Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Moroccan Intellectuals: Today’s Debates, Title of Damaged Cultural Scene | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Marrakesh-With deep remorse, Moroccan intellectuals recall the positive debates that distinguished the cultural Arabic scene over the past decades, before they got involved in the current damaged reality controlled by grudges and immoral values.

Supporters of these values beg for fake compliments and hypocrisy to take place of old fruitful debates by other worthless conflicts controlled by lobbies, envy, plot, and bad intentions, far from literature and intellect.

The Moroccan poet Mohammad Belmo says that discussing the reasons behind the lack of national and Arabic cultural debates is very important, because it will be based on comparing today with the past decades that had writers like Mahmoud Al-Akkad, Mahdi Amel, Taha Hussein, and others who played a critical role in the Arabian intellectual and cultural renaissance, and because it reflects the low level of decay reached by the debate and dialogue in the Arab region over the past years.

The poet insists that the lack of cultural debate today is not only the result of lacking such intellectuals, yet, it is also caused by the invasion of a political-ideological debate that filled the gap caused by deterioration of social liberal, democratic, communist, and national projects adopted by Arabian intellectuals.

Belmo sees that when reviewing the current political ideological debate that’s controlling the scene, people should notice the weakness of the spread intellect. He adds that debates of the past, like those which took place between the Palestinian poets Mahmoud Darwish and Samih Al-Kassem in their letters in the “Yom Sabeh” magazine were based on respect and civilized dialogue, unlike today’s debate, which is based on rivalry, mutual despise, distrust, and despicable speech.

Belmo concludes his point of view saying that this new form of debate in an extremist ideology pointing to an intellectual regression that aims to control and acquire the area and the details of the community by oppressing the voices of wisdom.

The Moroccan novelist and critic Ibrahim Al-Hajri says that regression in the function of debates among intellectuals of the Arabic world indicates that those people are no longer concerned with the world around them, as if they have resigned from their social mission.

According to Hajri, this transformation in the debate is due to many reasons especially the growing gap between the politician and the educated, and the spread of technological devices, which dumped each individual in an absolute isolation and obstructed him from direct interactions and fruitful discussions.

Observers of the Moroccan cultural scene agree that poetry is one of the most fields that witnessed conflicts among intellectuals, yet with maintaining a level of respect, morals, civilized dialogue, and fine language.

Certainly, this conflict is based on the difference in the perspective of poetry among individuals and generations of modern poetry in Morocco. The Poet Yassine Adnan says that the Moroccan poets considered themselves as alternatives for all the writings of other Moroccans. He added that things today began to change and that he discovered that they rejected many forms of poetry without even reading them or understanding their motives.

He continued that today he became a more humble poet with less expectations and ambitions, feeling that poetry has never been spread in his country.