Moroccan kingy, token of morality, authority, thinker says
Morocco, Politics, 6/14/2003

The Moroccan monarchy is "a token of morality and authority, a capacity existing nowhere in the world except in Morocco," said Mohamed Arkoun, a renowned Arab thinker and professor at the French prestigious university of La Sorbonne.

Arkoun, who was lecturing on his recent book "From Manhattan to Baghdad, beyond Good and Evil," the Algerian intellectual said the Moroccan monarchy is "a moral resort, engraved in the collective imagination of Moroccans," and sealed by centuries of symbiosis.

Arkoun said he is confident in king Mohammed VI's intelligence and perceptiveness and in his capacity to ideally succeed in his actions that are part of the policy of aspiration, a philosophical policy focusing on the necessity to establish a link between moral resort and the Moroccan people's aspirations.

During the lecture that also focused on the direct impact of September 11 and the US-UK-led war on Iraq, Arkoun proposed to Arab political forces and intelligentsia to ponder on some questions, notably the deep reasons lying behind terrorism that is justified by a reading of the Quran (Islam's holy book), a reading enclosed in a fanaticism apostatizing the opinion of the other.

Arkoun opines that we have to ponder the foundations of Islam to stop false theologians from producing the language of violence and hatred. "We should offer a credible option, able to eliminate the legitimacy of this ideology in the eyes of people who consume such ideologies," he said.

This terrorism --that foments obscurantist ideologies banning all kind of dialogue and deeming it a priori an apostate that the world is better off without -- was enhanced and amplified, on the one hand, by colonialism that gagged all aspirations by creating an identity crisis in the unconsciousness of Arab individuals and, on the other, by the US "humiliating" interference in Iraq that was justified by September 11, he said.

Terrorism carried out by young stateless justified exchanging roles, i.e. victims became aggressors and the intruder became an advocate of rights, added Arkoun. Reconciling with Reason and building a new society, Arkoun explained, is an urgent necessity that led to the creation of regional spheres.

"Morocco cannot detach itself from the Maghreban space, which is both a collective imagination and a solution to escape a political speech that remained by far enclosed in a double state and Islamic dogma," he said

Arkoun added that it is important to develop the collective memory and social imagination of the population living in this sphere because the achievement of such a historic task constitutes a social power of progress and integration in the Maghreban and in the international context as well.

For the thinker, Islamic ideologies have deprived these countries of a culture of integration and that pan-Arabism speeches masked this old Maghreban culture.

Boosting The Arab Maghreb Union (UMA, mustering Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania) through anthropologist approaches to forge a critical historical consciousness in the minds of Maghreban citizens in such a way to rid the people of the region of an ideology that "made them miss the rendez-vous with history."

For Mohamed Arkoun, the Arab states are a victim of the West. However, 9/11 attacks wiped out this victimization and allowed the super powers to occupy an Arab state by brandishing speeches making them targets of aggressions led by "pariah" states to create a false legitimacy.

It is crucial to understand the American society, a melting pot of all peoples and cultures of the world, said Arkoun, noting that the European Union is witnessing a major revolution that will profit the Arab states.

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan FM meets German parliamentary delegation   (6/13/2003)
  Morocco extends donation to Mauritanian government   (6/13/2003)
  Moroccan FM expected in Algeria   (6/13/2003)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search