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Silent societies, societies made up of a single ethnic / dynastic, religious, linguistic and cultural identity, have a closed, prejudiced and necessarily exclusionary conception. It doesn’t matter how hard you try to appear – from behind – of openness and acceptance from others. It is true that it remains better – in most of its cases – than societies that are like that, but it adds / increases the pride and pride of this identity unity, and works to strengthen and confirm it, and design the future; However, the closing trait is consistent with these and those in all cases, even though the latter category is furthest from being cured of the diseases of racism, fanaticism and exclusion.
Even the constitutional and legally written system cannot penetrate this closure, which is motivated by – subjectively – a single identity. Regardless of the degree of openness and understanding of others, for the material reality represented by the identical / identical components of society, lacking in diversity and difference, is what will rule the “reality of the situation”, and will skip over about the systems and laws in the finish. This is perhaps the clearest thing that appears in the democracies of the Far East which, despite their democratic appearance, have a special flavor and cannot nullify the reality of democracy as a pacifist management mechanism. But it does not give it one of its most important vital dimensions, in terms of being / democracy, a mechanism of openness, acceptance of others, participation in the path of justice, equity of opportunities available. strongly denied the pressure of the components of reality this dimension; It shows a democracy that is not vibrant with the humanist vision that is at the heart of the democratic stimulus.
For example, Japan, which is the most advanced country in the Far East, the richest and the oldest on the paths of modernization, finds a closed society; Despite being a democratic country in terms of the form of the political system. This country is the model of progress, modernization and organization in the perception of many, its democracy is not democracy! Its democracy is almost of a particular kind, which lacks vital change, diversity, difference and realism; More Japanese society itself loses the richness of the diversity of identities. Therefore, you will not find in the political / administrative composition of Japan (neither in the important positions, nor in the composition of the parties), any individual belonging to other ethnicities, you will not find an individual of European, African descent. , Indian or Arab in the post of Minister, Undersecretary, or Director for years … etc., you will not find an immigrant of these people who finds the doors of society open for him to live, belong and to realize hopes; As is the case in Western societies, which have long preserved the richness of diversity.
Ethnic / dynastic, religious and sectarian differences, as well as linguistic and cultural differences … etc. Diversity models are a societal wealth, which not only gives society the possibility of benefiting from all this diversity, if only by using them as communication channels, but it is as rich in logic as it is. carries, that is to say, making openness and pluralism, then tolerance and acceptance of the other (accepting him as an authentic part of the self and not as another), a reality , not a cultural hypothesis, nor a system project by being recognized; The application is expected, and it is tested from its creation as a hypothesis until its descent into application in practice, many obstacles and obstacles.
Arab societies, since Antiquity, have benefited from a great diversity of identities. The diversity in the Middle East in general is almost the original; Because it is a region of superimposed and cumulative civilizations, a region of changing / changing cultures and a region of competing religions; It is also a staging area for many invasions and migrations throughout history; Where the geographic location is the crossroads between the most important human geographic spaces of the ancient world.
The Arab world, despite many attempts to call it “Arab”, and although it is of Arab culture in general, it is a world teeming with many races that do not belong to the Arab race. Arab race. There are the Arabs by race, and it is they who monopolized the place at the level of the appellation. There are also: Kurds, Berbers / Amazighs, Armenians, Circassians, Negroes, Nuba, Baloch, Turkmens, Syriacs … .etc. Some of these races are not contingent or intrusive, they are quite genuine, and as old as man on this earth, rather they are in many ways older than the Arab presence of thousands of years, and in some among them they are the original, the owner of the place, while the Arab is the passenger for a day With the glorious Arab colonial convoys.
In addition, this Arab world is full of authentic religious and sectarian diversity, which may overlap with, or be independent of, this ethnic diversity. In complex overlaps difficult to enumerate. Of course, the Arab world is not a fully Islamic world, neither historical nor factual; Although many try to treat it as an Islamic world with a monolithic religious identity, as if non-Muslims are a few hundred or a few thousand, or as if they are a passing emergency presence, if they exist; Soon they will leave as soon as possible for a country, their first country, their country of origin; That is to say, as if they were not – in the majority – an authentic existence even before the existence of Islam!
