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Modern Moroccan Thought – Blogs Instalment 1 – Modern Historiography
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The Muslim Community and its Ethos
The Muslim Community and its Ethos The meaning of “community” changes as human societies develop new social and political orders. This is true of any term: a part of it remains tethered to past meanings, and a part grows in response to new developments and novel contexts. Language is a carrier of human memory, and faith is an important part of this memory, thus the intersections between language, faith, and the political writ large. If the context is not considered, faith stands still, and so does language. They all need to be perpetually reinterpreted to be filled with new energy and insights. This essay responds to questions raised by the…
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Farewell to Hassan Hanafi, the Intellectual Father of the Islamic Left and Occidentalism
Farewell to Hassan Hanafi, the Intellectual Father of the Islamic Left and Occidentalism Hassan Hanafi (1935-2021) was one of the big names of contemporary Arab philosophical and theological studies. He was one of the most prolific and erudite of the 1960s generation of Arab philosophers and thinkers who formed and defended reforms throughout their lifetimes. Hanafi left a huge body of work for scholars to study, to agree and disagree with. He was mourned by prominent Arab intellectuals and scholars, including the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb. On his funeral, on 22 October 2021, his coffin toured the campus of the University of Cairo that he loved, and where he…
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Who was Mohamed Waqidi? Redefining Epistemology from the Southern Shore
Who was Mohamed Waqidi? Redefining Epistemology from the Southern Shore There is a lot of ideology – i.e. politics at large – behind what we know, how we know, and what we do not know. Time, space, family, society, egoism, and the political world order we are born into are all major factors that impact our limited view of the things around us. Even in our scholarly studies, which are supposed to be “neutral” and “objective”, there is always the personal, and/or the political, whether we admit it or not. The most we can do to be balanced in our views is to control both the personal and the political,…
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Who was Mohamed Waqidi? Redefining Epistemology from the Southern Shore
Who was Mohamed Waqidi? Redefining Epistemology from the Southern ShoreMohammed Hashas 8 August 2021 There is a lot of ideology – i.e. politics at large – behind what we know, how we know, and what we do not know. Time, space, family, society, egoism, and the political world order we are born into are all major factors that impact our limited view of the things around us. Even in our scholarly studies, which are supposed to be “neutral” and “objective”, there is always the personal, and/or the political, whether we admit it or not. The most we can do to be balanced in our views is to control both the personal…
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A Tribute to the late Modernist Moroccan Philosopher Mohammed Sabila
Mohammed Sabila, an important Moroccan and Arab scholar-philosopher, died on June 19th (1942 – 19 July 2021, Morocco) because of complications due to Covid-19. While he is little known in the non-Arabic speaking world, tributes written about him by prominent scholars that were either influenced by his work, or were his students and colleagues, are a testimony to the large role he played in introducing modern philosophy to Moroccan universities, Moroccan intellectual culture, and Arab culture at large. He was mourned in various widely-circulated Arab language newspapers, like Alaraby (London/Qatar), Aawsat (London/Saudi Arabia), Almayadeen (Beirut), Alittihad (Abu Dhabi), and many others.
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“Al-Hashas”: On Identity and Origins of the Name
“Al-Hashas”: On Identity and Origins of the Name Names reflect history and memory. They are containers of traditions, of hopes and aspirations. This applies to my name as well, my family name in focus here (and we leave my first name, and the family name of my mother, “Azirār” which is Amazigh and literally means “Tall/Long”, for another occasion). My name is poetic when read and pronounced in Arabic, composed of a repeated syllable, the vowel of the second is long, “ā”, written in the Arabic version as an “alif” but not visible in the Latin one: “has-has” – [transliterated as “ḥaṣḥāṣ”] – and not “ha-shas” as it is often…
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After COVID-19, only a “middle way” can save us
If you visited the Museum of Contemporary Art in Palermo, Italy, located in the eighteenth-century Palace Belmonte Riso, in the ancient Corso Vittorio Emanuele in the city centre, a simple work of art, a painting in the stairs that lead you from the first floor to the second, reads “In the middle of” — Nel Mezzo di. It is written three times in big capital letters, in both Italian and English. Until the end of February, before the country-wide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first floor of the museum was dedicated to the beautiful paintings of the self-made Sicilian artist Paolo Madonia and his “Burnt Art.” The paintings…
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Cosa significa essere marocchino in Italia
Cosa significa essere marocchino in Italia Il Secolo d’Italia ha pubblicato il 24 febbraio 2020 un articolo intitolato “Questionario indecente a scuola sui marocchini: «Faresti sesso…». Così schedano gli studenti”. Le domande del questionario tendono a descrivere “il marocchino” come straniero, di cultura inferiore, criminale, bisognoso e ladro delle opportunità di lavoro degli italiani. Il questionario viene somministrato in una scuola superiore di Clusone, in provincia di Bergamo. Una parte della società civile attiva ha risposto criticando questo tipo di questionario in ambito scolastico. L’ambasciata del Regno del Marocco ha risposto con indignazione e sorpresa al questionario, chiedendo alle autorità italiane di reagire al fatto adeguatamente. Io, come cittadino marocchino che vive in Italia…
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Love’s Day: A Letter to My Intended Lady
Love’s Day: A Letter to My Intended Lady Rome My dear, This to mark a note of love for you, as I may never explain it fully, nor experience it fully, nor demonstrate it enough. It is that interior flow of emotions that seem to say that our alchemy works together. Love does not speak enough. I do not speak enough. I cannot speak enough. Love fights, fights terribly, against uncertainty, the future, fear, solitude, jealousy, appropriation, and departure. A real lover tries to live the great feelings he feels but he is in constant fear of losing the lover. A real lover can become a coward, a frail man…