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Promoting the culture of dialogue between cultures in the Arab world
Place of publication | Year of publication | Collation: 
Beirut | 2013 | 24p
Author: 
Selim El Sayegh
Corporate author: 
UNESCO Office Beirut
Region: 
Arab States

The major challenge of the Arab uprisings resides in the youth drive. Accounting for 60 per cent of the Arab population, Youth have been calling for political and economic reforms. During the revolts, these claims have become more radical seeking a fundamental change. This gradual evolution, from a relatively partial change to a more absolute comprehensive one, ushers in a new era with a different intellectual construct. With the ousting of dictatorships, all civil society forces are unleashed with huge actual and potential resources mobilized to contribute to building up the new order. Groups of solidarity, communities, parties, associations, and organizations of all nature among many others put forward new ideas and adequate action plans. Liberty thus acclaimed becomes the outcry for dignity, honor and pride. Never before in the Arab world has the individual had such a central place as it does today. An individual fully grasping the possibilities of restored liberty and recognized dignity gives birth to a new citizen acting in a new paradigm; a new citizen that seeks a transcendence of the ego to relate the individual to the common good. This fresh paradigm empowers the individual as a citizen in the name of equality, while simultaneously recognizing the right of difference of each citizen when it comes to belonging to a culture or sub‐culture. The right to be different involves more than the right to differ and to dispute and by the same token, the obligation of peaceful settlement. The right to be different, by belonging to a culture or a sub‐culture means in a new era of liberty and dignity, the obligation to conduct a transformation of the patterns generating disputes and conflicts among cultures. Henceforth, the issue of promoting the culture of intercultural dialogue in the aftermath of the Arab revolts represents major characteristics that will be reflected hereafter.

Resource Type: 
Research papers / journal articles
Theme: 
Civic / Citizenship / Democracy
Diversity / cultural literacy / inclusive
Human rights
Globalisation and social justice / International understanding
Peace / Culture of peace
Transformative initiatives / Transformative pedagogies
Keywords: 
cultural diversity
civic education
intercultural