Algerian academic calls on Muslims to re-examine the past
2007-03-30
Mohamed Arkoun, an Algerian professor in Paris, looks at Islam's former open and productive relationship with Europe and encourages Muslims to recapture the glory of that era by embracing modernity and tolerance.
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 30/03/07
 [File] Arkoun |
At a conference on Sunday (March 25th) Mohamed Arkoun, professor of History of Islamic Thought at the Sorbonne in Paris, called on Muslims to re-read the history of their relations with Europe and to develop their academic curricula "to catch up with the march of civilization that passed them by".
Along with Tunisian and Moroccan scholars Hicham Djait and Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri, Algerian Mohamed Arkoun is considered one of the most prominent advocates for modernisation of religious discourse. Their writings are highly controversial in the Islamic world.
Sunday morning's conference was organized by the Tunisian General Labour Union and was attended by both university academics and syndicate leaders. Explaining why he had invited Arkoun to speak at the event, Union Secretary-General Abdulsalam Jarad said, "unionists always endeavour to fortify bridges of dialog and interconnection with intellectuals and innovators in the Maghreb region."
Giving a lecture entitled "Critique of the Relationship between Europe, Islam and the Arab World", Arkoun said that Arabs and Muslims are unable to take part in producing history because "We forsook modernity and…we shut the door on it under the pretext of defending our convictions and our identity."
Arkoun bemoaned the widespread abandonment of modernizing texts and called for universities to open up to teaching and studying the comparative history of theology. "What happened to Ibn Khaldun’s Muqadama? Did the historians read it and did they teach it to their students?" he asked. "I think it was buried like Ibn Rushd was buried."
Arkoun recalled the situation between 632 and 1250 AD, "when Arabic was the language of civilisations,…of reason, of scientific research and of enlightenment…Since the 13th century, Muslims and Arabs have closed themselves off and stayed inside the shell of the past," he added. "[T]hey fell into the trap of ideological Islam, which doesn’t pose questions and is afraid of posing them. Others advanced in Europe and outside of Europe, where philosophical thought did not stop engaging in inquiry and progress."
Speaking on future relations between the Maghreb and European spheres, Arkoun said we must first scientifically assess the past. "Building the European Union is an intellectual-political event on par with the emergence of the age of enlightenment in the 18th century. [B]uilding the European Union means a break with the nation state, [because] they decided to make the entire European region into an open citizenship area."
Arkoun added, "Faced with this intellectual and humanitarian revolution in Europe, we still look at what happened as if it… doesn’t concern us. We didn’t derive any lesson from it."
In conclusion, Arkoun pondered, "We in the Maghreb region must ask ourselves why we failed in building a Maghreb Union."
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Nacima Posted 2007-03-30
Why do North Africans say they are Arabs? Why not Africans? Mediterraneans? Or Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians? If we stop saying we are Arabs, if we manage to have our own concept of identity, it will be easier to get closer to Europeans who were always close to us, to Africans, to Arabs (real ones). Let's call a cat a cat. We are called the Maghreb, which means sunset, they are called Machreq, which means sunrise. Why do they want us to see the sun only when it sets? No, we want to see the sun rise and leave darkness.
Fathi Mourali Posted 2007-03-30
Let us follow Professor Arkoun's advice, especially regarding Islam before Christ, that developed from 632 to 1250. Lets go back to it. Halleluia. Congratulations Magharebia. Greetings.
abdzahir Posted 2007-03-31
Greetings to all. Modernism and openness is a necessary thing to adapt with the current affairs and exit the isolation of underdevelopment. But we should not abandon or forget our past to avoid blind assimilation to the west which will perpetuate our failures.
francoi marocain Posted 2007-04-02
Yes we have failed in establishing a united Maghreb as wished by every faithful, but we will certainly succeed in building a female import export union without basis or horizon except that it is there; it is high time for the Arab intellectual with his white head who studies at the tone of luxury and serene words to wake up and walk on earth like other human beings.
BOUSSAD Posted 2009-03-21
There has never been a “Maghreb”; there is “Tamazgha”, the authentic name of North Africa. The day we restore historical truth, of which Professor Mohamed Arkoun is speaking, will be the say that we recognise all the constituent citizens of this land, which is at its foundation Amazigh with layers superimposed over the ages. A united North Africa existed in ancient times under different names: Tamazgha, Numidia, Berberia and, according to geographers, North Africa. Recently, French colonialism taught us that our ancestors with the Gauls and, after our countries’ independence, the worst dictators in the world established themselves on our land under an Arab-Islamic ideology. This is the product of ignorance, which Professor Akroun has not ceased to speak to us about for more than 40 years. This great thinker is listened to and respected the world over. The exception is North Africa, because some people do not even know the slightest details about their history and think that they are Arabs and the North Africa is Arab. There were never Arab people in North Africa; there were Amazighs with different languages (Tamazigh, Arabic, French, Spanish, etc.). The crucible has always been Amazigh, and from this we can build a union based on a historical or even prehistoric, anthropological, linguistic reality and not on Arab-Islamic ideology, which is the product of ignorance as, once again, Professor Mohamed Akroun speaks of. The future will show Professor Akroun right. –For a Tamazgha of the people by the people, Boussad (from a University in Canada)
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