It is true that Muslims, with their various sects, sects and Sufi methods, are the overwhelming majority, but there are other religions that are strongly present, some numbering in the millions. There are Christians: the Coptic Christians in Egypt are around ten million, that is to say the size of a large Arab country like Aden or Tunisia, there are also Christians of multiple / varied faiths; Since before Islam, in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Sudan. There are also Jews – with their different sects – Sabians, Syriacs, Yazidis, and some pagans, as well as non-religious.
These “minorities” are not always, nor in all forms of division, a “minority”; They are not artificial minorities either; Many single identity fanatics also attempt to suggest this. These minorities are a solid factual reality, and they are not contingent, but rather genuine (with the exception of very few sects like the Armenians who migrated to the Levant and Iraq after the Ottoman massacres). within its intersection with “majority”, i.e. the adjective few and many are relative in most cases here, eg are Arabs as a dynasty considered to be in the majority in the Arab world? And if they are in the majority, then there are the ethnic / dynastic Arabs, and at the same time the Christians, are they classified here in the context of the “Arab majority”, or in the context of the “Christian minority”?
Within the classification of national geography, the status of these identities changes, from “majority” to “minority”, and vice versa. Christians are in the minority throughout the Arab world, but in Lebanon, for example, they are not in the minority, and Shiites are in the minority in Egypt, but in Iraq they are in the majority. The position occupied by minorities differs in terms of influence and hegemony. The Alawis in Syria are a minority, but they have controlled power for more than half a century, against a Sunni majority, and against other minorities of Christians, Druze, Ismailis, and other sects that have branched out from it. them.
The Arab world embraces exceptional wealth in this area. But, unfortunately, all this richness, all this diversity, which should have been a source of pride, pride and welcome, is often not a source of pride, pride and welcome. Many – at the level of the regimes in place, at the level of legislators, at the level of thinkers, at the level of influential figures in society and at the level of the overwhelming majority of religious – see this diversity with concern, many still regard this diversity as problem / as problem / as chronic crisis, as negative state to be transcended, to be transcended; Not by accepting and activating it positively, but rather by trying to frame and control it within the context of a monolithic identity which they believe must prevail at the ethnic / dynastic, religious and sectarian level. , at the linguistic level, and at the cultural level.
And if the issue of this “minority diversity” has not played its part in terms of serious and positive treatment since the beginning of the formation of Arab countries / states at the end of the First World War, that is to say say a hundred years (on the contrary, she was – at best! – neglected, ignored, blinded, marginalized). intentional), the question has taken on a more tragic dimension with the spread of chaos and civil wars in certain Arab countries rich in this beautiful diversity of identities.
And if the Israeli-Arab conflict caused the emigration of Jews from Iraq and Egypt (and Egypt and Iraq lost a lot there), chaos and civil war in Syria and Iraq have brought into play the existence of these minorities, a real threat, direct and indirect, because some of them were killed and forcibly displaced, and some of them chose to emigrate voluntarily out of fear and insecurity, because he was no longer safe; Neither on oneself, nor on property, nor on freedoms; With the spread of hostility towards minorities and their transformation into easy targets for extremist groups; Even the number of Christians in Iraq has declined – for example – to alarming numbers (there are no reliable statistics, they are rather turbulent, but in general they confirm a significant drop which can negate the active presence of Christians) , suggesting something more, that is, a pessimistic future for all these minorities in general. . which means threatening the richness of diversity and difference – hence; Openness – essentially.
There is therefore a real danger, not only for these “minorities”, but also for the “majorities”, that is to say the Arab world as a whole, represented in the silence of the Arab world on a single identity, a unique identity, with which the other identities are absent, or very diminished; To the point of becoming margins that are not the least effective in the social, cultural and economic context. In the face of this danger, we must unite at all levels – cultural, religious and official / security – to ensure adequate protection (protection in the broadest sense: which makes security a reality, a dignity, and a promising future ) for all these minorities, which are an integral part of the human components of our Arab world, and source of wealth It is rich in itself, and rich in what its presence means from a realistic and practical affirmation of openness religious, sectarian, ethnic, linguistic and cultural.
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