Symposium discusses course of post-colonial Arab history

The symposium on Islamic political movements has continued to attract the attention of a number of local and foreign intellectuals who are attending the Janadriyah Cultural Festival.
Saad Al-Deen Ibrahim from Egypt said the Indonesian Islamic experience has saved the image of Islamic models of rule. He said Islamic parties in the Middle East have “hijacked” the revolutions and marginalized others. Almost all the revolutions in the Middle East display a totalitarian nature, he said and added that the Muslim Brotherhood is not different from other political parties in this sense.
The Muslim Brotherhood wants to create an Islamic caliphate that, Ibrahim said, will bring ruin to those very people who are dreaming of such a system. The movement has made umpteen attempts to seize power through an unabated desire to have dialogue with the United States and the West in general.
Ibrahim’s views aroused concern among Islamic thinkers and writers who said such views are devoid of objectivity, as the Muslim Brotherhood has had little experience in government.
Another symposium was held on enlightenment and renaissance in the Arab world.
Yusuf Makki said that the movement for enlightenment in Arab countries began as early as 1850 and lasted up to 1925. During this period, there was an explosion of intellectual, political and cultural activity that contributed to nation-building, most clearly evidenced in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Maghreb, he said. This period coincided with the idea of national independence and, at the same time, benefited from the development and renaissance movements in Europe, he said.
Makki said renaissance and (revolutionary) changes are based on intellectual and cultural rules.
Muhannad Baidhain said nationalist and independence movements in the Arab countries championed the principles and rules of the renaissance and the civil state. Soon after the end of colonialism, Arab countries handed over rule to certain powers which imposed themselves on the political lives of these countries, he said.
From the very beginning, the Arab experience has faced challenges represented in a series of military coups which disrupted the intellectual, cultural and developmental progress in these countries, he said.
Makki enumerated factors that have weakened the enlightenment and renaissance in the Arab countries. These included the implantation of the Zionist state, over-exploitation of Arab resources and an absence of freedom.
He said intellectual and cultural enlightenment need economic and educational stability, civil community organizations, accountability, transparency, proper investment in Arab human resources and development of universities and research centers.