Fes Forum 2014, Day Two: Culture and Identity: Social Harmony in Plural, Multicultural Societies - What have we learned?

By: Katherine Marshall

June 15, 2014

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Speakers: Rachid Arhab (moderator), Many Ansar, Ali Benmakluf, Olivier Germain-Thomas, Dena Merriam, Ilari Rantakari, Salamatou Sow.

Challengers: Saida Bennani, Abdou Hafidi
Our moderator, Rachid Arhab, set an ideal for Sunday’s discussion in his remembered childhood dream of the stork. Free to fly everywhere, the stork, with no passport, goes far and wide, always finding his way home. The forum discussion yesterday ranged over a wide terrain, fittingly since diversity was its core theme. The question, to recall, was how far we, as a human race, have learned to live together in the plural societies that are the norm in much of the world today. It is a world caught in the tension between global forces that unite and blend, sometimes drowning cultures in a common and boring homogeneity, and the energies that react, sometimes violently, sometimes with a fierce isolation. In the face of evidence of growing populism, what can counter the negative forces?

In a discussion with a large and diverse panel of speakers, where more than half the time was devoted to a free-wheeling discussion with an audience eager to engage, I traced four different themes that reflected some quite distinct concerns and ideas on how to move forward.

The role of religion and spirituality was a first theme. Both Olivier Germain-Thomas and Dena Merriam centered their presentations on the anchor of spirituality. Multiculturalism challenges us to explore our own roots, but also to understand those roots in relation to those of others. There is danger when people seem to come from nowhere. And the deepest roots, the sense of purpose and meaning, lies in spirituality in all its forms. True, religion is covered with blood, as many say, but the blood is not intrinsic to the religion but, sadly, to human nature. Dena Merriam described our time as an era of profound transition, above all in religious understanding and practice. New religious approaches (the yoga movement for example), many deeply influenced by the often-neglected eastern faiths, are spreading fast. Human unity is the central theme because humankind must, simply must, come together to address enormous problems, like climate change, that we face. If there was a common theme it was that attention to and deep understanding of the spiritual and religious forces at work in the world today is vital to the challenge of living together in plural societies.

Religious literacy was mentioned often: the large gaps in simple knowledge, among many people in many places, about what others believe. Learning about religion has vanished in many schools and universities with the unwise and impossible goal of keeping religion out of the public space. This ignorance makes it harder for people to navigate the complex links and differences among culture, religion, nationality, and ethnicity. Ignorance about religion is a central cause of abuse and tension.

Culture as a life force was a second theme. When extremists in Mali forbade music, Many Ansar resisted, by making the music festival of the desert a festival in exile, reaching a vast audience and showing the energy of the Tuareg people. Music became an expression of liberty, a way to join people across borders. The life force that is part of culture is a resource to harness and develop consciously as part of the response to multiculturalism.

There were lengthy exchanges about the links between knowledge, learning, and wisdom, and thus between science and religion. At one point there was a fear that books and learning were even demonized. The evil wrought by learned people and cultures was evoked, as was the wisdom of people without education or book knowledge. Books should not dry out your heart, we were reminded. Many who spoke sought answers to this ancient conundrum in a focus on spirituality. There were also forceful assertions of the importance of education, and especially education of women, as a tool for living in modern societies, but more profoundly as a way to open the way to understanding and learning. Learning languages can be a passport to understanding and enjoying different cultures.

A third theme took us to the practical, spatial issues of how people live and thus the ways that lived culture translates into values. Salamatou Sow highlighted the different focus of rural and urban societies: in rural areas from ancient times the question is how to live with and on the land. In cities, the opposite is more often the case: the issue becomes control and ownership of resources. Ali Benmaklouf, especially, highlighted the dangers of rising inequality, within and between societies. With the majority of the world population now living in cities, new understandings of living together are more essential than ever and they often take highly practical forms such as competition for power and resources.

A fourth topic, touched on occasionally if rather lightly, was exclusion. How do our societies treat those at the margins? The poor, with little power and voice, are not present at the Fes Forum, nor are they often at the center of debates. Migrant populations, including Mestizos, people with mixed heritage, are a growing force in the world. And there are examples from history (America’s Amerindian population was cited) of the deep hurt and lasting damage that exclusion and denigration of the worth of a culture can cause. Certain peoples are demonized and persecuted, whether because they are poor or because they do not belong to a dominant religion, ethnicity, or culture. Those who are denigrated within a society for their heritage or profession are among the excluded. There was lively debate as to whether such exclusion happens even in Fes. It is often said that a society is judged by how it treats its poorest citizens: how does this problem of exclusion relate to the other challenges of living together in fast-moving and complex societies?

A continuing challenge in this discussion was: what next? What to do? These questions were largely left unanswered, though with the sense that the special nature of the Fes Forum offered possible paths to move forward. The forum dialogue, it was suggested, needs to be taken far beyond the Baatha Museum, and the ideas and ruminations turned into action.
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