Gulf News
Dialogue needed to bridge cultural gaps’Moroccan professor speaks at Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research
By Shehab Al Makahleh, Staff Reporter
Abu Dhabi: There is a dire need for high quality dialogue to generate shared understanding around many world issues, said Mohammad Saadi, associate professor at the University of Mohammad I in Morocco. Speaking at a lecture entitled: The Role of Culture in Building Dialogue between Nations, held at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research, Saadi said: “Over the last two decades, the concept of intercultural dialogue has become both common and controversial in the intellectual arena as a result of its close association with the problems with regarding to identity including cultural policies, interaction of cultures, cultural globalisation, clash of civilisations and cultural domination.”
He added: “The need for culture in the dialogue between civilisations has grown owing to the impaired ability of communities to control their surroundings and environment, and the exacerbation of international fragmentation and instability.”
Saadi confirmed that there is a dire need to explore transformation of ourselves and relationships, groups, organisations, communities, socio-economic and political institutions and cultures.
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He recommended a new global cultural arrangement that will help restore meaning and harmony to the international system and provide hope for a better future.
“The fate of humanity depends on cultures becoming the consciences of the world via an integrated and consolidated vision that corresponds to our moral, material and spiritual needs, and which protects societies from crises,” said Saadi.
He stressed the importance of coexistence to restore global peace and stability. “It is time to re-examine culture’s role in the international arena, not as a means to foster conflict, but rather as a positive strategic tool in building a more humanitarian form of international governance. This is no less important than geopolitical and geo-economic considerations in shaping the future of international policy.”
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