regime in Syria. In Egypt President
Morsi is trying to promote Hamas-Fatah
dialogue and was deeply critical of the Syrian
regime’s use of violence. Egypt has joined calls
for the Syrian government to be removed.
Even the early signs of dialogue have caused
major concerns. Egypt has been forced to
reassure the Gulf monarchies over its new ties
with the Iranian authorities. “The safety of the
Gulf countries represents a red line for our
government”, Mr Kamel Amr said on the eve of
the OIC Cairo Summit. The Egyptian foreign
minister was referring to the tensions between Iran,
on the one hand, and Saudi Arabia, the Emirates,
Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, on the other. This began
after the Gulf states sent troops to Bahrain to
support the Al Khalifa Sunni monarchy. The Gulf
Cooperation Council Countries fear that
expanding ties between the Muslim Brotherhood
and Iran, or a political alliance, could threaten
the stability of the region. However, even the
‘‘Egypt and Iranmay decide tolaunchcommercialflights toimprove andnormalisetourism butCairo and Tehranstill do not havediplomaticrepresentativesand the twogovernmentshave differentapproaches onsome majorpolitical issues.
’’32 | Papers of Dialogue
Giuseppe Acconcia is a journalist and researcher focusing on
the Middle East. He covers foreign affairs for Italian, Egyptian
and British newspapers. He obtained an MA in Middle
Eastern Studies at the School of Oriental and African
Studies in London, with a dissertation on the role of the
military in politics in Egypt, Syria and Iraq.
XVI summit of
the Non-Aligned Movement,
Tehran, Iran 2012
Geopolitics
Papers of Dialogue | 33
political and religious factions in Tehran for
renewing Egyptian-Iranian ties. It is reasonable
to suppose that many conservative politicians,
supporters of the Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei,
waited for Mr Ahmadinejad’s departure to arrest
the former general prosecutor of Tehran. Said
Mortazavi was investigated for his part in the
death of a large number of demonstrators in
protests during Mr Ahmadinejad’s second
contested election in 2009. Now as Mr
Ahmadinejad finished his second and last
presidential mandate, the new Iranian president
could again jeopardise the rapprochement
between Cairo and Tehran.
United States seems prepared to accept
improvements from the political, economic and
diplomatic encounters between Cairo and
Tehran. In March U.S. President Barack
Obama’s visit to Jerusalem was said by some
commentators to help produce a new balance in
the Middle East by persuading Israel not to
attack the Iranian nuclear programme.
Also the Egyptian Salafi movement strongly
disapproved of Mr Ahmadinejad’s visit to the
country and staged protest. Four people were
arrested for throwing shoes at the Iranian
president when he visited a market in Cairo.
Influential political Salafi figures asked Mr Morsi
to confirm that Egypt was a “Sunni State”. Mr
Ahmadinejad would be held accountable for “the
Iranian regime’s responsibilities in killing women
and children caused by the Tehran’s military and
political support to the Assad regime in Syria”,
said the Salafi movement’s spokesman for
Al Nour, Abdel Moneim Al Shahat. Hardliner Mr
Ahmadinejad’s historic visit has also been
criticised by many moderate and conservative
The Muslim communities in Europe reflect a multifaceted
reality of ethnic, political, and religious perspectives. They
express an effervescent pluralism which reveals different
dynamics of integration, as well as finding a modernisation
model of their own.
Geopolitics
34 | Papers of Dialogue
Understanding the mosaic
of European IslamMaria Luisa Maniscalco
Papers of Dialogue | 35
Geopolitics
The almost 20 million Muslims living in
Europe represent the largest religious
minority in the region and the most
conspicuous Islamic diaspora in the world1.
Their presence in Europe is mainly, although not
exclusively, due to migratory flows and can be
listed among the major and most significant
events of the second half of the 20th century. It is
no longer possible to think of the development
of European societies without considering the
relevance of their contribution. First-generation
migrants always remained closely linked to their
countries of origin, but nowadays migrants
undergo an intensive Europeanisation process
in which Muslims increasingly wish to become
fully integrated and acknowledged.
The Muslim communities in Europe reflect the
multi-faceted reality of the great Muslim ummah(community), with all its different ethnic, political
and religious perspectives and their internal rifts.
