East-West friction in focus at forum

Dubai: How can hatred, generalisation and incitement between East and West be avoided? It is a million dirham question, some might say, but one that was tackled in a lively and deep discussion during the first day of the Arab German Cultural Dialogue Forum on Wednesday.

The sitting entitled 'Orientalism and Occidentalism: Shifts and Wars of Words,' asked the hows and whys of the perceptions of Arabs and the West of each other, and how the traps of stereotyping generalisation can be avoided.

Dr Fahma Jad'an, who moderated the forum, said there was a group of academics which represented a comeback of orientalism..

Syrian philosopher Dr Mata' Safadi said that the Arab people's relations with others had always been of a political nature, and that Arabs too were responsible for not understanding the other well.

"We did not want to understand Western culture from the inside. We always thought that Western culture was a monolithic one, and never studied or analysed it," he said.

Prominent Syrian poet Adunis said Arabs failed to study and analyse themselves, let alone the West, adding that some Orientalists had studied Arabs in more depth than Arabs themselves did.