Especially noteworthy were substantial west African participation as well as leading French media. It benefitted from its patronage by the King of Morocco but still more appears to respond to a keen and surprisingly broad interest in what Sufi traditions represent within the Islamic world today. The Festival combined daily panel discussions with music, film, and historical reflections and was conceived as an event to advance the ambitious objectives of the Fes Festival of Global Sacred Music, encouraging dialogue on leading global issues. Hence the topic: human development as the central theme. The attachments include the tentative program and list of speakers/participants.
The background of the Sufi Festival is a rupture within the Moroccan leadership of the Spirit of Fes Foundation and annual Festival of Global Sacred Music and Fes Forum (which the Bank supported for five years). Faouzi Skali has left the Foundation (at least for the present) and is thus taking his ideas and part of his team in new directions. The Festival and Forum continue (taking place in June), though they appear likely to be taking on a rather different character. Skali's future plans are still taking shape but include an annual event focused on global Sufi culture and issues and a broader, global dialogue event likely to be inaugurated next March. Faouzi Skali is a well known scholar of Sufism with numerous publications on the subject.
The event took place at several sites in Fes that had not previously been open to the public, and especially non-Muslim foreigners: the Qarawiyin Library (part of Fes' ancient university), the Mokri Palace, and the Bouanania Medarsa. Holding events at these location was deliberately designed to highlight the deep roots of traditional Islamic education, which, it was stressed, gave the foundation to much world learning and which wove together different sciences as well as literature and theology. The importance of Sufi scholarship to the world was highlighted, with examples including Rumi, the great poet and Mohamed Yunus (Grameen Bank founder). Arguments were made that Sufi traditions, which were tightly linked to guild structures (and remain so today in places like Fes) were a foundation of economic values and economic life.
The emphasis throughout was on values and ethics as the foundation both of Islam and of its Sufi manifestations. Sufi culture was seen as a path to defining positive values that would combat corruption (a theme much on people's minds even in this spiritual framework). Also highlighted were traditions of charity and equity within the ideal (always) and actual (sometimes) society, which extended to male female relations. The image of Islam that was deliberately portrayed and savored was a complex faith and tradition, with diverse trends and great appreciation for individuality - as many tastes and senses as one might find in appreciation, say, of honey, as many paths as there are individuals. Islam was presented as an exuberant, serene, intelligent, mysterious, value driven, open, dynamic, loving and peaceful faith. Yet there was open appreciation of the tensions within Islam, and the gap between what was seen as the ideal and the potential, and the real, of actual practice and divisions.
What does the Sufi festival represent and why the keen interest? At the broadest strategic level, the issue was framed by several speakers as the "recapture" of the "true spirit" of Islam and projecting that spirit more widely. One speaker commented that Islam as both a faith and a community faces an unprecedented crisis today and Sufi traditions are an important avenue to solutions. Sufism (though some objected to the ism suffix) is a large, global, and deep current within global Islam, very difficult to quantify with any precision but affecting a significant part of Muslim culture and practice. It is the place where the inherent tension between faith and reason, which is central to Islam, plays out. Morocco is an important center of Sufi tradition, its history deeply shaped by Sufi Cheikhs and traditions, and with these traditions binding Morocco to other parts of the world, perhaps most strikingly to West Africa where the great majority of the Muslim population follow one or the other of the large Sufi orders.
More specifically, the Festival aimed to highlight the global reach of Sufi culture, with speakers and artists from many countries, its deeply peaceful character, and its links to 'human development". As with the Fes Forum, the concept of linking culture and dialogue on global issues was at the fore. A Sufi saying was cited: what comes from the heart, goes to the heart. What comes from the mouth goes to the ears alone. A second "red thread" running through the events was the reality and virtues of diversity, within Islam, and among cultures. Finally, one person suggested that what we face is a "clash of ignorance", not a "clash of civilizations" (the clash seemed to one person "the autistic deafness leading to Greek tragedy, as Al Quaeda and Guantanamo react against one another). Contact, dialogue, and knowledge are the paths to the future.
So why human development and what is meant by the term? First, human development was used in senses quite different from those normally in use in the World Bank. The primary connotation seemed at its core to center on human dignity and opportunity; the notion of human capabilities comes closest to capturing the significance of the term as it was used in the conference, though much discussion focused on the balancing of rights and responsibilities. The issue of gender evoked keen interest, with a majority of subscribed participants being women eager to explore the issues of gender within Islamic jurisprudence, tradition and practice.