This pluralism has hindered the creation of a
homogeneous Islamic community in Europe as a
whole and in individual states. These differences
arise on different levels: alongside the believers
there are people whose culture is Muslim but who
do not identify with the “believers”. Some are
decidedly secularised while others interpret
religion as a cultural heritage and a symbolic
dimension. Others experience their faith in a very
personal way and want to integrate Islam in the
same kind of European space and do not take
part in religious or political associations.
In Europe, Islam is undergoing an extended
identity crisis. It is expressing an effervescent
pluralism that goes well beyond its traditional
set-up – through religious movements and
schools or on the basis of ethnic or national
identity – that has triggered an internal
competition to find a modernisation model of its
own which can exert control over social models
and lifestyles. The road to modern Islam (or to
Islamise modernity) is strewn with
confrontational clashes between ideas, models
and ideologies.
Even the dynamics of integration are diversified
in Europe, with a multitude of players on the
playing field: individuals, groups and
associations. Some groups act autonomously
while others are networked, creating synergies
but also sometimes friction and conflict. The
world of Muslim associations is rich in
initiatives, with the shared aims of many being
to pursue new ways of expressing the Muslim
religion, gaining more visibility and institutional
and social empowerment, and to legitimise
Grand MosqueRome, Italy
1 All people coming
from, or originating in,
countries with a
prevailing Muslim
culture are statistically
accounted for as
Muslims. However, it
should be noted that
the figures are only
estimates because in
most European Union
countries it is
forbidden to count
people on the basis of
their religious beliefs.
Furthermore, these
estimates vary greatly
among them, although
the figure of 20 million
seems to be the most
plausible. M. L.
Maniscalco, L’Islameuropeo. Sociologia diun incontro, Milan,
Franco Angeli, 2012.
36 | Papers of Dialogue
Geopolitics
network, strengthening their connections and
coordination. This trans-European network,
which is developing despite the persistent
soundness of its members’ national roots, will
require greater commitment by European
institutions to meet its requests, which do
comply with European democratic standards
and reasoning.
At an individual level, European Islam is
staging a “silent revolution” with an increasing
number of people committed to finding a life-
style in harmony with their faith and traditions
and playing an active role in society. Young
people relate to Islam and Europe in a way
that is different from preceding generations.
They are often citizens of a European country
and this is where they were first socialised.
They are poorly acquainted with their families’
country of origin and often have little
knowledge of the language or of popular
culture. They have adopted lifestyles and
patterns of consumption, sometimes re-
interpreted in a creative way, that are very
similar to the ones of their native counterparts.
Grand MosqueParis, France
Asmaa
Abdol - Hamid
presents on the
Danish Channel
DR2 a TV
program called
"Respect
towards different
thoughts and
beliefs”
Asmaa Abdol-HamidTV presenter
Muslims as part of Europe’s historical, political
and cultural heritage. These organisations are
almost unknown in Europe, not because of a
deliberate effort to conceal them, but because
of scarce media coverage and the difficulty of
including them in public debate, which prevents
them from making a significant contribution.
Now modern communication systems have
allowed them to establish a closely-knit
CulturesGeopolitics
They have also developed working and
professional expectations in line with
European models. It is precisely this
characteristic that converts them into a group
that is strategically relevant in developing a
European Islam, an Islam capable of
effectively contributing to guiding European
societies through a transformation. European
Muslim youth are developing an identity that,
on a personal and relational level, is critical of
the ethnic and traditional practices of the older
generations.
The Muslim youths’ feeling of belonging to
Islam takes shape in the connections between
different processes. It develops in their
relationship with the first generation’s ethnic
type of Islam, their interactions with European
societies and the influence of the different
Islamic movements in Europe, plus the
influence of transnational Islamic groups. They
are driven by different desires: they want to be
equal to their native counterparts but also to
distinguish themselves by belonging to the
culture system of their countries of origin. In
addition, their pursuit of personal and social
achievement is associated with their fear of
standardisation. The condition of young
Muslims can be interpreted as a conflict
between dual loyalties. On the one hand, to
the community of belonging – family, ethnic
and or religious group – and, on the other, to
the societies they live in. Also to a cultural and
personal growth caused by their cultural
“cross-fertilisation”.
