CAIRO,
April 11, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A fruitful Euro-Mediterranean
dialogue counts on mutual respect, equality and justice otherwise it
will prove futile, according to Egyptian academics and political
pundits.
“Both
sides of the Mediterranean can’t claim superiority. This sense of
superiority, whether from Arabs of time-honored civilizations or the
democratic Europeans will lead to nothing,” said Kamal El-Monoufi,
the dean of Cairo University’s Economy and Political Sciences
Faculty.
He
was addressing a three-day symposium that kicked off Sunday, April 10,
and is organized by the university’s Dialogue Among Civilizations
Program under the title “Toward an Arab Vision for Activating the
Euro Mediterranean Dialogue and Enhancing Bilateral Interests.”
“Both
sides should rather speak about common grounds and challenges like
combating terrorism, boosting economic cooperation and taming the
American shrewd.”
Ambassador
Mohammad Shaaban, former Egyptian foreign minister’s assistant for
the European Affairs, said the 1995 Barcelona Process laid the
foundations of a Euro-Mediterranean partnership based on mutual
respect.
“The
Arab countries south of the Mediterranean were keen on engaging in a
constructive dialogue with the northern side to basically combat
terrorism, eradicate poverty and resolve sticking conflicts,”
Shaaban told the audience.
Match
for Europeans
 |
|
Three-day
symposium is organized by Cairo University’s Dialogue Among
Civilizations Program.
|
Ahmad
Kamal Abul Magd, famed intellectual and professor of law in Cairo
University, said Arabs should be match for the Europeans.
“Muslims
mustn’t feel inferior to the other. They have every right to express
their anger and grimace,” he said.
“In
America, for instance, they don’t like the weak and despise them.
They rather love and respect the strong.”
He
said it is high time that Muslims and Arabs also stopped boasting
about their matchless civilizations.
“We
should learn from others and enlist their expertise,” he said.
The
West, he adds, should further stop using terms such as “tolerance”
and “co-existence.
“Usually
you don’t tolerate something you admire or like but you tolerate
something you are going to live with although you do not like,” he
said.
“As
for co-existence, it means that we are forced to live together and not
out of our own volition.”
Abul
Magd also said that Muslims and Arabs should now come out of their
shell.
“Isolation
from the outside world looks like committing suicide,” he said.
“Take
the Jews in the United States, who melt themselves into the
country’s social fabric on the contrary to the Arab Americans who
lived in parallel societies.”
Arab
Strategy
Professor
Nadia Mostafa, the program’s supervisor and director of the
Political Studies department in Cairo University, called for a common
Arab strategy for a successful dialogue with Europe.
“This
strategy is aimed at combating defeatism, reaching out to other,
encouraging the positive side of globalization, asserting that Muslim
problems are part and parcel of this world’s problems, which help
stabilize the world if resolved,” she said.
But
journalist Said Al-Lawendi struck the discordant note, believing that
it is predestined to bog down.
“It
is really falling on deaf ears. The Europeans are talking economy and
we are talking politics,” he said.
