A festival of coexistence and peace in Fez

by Hind Al Subai Al Idrissi 29 June 2010 Rabat - Fez, the intellectual capital of Morocco, hosted a significant spiritual music festival from 4 to 12 June, based on a message of coexistence, peace and purity of soul. According to its website, the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music “represents the spiritual heart of Islam – peaceful, pluralistic, generous and cheerful. It honours all the world’s spiritual traditions and it dissolves musical boundaries.” The festival provides people with a place to meet and discuss music, poetry and Sufism at well-known historic locations throughout the city — as well as listen to amazing music. Some of today’s most popular spiritual and religious music groups from around the world came together in Fez for the festival’s 16th annual celebration. Performances by musicians of different religions and nationalities accentuated the potential for openness and dialogue between people. The Fez Festival was begun by the Moroccan anthropologist Faouzi Skali in the aftermath of the first Gulf War to help people from different spiritual traditions learn from each other without prejudice. Today, it is considered one of the most significant festivals aimed at instilling peace, security and dialogue between civilisations, according to the United Nations. It is organised primarily by the Message of Fez, an organisation which provides the festival with financial and material support. This year’s theme was “Perfection in Purging the Soul”, coined by Ibn Arabi, a 13th century Arab philosopher. According to organisers, Ibn Arabi’s work represents the will to rid oneself from rigid, exclusive dogmatic beliefs and instead instil the principles of tolerance and mutual respect among civilisations, which the festival aims to do through music. This spirit of coexistence is evident, with the musical traditions of different religious communities and nationalities highlighted throughout. This year, the festival celebrated Jerusalem as the city of three faiths. The audience listened to a live music performance, "Jerusalem, the City of Two Peaces: Heavenly Peace and Peace on Earth", which presented the history of this diverse city through music played by Spanish, Iraqi, Armenian, Moroccan and Greek musicians, highlighting different musical genres to showcase different eras of the city’s history. The audience enjoyed a mixture of musical rhythms and compositions inspired by religion, the poetry of wisdom, African religious songs and religious folk music from Anatolia, Cambodia, Asia and America, as well as spiritual performances by major musicians, such as Jordi Savall, a Spanish Catalan viol player, composer and conductor, who presented the audience with a musical composition particular to the former Jewish community in Baghdad. Festival-goers were also treated to Persian classical music by icon Shahram Nazeri, a contemporary Iranian Kurdish tenor. In addition, the festival featured Sufi music from Zanzibar and Christian gospel music by US African Americans, as well as a classical acrobatic troupe of boys, the “Young Gotipuas Dancers”, from the Hindu temples of Orissa in eastern India. Several Moroccan Sufi musical groups also performed at the festival, including Gnawa Click, a very popular Gnawa band from Essaouira in southern Morocco. Gnawa is a musical genre from North Africa, particularly Morocco, and is a unique mix of sub-Saharan African, Berber and Arabic religious songs and rhythms, played with various drums and flutes. There were also other Sufi musical groups that performed, inspired by Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, a Sufi imam in 12th century Baghdad who taught his followers to lead spiritual lives and promote goodness in their communities. The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music has become part of the core identity for Fez, always considered by intellectuals, poets, writers and musicians as a major cultural capital of the world. And the festival has helped shape Morocco’s image as a country that not only supports but actively encourages friendship and coexistence between people of all backgrounds and spiritual beliefs. ### * Hind Al-Subai Al-Idrisi is a Moroccan blogger (http://hindapress.wordpress.com) and journalist who participated in a Rabat-based workshop for bloggers organised by the international conflict transformation organisation Search for Common Ground. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews). Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 29 June 2010, www.commongroundnews.org Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Travelling Moroccan exhibition displays art for peace

Rabat - An unusual art exhibit is coming to Jerusalem in December. This unique exhibition – called the Essaouira Mogador Exhibition for Moroccan Heritage – depicts values of peace, such as brotherhood and tolerance, among various cultures and faiths through the exceptional work of a number of Moroccan artists and traditional artisans.