Many European Muslim youths, while trying to
integrate without being absorbed into the
mainstream, reveal a capacity for cultural
innovation mixed up with religious
identification processes. By overcoming the
binary – integration or rejection – logic, some
of them are expressing original ways of
producing and reproducing their culture. They
are assessing the extent to which European
culture models are valid and acceptable, and
finding a way of ensuring Islamic values
continue while leading a non-marginal life in
the West.
In this historical phase European Islam is
pursuing a place of its own in society. Concrete
and deep-reaching problems may persist, but a
large number of Muslims are well integrated in
Europe and continue on their path towards
development. European Islam holds a host of
surprises for us which are sure to help our
intercultural dialogue.
Maria Luisa Maniscalco is a tenured professor of sociology
at the Political Science Department of Rome University Roma
Tre, where she directs a Master’s course in Peacekeeping &
Security Studies and a PhD course in gender studies. She is
also a member of the Scientific Council of the Euro-Arab
Institute for the Dialogue between Cultures.
Arab World Institute Paris, France
Papers of Dialogue | 37
Cultures
38 | Papers of Dialogue
Arab Christians,a history of dialogueHabeeb Mohammed Hadi Ali Al Sadr
It was our Lord Jesus of Nazareth, peace be
upon Him, who started the dialogue with the
west from Palestine through His appeals to the
idolatrous Roman authorities. He called on them
to join the glorious path of monotheism and high
morality for the sake of their salvation. This
dialogue was met by arrogance and intransigence
and led to the path of pain, which was also the
path of dignity and eternity. This motivated Christ’s
disciples to follow His message by adopting
dialogue, wisdom and logic as the means to
deliver His divine message to establish love,
justice, virtue and peace. The Romans and their
tyrannical emperor Nero repeated the same tragic
scenario with Saint Paul and Saint Peter in 67
A.D. However, the commitment in principle to
dialogue remained their desired option and the
best way for the eastern Christians to maintain
their missionary work. Some of the early dialogue
between western Christians and those in the east
can be traced back to the Council of Nicaea in 325
A.D. They had theological debates with their
western counterparts to try to establish a common
law on the roots of Christian belief, but this led to
the eastern Copts and Jacobites coming to
different views on the nature of Christ. This
angered the Byzantine state which believed the
doctrine of the twin nature of Christ, that of divinity
and humanity. They used their knowledge, their
theological literature, Syriac schools and the
monasteries on the routes between Iraq, Syria
and the Arabian peninsula, which were used by
merchants, tourists and people from many
countries and religions, to create dogmatic
discussion in order to gain more followers of
Christianity.
Since the emergence and spread of Islam, Arab
Christians crossed the barriers of religious
differences in their relationships with their Muslim
brothers which were governed by “al kalima altayyibah” [Good Word], mutual confidence, and
Pope Francis withAmbassador HabeebMohammed Hadi Ali Al Sadr
Papers of Dialogue | 39
Cultures
good treatment. This was through the covenant
agreements between the Prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon Him, and the people of the Book,
which began with the covenant of Medina in 622
AD and ended with the treaty of Najran. These
established the tolerance and moderation adopted
by the Islamic religion. The covenants also
expressed the wish that the people of the Book
should have full citizenship rights and manage
their own affairs according to their own laws. This
was also stated in the Holy Qur’an, for example:
“Let the people of Injeel (Gospel) judge by what
Allah has revealed therein. And whosoever does
not judge by what Allah has revealed then such
people are the fasiqun (the rebellious, those
disobedient in a lesser degree) to Allah (Surat
Al Maidah, 47)”. And Allah says: “And argue not
with the people of the Scripture (Jews and
Christians), unless it be in (a way) that is better
(with good words and in good manner, inviting
them to Islamic Monotheism with His Verses),
except with such of them as do wrong, and say (to
them): ‘We believe in that which has been
revealed to us and revealed to you; our Ilah (God)
and your Ilah (God) is One (i.e. Allah), and to Him
we have submitted (as Muslims)’”. (Surat Al
Ankaboot, 46). This allowed the Christian cultural
heritage to flourish under the auspices of the
Islamic state. The Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid,
Ayyubid caliphs made them ministers, writers,
physicians, teachers, and keepers of the Treasury.
