The language of "terrorists" or France's historical treasure? .. Teaching Arabic in a heated European debate

Boualem Ramadan - Paris

As expected, Jacques Lang, head of the Arab World Institute and former French Minister of Culture, ignited the debate in intellectual and media circles that did not wait for the publication of his book “The Arabic Language… The Treasure of France”, to a fierce campaign against it, led by the French media and writer known for his racist stances, Eric Zemour, who admires the language Arabic is literary and music only, and is hostile to it to the point of sick hatred, because it is the "language of Islamist terrorists", as he put it in a TV interview at the end of January.

Al-Jazeera met Jacques Lang, who answered special questions on the occasion of holding a press conference in his office about his new controversial book, and he said that he did not give in to his opponent Zemour, not only because he possessed a resisting mood, but also because he firmly believed that the Arabic language is inseparable from the history of France, which His enemies on the right and the extreme right are going crazy.

Lang considers Arabic to be a language of diverse sciences, ancient human civilization, and fascinating literary and artistic creativity, which necessitates her teaching away from preconceived notions.

In a country that does not have a history of linguistic diversity, Lang's premise of enthusiasm and struggle for the Arabic language, as he says in the introduction to his book, does not seem separate from the political dimensions and backgrounds of French controversy that we will learn about in this report.

According to Lang, the Arab World Institute, which he heads, is late in teaching the Arabic language that he considers "a French treasure," which is the main premise on which the book was built despite the objective obstacles and difficulties assigned to it for an entire chapter, and he said that it poses a great challenge to his book, which entered the heat of the heated debate about The French values, the nation, the secular, and the lack of linguistic diversity, which are the values ​​that characterize France even in European surroundings.

In the French context, the head of the Arab World Institute is counted against the socialist left, whose party is witnessing an increasing decline in recent years, in exchange for the rise of the right and the hard right in the political and cultural arena alike.

History of France
The president of the institute, which was inaugurated by the late socialist president François Mitterrand in 1987 and proceeded to restore consideration to the Arabic language through him, admits that his book raises controversy among those who are "ignorant of the history and heritage of France, and consequently the history of the Arabic language introduced by the former French king François I more than five centuries ago. , Which explains his struggle "to clarify the facts and confront ideological, demagogic and populist manipulation" as he put it.

The Lang book aims to integrate the teaching of the Arabic language into the curricula of public education and public teaching in France, to restore the dignity that it lost in society due to the marginalization of "the fifth global language spoken by more than thirty-four million people in about sixty countries."

Honoring the movement of Algeria
In Lang’s view, the Arabic language entered modernity at the beginning of the third millennium, expressing cultural, economic and geopolitical stakes, and it is used by young people today to express its desires, dreams and demands through social networks like the English language.

"It is the language of writers, poets, artists, singers, scholars, researchers, journalists and contractors," Lang says of Arabic, adding that it "contributes to the renewal of the Arab world, and is considered a language of the contemporary world."

By linking the Arabic language with the creativity of the youth, Lang will have honored the youth of the Algerian movement on the anniversary of his first historical breakthrough, not only with his dazzling pacifism, but also by dedicating and developing the Arabic language in slogans and chants as Lang calls, and its slogan came "moving toward the bottom" of the core of the Arabic language and means "it must step down" All corrupt from the bottom "i.e. from the roots.

It is not only the language of Muslims
On 115 pages divided into three chapters, “Arabic and France: From Union to Divorce,” and “Arabic: This Unknown Beauty,” and “Clashes and Happiness to Teaching Arabic,” Lang praised a mixture of French and Arab history, which drew the wrath of his critics.

The book appears as if it is a cultural and humanitarian call in a French and international context in which the pace of populism and racism is increasing.

Lang responds to the populists who "embrace history under the weight of their ignorance," he says, considering that they "link Islamic extremism with terrorism and the Arabic language" and promote the hypothesis of linking the Arabic language to "the Islamic invasion" past and present.

The author says about the language of the daad, "It is not only the language of the Holy Qur’an thanks to revelation, but was and still is the language of Arab Christians, Jews, Muslims and atheists because it is a language deeply rooted in the previous history of Islam, and it is replete with poetic and spiritual strength by all means, which is the imperial and cultural language that enriched Contact with diverse regions and cultures over the centuries. "

The preference of Arabia over the West
Lang insists on saying that "the Arabic language is a French historical treasure," despite all that his opponents say about the preconceived notions of King François I and other later French Orientalists, and in his estimation, it was not possible in conceiving François I during the sixteenth century to absorb the humanities in the two Greek languages And only Latin, and it was necessary to expand the area to include the Hebrew language for biblical research and the Arabic language for philosophy and science.

Lang, who was satisfied with talking about the goal of understanding the Arab opponent in reference to the achievement of François I in the ancient monarchy without removing the veil from the colonial background, he later departed from a systematic historical perspective on the translation of the French orientalist Antoine Gallan book and the epic "A Thousand and One Nights" between 1704 and 1717 To the French language, which is the translation that "contributed to converting the Arabic language into a deep feeling of our culture".

The hypotheses of the disagreement increase with the author, especially when he talks about the pros and cons of the colonial era by saying, "It pushed the Arabic language forward for scientific and cultural reasons and for administrative, legal or humanitarian needs." This talk is not accepted by an Algerian example who knows that colonial France has dealt with the Arabic language because of its love and admiration With it, but to use it as a service to its settlement and western eradication goals that the homeland of the million martyrs still suffers to this day.

Fear dealers
While Lang and a few French intellectuals see that teaching Arabic in a secular framework is the most effective way to block the stream of militants, a large segment of the French elite views education in Arabic as a threat to the pillars of the secular republic, especially if it is taught to the children of immigrants and the French through associations with the same Religious character.

During the seminar, which was attended by journalists from the children of immigrants, Al-Jazeera Net asked the head of the Arab Institute about the great delay in language teaching, especially that the author was a minister of education and responsible for the education sector, and whether this indicates that the subject of fighting what is called "Islamic terrorism" is the reason The real thing that accelerated the experience of trying to "remove the teaching of the Arabic language from the grip of extremists."

Lang, 80, avoided the direct answer to the questions and expressed dissatisfaction with them, but after his willingness to learn Arabic, he said, "I am old and learn languages ​​as a child, as specialists emphasize," and welcomed the idea of ​​translating his new book into Arabic.