Moroccan academic and researcher Tayeb Bouazza is considered one of the pioneers of Arabic writing in the field of philosophical thought (Al Jazeera)
Moroccan writer and researcher Tayeb Bouazza believes that Israel has shown everyone that it is “a modern state in terms of its killing tools only, but at the level of political values, even its so-called democracy is a system of blatant racial discrimination,” noting that the Arabs are in dire need of creating spaces of sharing and cooperation with Western peoples. As well as the peoples of the rest of the world.
The Moroccan academic at the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences in Tetouan, Abdel Malik Saadi University, said in his interview with Al Jazeera Net that “history is not understood even by its perpetrators, but rather by those who are separated from it by a distance of time that allows them to read the historical event in terms of its consequences.”
The professor of higher education at the Teacher Training Center in Tangier since 2011 believes that the Al-Aqsa flood caused “a disruption of the normalization process, a restoration of the spirit of popular rejection of Israel, and an awakening of the moral conscience from its slumber.”
Bouazza considers the idea of cultural polarization to be very naive and based on a narrow view that does not comprehend the structure of the contemporary world, which is under formation and accelerating. He stressed that he also rejects the reverse polarization that is often located in the epicenter of Western centralism.
It is noteworthy that Bouazza has written 13 books, including 8 parts in the series “The History of Western Philosophical Thought,” the most important of which are: “The Problem of Culture” (1991), “Issues in Contemporary Islamic Thought” (2002), “Criticism of Liberalism” (2007), and “Critique of Liberalism” (2007). “On the Significance of Philosophy and the Question of Origin” (2012), and “Pre-Socratic Philosophy, Malatian Philosophy” (2013), so on to the dialogue:
The Al-Aqsa flood process is still imposing itself on everyone, despite the passage of more than 4 months. How can this process be read in the course of the contradictory fluctuations in the Arab region in particular and the world as a whole in general?
More than 4 months after the event, the extent of the blatant Israeli crime was clearly confirmed, and to date the number of martyrs has reached 28,064 martyrs. This is in addition to thousands of wounded and injured. Indeed, there is a very painful situation reflected in the statistics. On December 19, UNICEF spokesman James Elder announced that about a thousand children in Gaza had lost one or both of their legs. He said this on the 19th of last December, so what if he counted what happened later?
What is happening today is the expected result of an extreme right-wing government. If you mix Likud with Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Otzma Yehudit, that is, the parties that make up the current Netanyahu government, the result is undoubtedly a gang motivated to commit terrible crimes, without any moral and human deterrent. And for a minister in the current Israeli government, I mean Amichai Eliyahu, to speak proposing to drop a nuclear bomb on the entire population of Gaza to indicate the criminal mentality of Israeli policy.
Israel markets itself to the world as a modern state, and as an oasis of democracy in the Middle East, but it appears to everyone that Israel is a modern state in terms of its killing tools only.
Israel markets itself to the world as a modern state, and as an oasis of democracy in the Middle East region, but it has become clear to everyone that Israel is a modern state in terms of its killing tools only, but at the level of political values, even its so-called democracy is a system of blatant racial discrimination.
Does the event, with all its pain, constitute an awakening of hope for a solution to the Palestinian problem?
Since 1917, the Palestinian people have suffered from a global conspiracy in which neither they nor any other Arab people were parties to the conflict. The area of Palestine is only 27 thousand square kilometers, but the ongoing conflict affects the Arab and Islamic worlds, and even the entire world, so finding a real solution is a necessity not only for the Middle East region, but it is necessary for global peace.
The significance of historical events is not understood by those who live them, and their meaning is only grasped by temporal transcendence over them, as “history” is not aware of even its perpetrators, but rather is “aware of” those who are separated from it by a temporal distance.
Before the Al-Aqsa flood, there was a media siege and control of new religious projects, normalization, and non-innate values such as homosexuality, for example. What long-term effects did this event have on the psyche and minds of Arabs and the West alike?
Your question about long-term effects requires reading the future, and whatever the analytical and foresight tools, predictions remain very relative and probabilistic. This is why it is said in the philosophy of history that the significance of historical events is not understood by those who live them, and their meaning is only grasped by temporal transcendence over them, since “history” is not aware of even its perpetrators, but is “aware” of those who are separated from it by a temporal distance that allows them to read the historical event in terms of its consequences. .