Christians had translated into Arabic thousands of
compilations and also into Greek, Syriac, Persian
and Indian books in many branches of knowledge
and the sciences. This cultural activity flourished
in an unprecedented way during the rule of the
caliph Al Mamoun, who established Dar Al Hikma
for that purpose. The most important Christians
who practiced translation as a major link between
the east and the west were people such as
Yuhanna Ibn Masawayh, Hunayn Ibn Ishaq, Qusta
ibn Luqa and Ishaq Al Dimashqi. They proved that
Islamic Arabic civilization could only have soared
high in the west with the aid of two wings: one of
them Islamic and the other Christian.
After the modern Arabic renaissance, Christian
Arab translators again began translating arts and
sciences from English and French into Arabic.
Arabs eagerly read these works, and were
influenced by them. Printing houses such as Deir
Kozhaya were set up in Lebanon and in Aleppo in
Syria in 1706. They also promoted European
liberal concepts in their communities, which were
suffering from injustice, tyranny, marginalization
and backwardness. They did this by reviving
Arabic heritage, and drawing attention to the
Arabic language and its literature after centuries
of deterioration. This was in addition to developing
the educational and health sectors by setting up
hospitals, schools, and universities to serve the
Muslims before the Christians. They started
publishing newspapers and magazines such as AlAhram which was started by the Takla brothers in
1857, Al Hilal established by Jurji Zaydan in 1892,
Al Diya started by Ibrahim Al Yaziji, Al Jamiah (The
Alliance) by Farah Antun, Hadiqat Al Akhbar by
Khalil Al Khoury in 1858, and Al Jinan by Butrous
Al Bustani. The Arab press has borne the seeds of
secular pan-Arab ideology, modern concepts and
values such as justice, equality, separation of
power, equity and the rule of law. They made
these efforts because they believe that their racial
identity as Arabs comes before their religious
affiliation as Christians. Their religious partnership
with the west allowed them to act as a qualified
intermediary between the eastern and western
civilizations.
Such environments gave Arab Christians the
opportunity to establish associations and political
The map of
the Madaba mosaic,
Jordan
‘‘After themodern Arabicrenaissance,Christian Arabtranslators againbegantranslating artsand sciencesfrom English andFrench intoArabic. Arabs eagerlyread theseworks, and wereinfluenced bythem.
’’
doctrines clashed with sectarian and tribal interests.
These stressed singularity and exclusiveness, which
were the major features of these regimes in dealing
with populations who were eager for freedom and
equality. Christians felt frustration, injustice and
concern, especially in the wake of growing Islamic
fundamentalist trends among Arab communities.
This triggered waves of Christian Arabs immigrations
to western countries early in the 20th century which
continued until today. Christian Arab writers like
Gibran Khalil Gibran, Elia Abu Madi and Mikhail
Naima were among the first group of Lebanese
immigrants to the United States of America. They
amazed the western and Arab worlds with their
wonderful poems, novels, and articles. Others took
their place in the business community, such as Steve
Jobs, a Christian Syrian who was famous for his
computer inventions. Some reached the highest
levels of the hierarchies of power, like Carlos Menem,
who was Lebanese and became president of
Argentine. But the flow of Christian emigrants left the
Middle East with a significant decline in its Christian
population, which threatened negative
consequences. The Pope referred to these negative
consequences on many occasions and warned
against their impact. The Synod of Bishops for the
Middle East, in October 2010, expressed concerns
over this problem and stressed the need to address
the problem. The Muslim Arab world suffered a great
loss through this exodus by losing efficient, educated,
loyal and reliable individuals who could lead reform,
rejuvenation, cross-cultural interaction and dialogue
with western civilization. However, the Christians in
the diaspora did not confine themselves to their
destination countries. They created cultural and
communication links with their homelands, helping to
shape the current diversified European community.
The western orientalists, Christian missionaries, and
the archaeologists helped present the image of
oriental civilizations to the west. Their great
achievements are considered today an important
reference for specialists in the Arab and Islamic
affairs, though part of their writings are still subject to
criticism by some eastern science and culture
specialists. Now many precious monuments,
obelisks, archaeological remnants, ancient Arabic
manuscripts are on display in European museums
and libraries and are visited by tourists and
researchers from all over the world. This showed
Europeans details of the oriental traditions and its
pioneer human role. However, there were feelings of
parties and to attract other Christians and Muslims
to join them. This fueled feelings of nationalism, and
mobilized popular action against the Ottoman
Turkishisation policy and promote ideas of
openness, enlightening, and reform, which they
picked up from the Christian west. Examples of
such associations were the “Literary Forum”, the
“Young Arab Society” (Al Jamiiya Al Arabia AlFatah), the “Association of the Covenant” (JamiiyatAl Alahd), and the “Arab Ottoman Brotherhood
Association”. These Christian movements qualified
them to form half the membership of the first Arab
Conference which was held in Paris 1913.
