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

[email protected]

Consultancy:Global Services Incorporation

Badaro Trade Center Building – Beirut – Lebanon

[email protected]

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


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.


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


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,


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



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


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.


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


‘‘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


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


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


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


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


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


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.

’’


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


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


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


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.


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


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


Understanding the mosaic

of European IslamMaria Luisa Maniscalco


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.


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


Cultures


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


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


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


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.


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


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

f«ù°É¿ )GHôjπ( - MõjôG¿ )jƒf«ƒ( 3102e`é∏q````á

ةّيمقر ةّيصخش

ةثيدحلا مالع�ا لئاسويبرعلا ماعلا يأرلاو

ةيعامتجالا تاكبشلا داورتنرتنالا ىلع

فوشريك يدوينيسورو

ةيجنرف ريمس

نيرحبلا

تايوهلا ةيمقرلا

2

Documents

Papers of Dialogue - 2 - 2013 - English