As evidence for this, it is sufficient to take any historical event, in order to verify that the condition of its significance does not actually become clear except after leaving its event. Take, for example, the largest event that began the last century, i.e. World War I. Could that Serbian boy have expected that his killing of the Prince of Austria during his visit to the city of Sarajevo in 1914 would be the spark for that devastating comprehensive war that turned the tide of the history of the 20th century?
When the event occurred, neither the perpetrator nor even the newspapers that reported the news were aware of the significance and outcome of that event.
Therefore, it is difficult to decide on the issue of the Al-Aqsa flood and its future consequences now. But what is clear from the interactions that took place during the weeks following the event is that there has been a disruption of the normalization process. And to restore the spirit of popular rejection of Israel and to awaken the moral conscience from its slumber.
There is a growing global awareness that Israel's entity is built on lies and fabricated myths, and that the history and present of its actions confirm that it constitutes a case of blatant disobedience at the international level.
What is the impact of current events on Israel's image globally?
At the popular level, there is a growing global awareness that Israel's entity is built on fabricated lies and myths, and that the history and present of its actions confirm that it constitutes a case of blatant disobedience at the international level, as it does not give any weight to institutions and the decisions of international bodies.
There are many countries that, as soon as they do not comply with a single resolution, are initiated to punish them economically, or even militarily, while we see Israel, since 1948, violating international law and revolting against United Nations resolutions, without executive follow-up from the International Criminal Court, and even the right of veto that Owned by the United States of America, it appears to be the private property of Israel.
Some note that the concepts of the South and the North, for example, have begun to return to circulation in the public media sphere. Will cultural, intellectual and even political diversity provide opportunities to solve humanitarian issues or will it undermine them? In other words, should Arabs and Muslims return to cultural, intellectual and political polarization to solve their issues?
I do not support the idea of cultural polarization, because it is a very naive idea, and is based on a narrow view that does not comprehend the structure of the contemporary world, which is under formation and the accelerating connection between peoples and civilizations.
But when I reject cultural polarization, I do not mean to stand against cultural particularities and call for their bulldozing and erasure in order to Westernize them, because this is also a type of reverse polarization, which is often located in the epicenter of Western centralism.
Therefore, instead of identity division or pitting the South against the North, I call for the idea of polarizing my values, and the possibilities of this alternative polarization exist today, and only need more activation and circulation.
Cultural polarization that separates us from the world, or separates the South from the North, deprives us of supportive voices within the North itself.
The majority of Western peoples today are against Israel, as well as the peoples of Latin America and Asia, and so the idea of cultural polarization that separates us from the world, or cuts off the South from the North, makes us lose supportive voices within the North itself.
Instead, we need to support a global vigilance that unites humanity against injustice and violence. This is possible if there are supportive voices from the cultural and media fronts, and non-governmental organizations.
It is also noted that Western peoples and countries disagree with the majority of Western governmental policies. Are we experiencing cracks in the Western system? Are we facing a historical cultural, intellectual and humanitarian shift that may serve the Palestinian cause?
Yes, despite the huge human losses due to the Israeli aggression, the event restored the Palestinian cause, contributed to awakening global awareness, and further revealed Israel’s masks.
But this does not prevent us from pointing out, on the other hand, serious gaps in our cultural and media reality.
I stand sad in front of what is happening in Palestine, the rivers of blood and the daily orphaning of hundreds of children, simultaneously with the football celebrations, which instead of remaining a sport have turned into opium. Unfortunately, the way of life that is taking root in our Arab world tends towards rooting an individualistic feeling that is incapable of taking a responsible collective stance.
The call to get rid of the control of Western curricula, or what is termed today as “decolonialism,” indicates more emotion than awareness.
Before the flood, there was a protest from Arab thinkers and researchers about the bias of research in the West towards the Western vision. Now, Arab voices have begun to rise up calling for the necessity of getting rid of the control of the Western scientific method and building a method from our Islamic heritage. In other words, is our exit from general backwardness dependent on getting rid of the control of Western methods and culture, or By creating our own Arabic-Islamic curriculum?
