Sufi Culture Festival celebrates peaceful tradition, Fez history

10/03/2008

The second Sufi Culture Festival, to be held in April in Fez, will offer a variety of art exhibits, lectures, and concerts on the themes of peace and tolerance.

By Mawassi Lahcen for Magharebia in Casablanca – 10/03/08

[Mawassi Lahcen] A Sufi ensemble performs outside the Fez medina. The second Sufi Culture Festival, which will run from April 17th-24th in Fez, aims to renew the values of tolerance, solidarity, and peace, director Faouzi Skelli told Magharebia.

The historic city of Fez will host the second Sufi Culture Festival from April 17th-24th, offering visitors a distinguished spiritual atmosphere in which to explore principles of dialogue, tolerance and peace.

This year's programme features artistic soirées open to the public every night, with the participation of music bands from four continents. Each afternoon will feature Sufi Tariqas (schools) from around the world. In the mornings, intellectual seminars will discuss issues related to women, the environment, entrepreneurship and international relations through the spiritual and moral values of Sufi Islam.

Festival co-ordinator Faouzi Skelli is of the opinion that the Muslim world needs to shake the dust off the Sufi cultural heritage and reinstate its role in the social, educational and spiritual upbringing of youth. In a statement to Magharebia, Skelli said Sufism can fill a gap in the spiritual involvement of young people who are thirsty for religion. "The absence of spiritual involvement for young people in their search for religion gives way for political ideologies that misunderstand the social function of religion, and attract the young people to the trap of extremism and terrorism," he said.

Skelli explained that the aim of the Fez Sufi Culture Festival is to renew Sufi practices, especially spiritual education in the values of tolerance, solidarity, and peace. "It is true that we need to refresh memory and to benefit from the sources of heritage," he said, "but our aim in this Festival is to finalise the role of Sufism in the work that it can do today for the benefit of the current society; to live the Sufi experience as a lively, future-oriented experience; and to adapt its principles to the current needs of young people and societies."

The second Sufi Culture Festival coincides with the 1200th anniversary of the foundation of the city of Fez, considered the spiritual capital of Morocco. Al Karaouine University will hold an exhibition at the festival to showcase its treasure of manuscripts.

Al Karaouine University, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, is one of the oldest universities in the world. Throughout its long history, the university has been known for its openness and tolerance. Pope Sylvester II (Gerbert d'Aurillac), credited with introducing Arabic numerals to Europe by the end of the first millennium, studied there. Moses Maimonides, a Jewish physician and philosopher, was a teacher there for many years.

The treasury of Al Karaouine is considered one of the oldest in the Arab world, as it includes manuscripts dating back to the 8th century. It also includes rare manuscripts from Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Tofaïl and Ibn Rushd, as well as books written by Moroccan kings.

Highlights of this year's festival will be a performance by Spanish band Curro Pinana, who will sing Ibn Arabi poems to Flamenco music; the art soirée by the Rabaat Band; and the "Spiritual Songs of Oum Kalthoum" event. Bands and artists from Morocco, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Senegal, Egypt and other countries will also perform.