THE DIALOGUE AMONG
CIVILISATIONS AND RELIGIONS
From
the dawn of the Change of 7 November 1987 in Tunisia, President
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has set at the top of his priorities
and major concerns (as can be seen in the historic Declaration
of 7 November) attachment to Tunisia's Arab-Muslim identity
and its civilisational aspects, plus reconciling the country
with its history and with the enduring universal values
to which Tunisia has contributed throughout its three thousand
years of history.
These
noble principles, promoted by the project of Change, have
become the guiding principles to all Tunisia's stances and
actions over the last fifteen years. They are also the principles
that have guided the comprehensive reform process undertaken
in Tunisia and the backbone of the methodology adopted to
discover effective, appropriate solutions to all the marginal
phenomena that sully certain behaviour within Tunisian society.
And also, it is these noble principles that have enabled
Tunisia to integrate fully into its Arab-Muslim and Mediterranean
environments.
This
is also the approach that is so obvious in President Zine
El Abidine Ben Ali's Programme for the Future, representing
Tunisia's political strategy for the coming five years,
a period dark with challenges and manifold stakes on the
international scene.
The
coming stage indeed represents the dawn of a new millennium,
with its many challenges that must be faced and wagers that
absolutely must be won. This period is marked by the ongoing
phenomenon of globalisation, with all the dangers this opposes
to the safeguarding of the Arab-Muslim identity and the
attachment to the cultural values it promotes. This phase
is also stamped with the upsurge of extremism, violence
and terrorism, given the lack of balanced, equitable development
between peoples.
Very
early on, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali became aware
of the serious dangers that lay in wait for humanity at
the start of the 21st century. He thus took care to be on
the right track for dealing effectively with such phenomena.
His
suggested remedy was strengthening inter-civilisational
dialogue as a vital basis for the fight against violence
and terrorism, and as an effective cure to preserve the
nation's cultural identity and specific features, at a time
when the dangers of globalisation were becoming greater
and its advance inexorable.
President
Ben Ali dealt with various aspects of inter-civilisational
dialogue, particularly the humanitarian side. At the international
symposium on the 'dialogue between civilisations', brilliantly
organised by Tunisia, the President declared: 'Today, humanity
is at a crossroads. It is vital that we boldly overhaul
our old ways and prepare the ground for a new reality, based
on noble civilisational values, with precedence for none
and certainly no double standards. A reality which outlaws
cramped judgment criteria, such as the opposition between
old and new, authenticity and modernity, the religious and
the secular, the west and Islam, ally and enemy.'
Referring
to inter-civilisational dialogue, the President added in
the same speech that 'dialogue between civilisations must
necessarily start with the overhauling of many policies
that have deepened the feeling of injustice of peoples who
come up against various types of ordeal'.
Also
in this speech the President called for 'a critical reading
of history for us to build a new world where there would
be no more hatred, no resentment, no reciprocal negation
and where dialogue, tolerance and solidarity would reign.'
He
also stated that 'today, inter-civilisational dialogue has
become an imperative need to rationalise the globalisation
process, particularly at economic and social level', stressing
the fact that 'widening the circle of poverty and marginalisation
in the countries of the south merely makes inequality and
disparity worse, and leads to extremist reaction'.
President
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's approach to the dialogue between
civilisations thus springs from an overall vision that integrates
humanitarian, cultural, political, social and economic aspects.
This approach constitutes the cornerstone of all the judicious
initiatives the President has introduced to solve the various
problems that loom on the international horizon today.
Along
these lines, the President has judged it imperative to set
up a permanent framework to encourage the spreading of the
culture of dialogue between civilisations and religions
and to start initiatives whenever this becomes necessary
to deal with the different problems in all their various
forms.
And
this is precisely what gave rise to the idea of creating
the Ben Ali Chair for dialogue between civilisations and
religions. The idea was put into effect in January 2002.
It has been a kind of high point of the successive humanitarian
initiatives that President Ben Ali has launched and defended
so frequently and at so many international gatherings.
The
creation of this Chair was announced by the President in
his speech, made on 7 November 2001. Its programme, ideas
and objectives were set out in the Head of State's 12 November
2001 speech, made at the opening of the international symposium
on 'dialogue between civilisations and religions'. The basic
assignment entrusted to the Chair is spreading the great
universal human values that are shared by Mediterranean
and other civilisations, while excluding all forms of clash
or hegemony.
A
quick glance at the Chair's action programme reveals the
depth of the cultural and intellectual vision that lies
at the heart of this initiative, aiming at spreading the
culture of dialogue and strengthening cultural exchange,
complementarity and solidarity, not only between individual
men and women but also between states and peoples. The subjects
that will be debated within this institution mainly concern
human civilisation, its past, present and future, and everything
which is likely to exalt the values of tolerance and coexistence
between religions and civilisations throughout the ages.
