The Sacred and the Modern

From 09h00 to 12h30 on 2, 3 and 4 June at the Batha Museum

A new world is upon us. It is challenging our way of thinking and our way of life. It is forcing us to question our beliefs and our ethics. It is both frightening and though-provoking. The individual is king. Communication has abolished borders. Human intelligence has grown beyond all boundaries. But inequalities are growing too. Cultures are being lost. Identity and religion are on a collision course.

Men and women of various cultures and faiths: this is the challenge. Can we welcome the future without being aware of the past? Can we have meaningful dialogue with others without remembering who we are? Can we secure a sustainable planet for everyone without forgetting our roots?

These are, amongst others, some of the issues that the 2007 Fes Encounters wants to tackle with you.

First morning: Our cultural identities vs globalisation

What is the threat? Can we live differently? Can we make sense of these two themes? The second morning is dedicated to the question of culture as opposed to globalisation. The current era, so sadly described as the clash of civilisations, seems only to be able to produce conflicts and nationalist fallback. Why is it that culture – in the sense of the arts – is absent from the question of clashing cultures? In what conditions can culture recreate and nourish social ties in our secularised societies? The loss of influence of the elite and the loss of culture in our technology-based societies help to explain this clash as well as the friction produced between imported modernity and the temptation to fall back on nationalism.

Second morning: Our heritage cities: reflections of an ancient world or an imaginative resource for the future?

What knowledge of humanity do they give us? What are the lessons for tomorrow? How can the heritage of a city be harnessed today? The third part of the Fes Encounters is dedicated to the fate of heritage cities faced with the challenges of today. Heritage is a key element in the affirmation of identity faced with current fast-paced changes; a source of richness and development. But its evaluation poses problems common to the design of cities today. The Mediterranean countries formed the first globalised nations of history: how are they dealing with the challenge of heritage today?

Third morning: Our beliefs and our reason put to the test in the new world

Have they changed? Do they still have a role to play? What is it?
How do we set it in motion? The first morning is dedicated to the issue of faith and reason within the three Abrahamic faiths and other civilisations. Is it possible to be modern in an Islamic country (as, for example, after the Nahda (reformation) at the end of the 19 th century)? While all the religions have gone through periods of reform, why is Islam – which has also been subject to reform – frequently presented as fixed and unable to change?

In addition, it’s also about the secularisation of our societies which assumes a different sense regarding faith depending on whether we experience modernity in the northern or southern hemisphere. Will the North and the West succeed in reconciling secularisation with the revival of religious practice? Consider here, too, the way to address the problems of the non-religious, the multi-confessional society, the state born of the Enlightenment, where the state itself becomes ‘sacred’, the possibility – or not – of ‘tinkering’ with religions, making them ‘a la carte’, adapting them to globalisation and to diasporas.

Nadia Benjelloun
Fes Encounters Director