Not only the language of immigrants .. Paris celebrates the language of Dhad as "one of the languages ​​of France"

Hisham Abu Maryam - Paris

The Arab World Institute in Paris organized various literary and intellectual performances and activities over a period of three days to celebrate the language of Dhad on the occasion of the International Day of the Arabic Language.

In the fifth edition of the cultural demonstration, those responsible for the institute chose a distinct slogan under the title "Arabic is a language of France", indicating the importance that the Arabic language is gaining in the cultural and social fabric in France today.

Political message
Patrick Pergo, who is in charge of this year’s edition to celebrate the Arabic language at the Arab World Institute, considered that the slogan for this session was carefully and intentionally chosen, as it is a political message in response to all racist voices in France that are still hostile to the Arabic language and consider it an alien language to French society, and refuses to It is taught to our children in schools just like all other languages.

Birjo added to Al Jazeera Net that the Arabic language is not the language of Arab immigrants as some nationalists and racists claim, but rather a language with deep roots linked to the history of France, even before the colonial era, as it dates back to the beginning of the 17th century when the King of France François I decided to teach it in various French schools and institutes .

A living and cosmic language
In turn, Jacques Lang, director of the Institut du Monde Arabe, former French Minister of Education, said that Arabic is a universal language, and it is the language of literature, culture and science par excellence, and we must defend it with great eagerness in order to gain the place it deserves in France.

In a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, Lang added that the language of daad should be studied as a living language for all French who wish to do so, and not only for the children of French of Arab or Muslim descent.

The former Minister of Education continued that the Arabic language opens up great prospects for French students to get to know a great civilization and a very rich Arab and Islamic culture, according to his description.

It is worth mentioning that Jacques Lang, last year, called on the French Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanker, to expedite the issuance of a ministerial memorandum giving utmost importance to the teaching of the Arabic language, along with English and Spanish as a second language, for students wishing to learn them in all French schools and institutes.

Stereotypes
In the same context, the official of the Department of Arabic Language Education at the Institute of the Arab World, Mohamed Karkour, said that teaching the language of opposites in France suffers from several problems, including the lack of political will for ideological reasons to enable the Arabic language of all French, in addition to the spread of some wrong stereotypes among some French Those who link the teaching of the Arabic language with the Islamic religion, and sometimes extremism and terrorism, and this is absolutely not true, as he put it.

It is noteworthy that the Arab World Institute had launched a months ago the "Certificate of Attribute" in the mastery of classical Arabic for non-native speakers, which is the first certificate of this type at the European level, similar to the internationally recognized certificates for entering institutes and universities, or for obtaining A job opportunity in some companies - especially in the Middle East - that require their foreign employees to have a certain level in the Arabic language.

Art and literary workshops
The celebration in the Arabic language for three days witnessed the organization of several intellectual symposia, art and literary workshops, a major dictation competition for various levels, and courses in introducing the Arabic language to non-native speakers.

The events also included art shows by organizing poetry evenings, reading poems by Mahmoud Darwish and literary texts, such as the stories of Juha in the texts of "Hakawati" with the aim of introducing the French to the oral literary heritage that is characterized by the Arabic language.

The events also included organizing an Arabic calligraphy workshop run by Iraqi artist and calligrapher Mohamed Salih, who gave a presentation on the history, diversity, spread, and relationship of Arabic calligraphy and its relationship to the Islamic religion. A number of prominent European painters were affected by the aesthetic of Arabic calligraphy.

The Iraqi artist said in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net that the workshop was met with great success and demand by French passionate people who have a high artistic taste who wish to learn Arabic calligraphy, even though most of them are not native speakers, but as a fine art that compares to the rest of the other western arts such as drawing, according to his description.

Al-Jazeera also met two couples in their seventh decade, namely, Philip and Martin Clarion, who expressed their love for Arabic calligraphy and their desire to learn it despite their lack of mastery of the Arabic language.

The 63-year-old retired Martin confirmed to Al-Jazeera Net that there is no prettier Arabic calligraphy as it is a unique art of its kind, because it mixes beauty and the spiritual side according to its expression.