UAE | Employment

'Isolation won't protect identity'

Protection of the Emirati identity does not require isolation, said leading Emirati intellectuals on Wednesday during a forum on challenges facing national identity.

  • By Wafa Issa, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 00:02 November 27, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • From left: Dr Hezza Loutha, professor of media studies, Dr Nasreen Murad, professor of political science at UAE University, and Dr Khalifa Al Suwaidi, a presenter at Abu Dhabi TV during their seminar on Media and National Identity: Reality and Possibilities.
  • Image Credit: Abdul Rehman/Gulf News

Al Ain: Protection of the Emirati identity does not require isolation, said leading Emirati intellectuals on Wednesday during a forum on challenges facing national identity.

During a forum under the title 'National identity and media: reality and possibilities', Dr Fatima Al Shamsi, Secretary General of the UAE University, said that there is a real missunderstanding when addressing national identity.

"Many tend to think that there is a contradiction between the teaching of Arabic and foreign languages or between the teaching of contemporary science and the history of science during the Islamic golden age," said Al Shamshi.

"Because of this untrue contradiction, which is aggravated by the feeling that we as a minority in our country are in danger, we resort to closed door policies to protect ourselves."

She recalled an incident were a municipal council in one of the cities issued a rule that bans expatriates from owning property in a residential area, to protect its identity.

The closed door policies are not only confined to individual decisions but also cover social practices such as marriage between cousins, which make up 60 per cent of UAE national marriages, according to Al Shamsi.

"However, in order to enhance the national loyalty in future generations we need to exclude the artificial discrepancy between fixed and changing methods, between the Arabic language and foreign languages, between an emirate-based citizens and between UAE citizens and expatriate residents and between the past and the future," said Al Shamsi.

Bilal Al Bedoor, Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Culture and Youth, said that there are many levels of national identity and people who are discussing ways to enhance and protect it must be aware of this.

"There are several levels of identity, our identity has first and foremost a pan Arab dimension followed by an Islamic level but nevertheless it is also part of the overall human system in which we should be proactive components and help develop the civilisations," said Al Bedoor.

Responding to a question about the role the Ministry could play in bridging the gap between the different communities living in the UAE, Al Bedoor said language barriers were an issue.

"Language is one main barrier for this interaction; it is why we are now encouraging the translation of Emirati work so we could reach to the other," replied Al Bedoor.

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