Arab Christians adopted the slogan of a “national
identity” as a reference for establishing the
institutions of the modern Arab state as a melting
pot with inclusiveness, diversity, multi-culturalism,
sectarian plurality and multi-ethnicity in the Arab
world. Nasif Al Yaziji, Francis Marrash, and Adib
Ishaq were among the first who called for this,
however, after the end of the Ottoman state, the
hopes of Christian Arabs to set up official Arab
regimes based on western enlightened ideas and
Cultures
40 | Papers of Dialogue
Gibran Khalil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese poet and artist. He was
born in Bsharri, Lebanon, in 1883, and died in New York in 1931.
His writings are profoundly inspired by Christian spirituality and
Sufi mysticism, and by authors such as William Blake, Friedrich
Nietzsche and the Syrian writer Francis Marrash. His book TheProphet, published in 1923, was one of the bestselling literary
works of the 20th century.
. . .
. . .
H.E. Habeeb Mohammed Hadi Ali Al Sadr is the
Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq to the Holy See.
bitterness and suspicion in the eastern Islamic world
towards the intentions of the Christian west after the
Crusades between 1096 and 1291. These were
followed by more than six centuries of oppressive
western colonization which took the resources and
wealth of Arab and Muslim countries after the
breakdown of the Ottoman state. Western culture
then threatened Arab and Islamic identity. Islamic
fundamentalists exploited these feelings and
criticized western support for what they called the
usurper country of Israel. The fundamentalists
adopted extreme positions to fight thoughts coming
from the west and question the position of Arab
Christians, accusing them of advocating secular
national state models and promoting European
culture. Arab Christians were also said to be
subordinate to the western Christians who opposed
the spread of Islam and obstructed the establishment
of an Arab state based on an Islamic perspective.
It is now necessary for the Arab Mashreq to hold on
to the Christians in their Arab homelands and to
establish links with Arab Christian communities
abroad. This can be crucial for promoting
understanding between religions and cultures.
Christian Arabs are faithful to the Arab Islamic
civilization, which was the source of their
knowledge and schooling. They digested the
thoughts of this civilization, which shaped their
conscience. Therefore, they are more qualified to
play the role of building bridges of cultural tolerance
among peoples and states. They are also more
capable of promoting new patterns because of their
skills and close relationships with the western
world. They are also more competent in addressing
and convincing western people, and clearing up
misunderstandings about Arabs and Islam. This
was especially true after the events of September
11, 2001, which led to unfair use of double
standards about Arab and Islamic issues. The Arab
Mashreq must invest in churches, associations, the
media, and the Christian civil society organizations,
at home and abroad to present its true position to
the west and promote its image as a negotiator
which is open to the views of other people and not
the image of a fundamentalist insular Arab
Mashreq which rejects the ideas of others and
accuses them of blasphemy. It is God’s wisdom
that peoples have different religions and customs,
and if He wished He could have made all human
kind to believe in one religion. But He wished this
diversification would become a source of richness
and progress, rather than a source of strife and
fragmentation.
We are sure that globalization and the huge advances in
information and digital technologies will help bridge the
gaps and remove barriers between cultures and
religions. Today there is a softness in the tone of
fundamentalist discourse and positions on eastern and
western sides, except for some misguided groups who
accuse others of not believing. There is also a positive
change in impressions and unquestionable ideas taken
for granted. This is in addition to the exodus from the east
to the west with a strong wish for openness towards
western scientific and cultural advances. Hundreds of
thousands of students have been granted scholarships
to study in western universities. This make us feel that
there is a change in the western approach in dealing with
eastern Islamic states, which replaces the expression of
hegemony and superiority. It is now the era of promoting
international relations based on investments and
interests, mutual respect, and cultural, economic, and
social openness to the goals of transformation and
change in the Arab Mashreq. This can be achieved
through popular will, in particular the will of young
enlightened leaders who advocate the ideas of liberation
and democracy.
