Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater delivering the opening remarks during the conference.
Doha, Qatar: With the participation of over 300 researchers from 50 countries, the first edition of the International Conference on Orientalism began in Doha yesterday.
The two-day event, with the theme ‘Towards Balanced Civilizational Engagement,’ is being organised by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, QatarDebate, in partnership with the Permanent Committee for Organizing Conferences at MoFA. It brings together leading scholars, researchers, and intellectuals from around the world to explore evolving perspectives and contemporary debates within the field of Orientalist studies.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater said: “We meet today to create a safe space for deep, serious intellectual discussions without sensitivities.” She said that the conference seeks to achieve the magical balance created by Tolstoy in his famous epic, “War and Peace,” by striking an intellectual balance between popular sentiment and specialised literary criticism. “Through the conference, we will learn about the relationship between the conference and the novel by Russian author Leo Tolstoy,” said the Minister.
She said this idea came in 2021, when Europe and Muslim-majority countries were swept by a wave of events and protests centred around the insult to Islamic religious symbols, and the subsequent actions and events.
“This idea was not originally concerned with a conference on Orientalism, but rather began with the idea of launching an open, pivotal space that would bring together East and West, to deconstruct what began as a state of identity and cultural war,” said Al Khater.
She added: “The East and Orientalism should not be reduced to Islam, the Arabs, and the Middle East. From this standpoint, we were keen to have significant participation from Asia, Eurasia, Russia, and other regions.” The Minister said that the very division between East and West needs a profound and serious revision in the age of globalisation.
“We need to create safe spaces for deep, serious, and frank intellectual discussions and interactions, as these spaces are unfortunately becoming increasingly narrow in today’s world,” said Al Khater.
The conference brought together more than 300 researchers representing 50 countries from around the world, forming a rich intellectual mosaic reflecting the diversity of visions and approaches to the concept of Orientalism and its role in building bridges of communication between civilizations.
The conference also featured a speech by the guest of honour, H E Professor Ibrahim Kalin, a Turkish academic and politician, and a high-level individual dialogue session with him, presented by media personality Sami Zidane.
As part of the conference activities, a dialogue session was organized entitled “Towards a Balanced Civilizational Communication,” which hosted Minister of Culture of Lebanon H E Professor Ghassan Salame; Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Gambia H E Dr. Mamadou Tangara; and Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University, Professor Dr. Eugene Rogan.
Minister of Culture of Lebanon H E Ghassan Salameh, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Gambia H E Dr. Mamadou Tangara, and Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University Professor Dr. Eugene Rogan, and moderator Jamal Shiyal during a session at the conference.
The session was moderated by the media figure Jamal Shiyal, who raised several questions about the topic of the session, and how to maintain a balance between cultural values and avoid conflicts.
The session was a fruitful opportunity to open important discussions about balanced cultural communication and its impact on building strong relationships between individuals in various fields.
Professor Mahmoud Al-Hamza, head of the scientific committee, said: “This conference is the first of its kind in the Arab region, and will focus primarily on the new Orientalism that emerged some 50 years ago.
“This new Orientalism goes beyond classical Orientalism’s concerns with religion, culture, and history to encompass the study of political, economic, and social issues in the East in general, and the Arab Levant in particular.” Featuring a rich programme that combines academic depth with human interaction, the conference includes specialised scientific discussion sessions, along with accompanying cultural events that reflect the cultural and civilizational diversity of the participants.
The conference also features youth dialogue sessions representing the voice of the future, aiming to engage the new generation in cultural dialogue and enhance communication between cultures.