I return to what I mentioned previously to clarify that the call to get rid of the control of Western approaches, or what is termed today as “decolonialism,” indicates more emotion than awareness. The issue of knowledge is not nearly as emotional as this. Rather, let me say that there are Western ideas that are more useful and humane than some of our original ideas.
The heritage of Al-Anwar, for example, in the chapter on authority and theorizing of the social contract, and the hypothesis of the veil of ignorance in political philosophy in the 20th century... are more in line with the liberating spirit of Islam than the opinions of some jurists of sultanic rulings.
Therefore, we must be clear in raising issues and considering treatments in an analytical, not generalized, manner. I am against replacing Arab culture with Western culture, and against Westernization with its meaning as the erosion of values...but this does not prevent us from interacting and benefiting from Western knowledge output in the fields of human and natural sciences.
Therefore, the call to reject the dominance of a Western cognitive approach must be based on cognitive criticism and not the result of a reaction to the political position of one of the Western governments or even all of them.
The Western thinker is not open to the products of non-Western thought. He loves to study our myths and folklore, but he rarely reads the cognitive products of Arab pens.
Why were Arab thinkers and intellectuals in particular unable to bring about a change in Arab and Western public opinion regarding the Palestinian issue, at least as the Palestinian resistance has done now?
There is belittlement of the Arab thinker in the West. It is enough to look at the amount of Arabic books translated into European languages, to find that they are very few, despite the apparent openness of Westerners to other cultures.
Looking at the content, we will notice that the Western thinker is not open to the products of non-Western thought. Yes, he likes to study our myths and folklore, but he rarely reads the cognitive products of Arab writers.
The growing awareness of humanity's common destiny has not yet translated into appropriate awareness and action.
What are the most prominent areas of future partnership and cooperation with Western peoples? How can the boundaries of differentiation be set with external hegemonic projects?
Today's growing feeling that the Earth is a common home with close dimensions, and without internal walls, is a situation that requires a profound change in awareness and policies. But this growing awareness of the common destiny of humanity has not yet transformed into appropriate awareness and action.
The will to survive is presented in human feeling over the methods and values of survival, so it is natural to see attention to the destruction of the environment, but as for the methods of survival and the conditions and values of living, not enough attention has been paid to them.
This is because the will to survive is presented in human feeling over the ways and values of survival, so it is natural to see attention to the destruction of the environment, or the ozone hole, and other phenomena that carry a threat to life on Earth, i.e. a threat to survival, but as for the ways of survival and the conditions and values of living, it has not been done. Pay enough attention to it.
Here, humanity needs to carefully consider the conditions and situations and the appropriate forms of awareness and values. All human cultures have a repertoire of values and philosophies that can contribute to raising awareness.
Since monotheistic religions, there has been an alert to an important idea, which is the unity of the human race. Since Stoic philosophy (the third century BC), there has been theorization of the idea of “global citizenship,” which will actually be paid attention to in the 20th century with the dissolution of geographical distances and the denial of the effect of the physics of the place and its topography in the distance between peoples.
Since (German philosopher) Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), there has been an explicit emphasis on the idea of world peace, which would become a central goal in 1945 with the establishment of the United Nations, which unfortunately was born handicapped by the privilege of the veto power and the double application of standards.
But these international institutions, and others like them, despite their many shortcomings and imbalances, are important tools and organizational formulas that can contribute to improving international relations and promoting them towards the values of justice.
We Arabs are in dire need of what was mentioned in your question, that is, creating spaces for sharing and cooperation with Western peoples, as well as the peoples of the rest of the world as well.
We, the Arabs, are in dire need of what was mentioned in your question, that is, creating spaces for sharing and cooperation with Western peoples, as well as the peoples of the rest of the world as well. We need a global awareness that thinkers and wise men can participate in building, without obstructing political mandates.
The international situation today also needs global bodies of wise men, thinkers, and philosophers. That is, instead of being limited to bodies that bring together politicians or economists, humanity also needs bodies that bring together people of thought to make the voice of wisdom heard, especially in a time like this, in which influence is in the hands of the foolish and the rebellious.
Source: Al Jazeera