The crisis-ridden world of today needs dialogue between
civilizations and religions to achieve peace and
coexistence and address the common challenges of
poverty, disbelief, illness, starvation, illiteracy, suicide,
environmental pollution, human trafficking and family
disintegration. The west and east need to discuss
establishing an international system of ethics and a
framework for understanding, human conduct,
interrelations between states and cultures, a framework
such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which
can establish principles on plurality and multi-culturalism.
It could also promote enlightened moderation and the
acceptance of differences while guaranteeing rights and
freedoms and combating all forms of discrimination and
marginalization because of ethnic and ideological
backgrounds. The system should be established by a UN
affiliated agency that would ensure compliance with its
provisions. The agency should also prepare regular
international reports. Such initiatives can lead once again
to the flourishing of monotheistic religions and human
civilizations in the Arab Mashreq.
Cultures
Papers of Dialogue | 41
Cultures
The Dubai Marine andHeritage Festival proposeddifferent activities as a wayto celebrate the Emirate’sunique legacy and topreserve its history. Visitors
participated in folkloric shows, tastedpopular foods and were reminded of thetraditional relationships between Dubai,the sea and pearling.
42 | Papers of Dialogue
Dubai used its parks, gardens and
beaches on April 17, World Heritage
Day, to allow everyone to interact with
the past of the Emirates in the Dubai Marine and
Heritage Festival.
Heritage and folklore
Activities included water sports, sailboat racing,
diving and pearling trips. There were shows that
reflected the artistic heritage and the culture and
history of the region. The most important aspects of
ancient life in the Emirates was represented by
places such as Umm Suqeim, Al Shindagha,
Allisala and Hatta.
The festival, which included 23 activities, illustrated
the commitment of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority
to present heritage and its training workshops in a
vivid and interesting manner. Exhibitions and field
activities invited visitors to interact with what they
saw by joining in handicrafts such as building straw
huts (Buyout Al-Arish) from palm fronds, weaving
“tallies” to decorate dresses and making rugs from
weaved palm straw and basketry.
Visitors began arriving at the Heritage Village in
Rasha Al Maleh
Celebrating
Dubai’s Heritage
The HeritageVillage, Dubai
Papers of Dialogue | 43
Umm Suqeim 2 before sunset to spend a few hours
getting acquainted with the history and culture of
the region. They were able to see folkloric shows,
including folk dances, sailors’ lyrics and songs
while paddling, pearling lyrics and tasting popular
foods and delicious traditional dishes.
Expo 2020
The organisers of the festival applied international
tourism standards, to complement the aspiration of
Dubai to host Expo 2020. They organised a
workshop for tourist guides, using 12 different
languages, to train them in how to present
information about the Emirati heritage.
Nasser Juma Bin Suleiman, Director of the Diving
Village and chairman of the Organising Committee
of the festival, said that the attention paid to the role
of tourist guides reflected “the commitment of the
authority to strive for excellence in making
information accessible to all visitors”.
Legacy of Generations
A book entitled The Legacy of Generations was
published by Humaid Al Tayer for the festival, in
cooperation with the Culture Centre of Dubai and
Dubai International Marine Club. The book, which
in the luxury edition included 20 medium size
pages, contained many pictures of the maritime
events sponsored by His Highness Sheikh Majid
bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, chairman
of the board from 2009 to 2013.
The introduction of the book said “if the past is the
real legacy of people, whoever who seeks the
present must not separate himself from the roots”.
Al Tayer talked in the book about the close
relationship between the people of Dubai, the sea,
and pearling, which was the first source of livelihood
for the people. Dubai in particular, and the UAE in
general, were commended for their efforts to
preserve the history and legacy of their ancestors
that combined heritage and marine sports.
Rasha Al Maleh is a reporter for Al Bayan newspaper in the
United Arab Emirates. She is also the author of a short story
book entitled Frozen Limbs.
Cultures
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ةّيمقر ةّيصخش
ةثيدحلا مالع�ا لئاسويبرعلا ماعلا يأرلاو
ةيعامتجالا تاكبشلا داورتنرتنالا ىلع
فوشريك يدوينيسورو
ةيجنرف ريمس
نيرحبلا
تايوهلا ةيمقرلا
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