Organised by the Essaouira Mogador Association, the Moroccan city of Essaouira featured this exhibition about Moroccan heritage in September at the Moroccan Red Crescent Hall. The exhibition is mobile, and is scheduled to open in Jerusalem on 25 December. After this event, the exhibition will be hosted in a number of prominent cities throughout the Middle East.

Its paintings, sculpture, ceramics and jewelry tell a story of brotherhood, tolerance and peace among races and religions between Muslims, Jews and Christians.

For example, there are paintings that express unity through the symbols of the three divine religions: the Star of David, the cross and the crescent. Some of the pottery and ceramics are made of clay, which has religious significance in Islam and brings to mind the origins of existence: according to the Qur’an, God created Adam out of clay.

The exhibit also includes embroidered pieces featuring shapes of meaning and significance, such as what Moroccans call the Khmissa, i.e. the hand with the five fingers, the dagger and a variety of geometrical shapes from around Morocco. And there is pottery of various shapes and colours, silver accessories for women such as earrings and rings that feature designs from original Moroccan carvings, and wooden boxes made of the famous Moroccan juniper wood with its characteristically sweet scent from the city of Essaouira.

The importance of the exhibition’s trip from Essaouira to Jerusalem lies in the fact that the Moroccan community in Jerusalem will host the exhibition in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It will then move to other nearby cities, including Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus, Acre and Haifa, finally returning to stay in Jerusalem. The hope is that the exhibition’s messages of brotherhood and tolerance will reach a large number of people through art.

Art, a language that everyone understands, helps build bridges of communication and can carry messages of tolerance and coexistence. Throughout its history, Morocco has been known for practicing such tolerance when it comes to followers of other religions.

This exhibition is much more than a simple gallery showing; it is a message to the world from a Muslim country that has embraced Jews and Christians for centuries in peaceful coexistence. The Jewish community has always been considered one of the main communities in the country, particularly in Essaouira society, and both Jews and Muslims enjoy similar traditions. Their relationship is devoid of seclusion, exclusivity, and racial and religious conservatism.

There are many shared traditions between Muslims and Jews in Morocco – from marriage ceremonies and family festivities to traditions involving the application of henna. For example, Jewish and Muslim brides alike take a traditional bath before the wedding ceremony and dress similarly, donning the unique quftan (traditional Moroccan robe), differentiated only by the shapes of the embroidery.

Sadly, almost 98 per cent of the Jewish population of Morocco left between 1948 and the 1960s, primarily to emigrate to Israel. Within Morocco however, Jews have enjoyed special concessions provided by the law, including the right to maintain their religious beliefs and the right to protection, since the reign of Morocco’s Alawi dynasty.

And the late King Mohammad V took a strong stand during World War II when he refused to accept the Nazi laws of the Vichy government in France — the then colonial power in Morocco — and refused to hand over Jewish Moroccan citizens to the Germans, saying: “I am not the king of Muslims only, but all Moroccans”.

A strong message of modernity, peace and coexistence coming from Morocco is evidenced by the work of Andre Azoulay, the Chairman of the Essaouira Mogador Association, an advisor to the late King Hassan II and current advisor to the present Moroccan monarch, Mohammad VI. Azoulay has dedicated his life to enhancing coexistence between Arabs and Jews in North Africa, a legacy that is considered exceptional in the Arab and Muslim world.

Morocco is a model of tolerance in the Mediterranean region. Hopefully, this traveling exhibition will bring the universal message of diversity and acceptance to Jerusalem, a place where it is sorely needed.

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* Hind Al-Subai Al-Idrisi is a Moroccan blogger (hindapress.wordpress.com) and journalist. She participated in a citizen journalism workshop in Rabat organised by the international conflict transformation organisation Search for Common Ground. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 16 November 2010, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication