Faced with the controversy over learning Arabic at school, the author and poet Tahar Ben Jelloun explains at the microphone of Anne Roumanoff in "It feels good" why this teaching is a wealth for culture, but also in the fight against Islamophobia and terrorism.
INTERVIEW
Many see in him a figure of "old sage".
The writer, poet and painter Tahar Ben Jelloun is present on Anne Roumanoff's program
It makes good
her new book,
La philosophy explained aux enfants
.
He takes the opportunity to defend the learning of the Arabic language at school and its benefits for society.
While the issue of teaching the Arabic language at school is controversial, Tahar Ben Jelloun takes a stand to calm the debate.
"Learning Arabic is a necessary and important idea", proclaims the writer, poet and painter.
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"Teaching Arabic is not only teaching a language, it is teaching a culture, a civilization, a world", lists the Franco-Moroccan.
It is for him a significant cultural enrichment.
"With the Arabian language, we introduce poets and important novelists," he adds.
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"To rectify an image which has been crumpled by misfortune"
But for Tahar Ben Jelloun, the benefits of this teaching are wider.
They play at the level of French society, whether or not we have Arabic as the language of origin.
"This makes it possible to demonstrate that, ultimately, the Arab world and the Muslim world are not only Islamism and terrorism, fear and hatred," he explains.
This dissipation of fears thanks to knowledge would, according to the poet, repair certain French wounds.
"It is true that being a Muslim or being an Arab in France is not easy," observes Tahar Ben Jelloun.
"But this must be remedied by teaching the Arabic language and Arabic culture."
A solution against fear which he sums up as follows: "We must rectify an image that has been damaged by misfortune."