THE VIEW FROM FEZ: Fes Festival of Sufi Culture

Monday, January 26, 2009

Fes Festival of Sufi Culture

Faouzi Skali

Brainchild of Sufi scholar, Faouzi Skali, the 3rd annual Fes Festival of Sufi Culture will be held from 18-25 April. The programme promises some fascinating discussion topics and superb concerts, including various Sufi brotherhoods from Morocco and Algeria, and the Egyptian master, Cheikh Ahmad al-Tuni.
The conference will be held in the Bouanania Medersa, and all the concerts in the Batha Museum.
For more information, see www.par-chemins.com.

a colourful audience at last year's festival

Provisional Programme:

Saturday 18 April

16h00-17h00 INTRODUCTION

Faouzi Skali (Forum President)

Politics and the Economy: Levers towards Spirituality?

17h30-19h00 FORUM: A Soul for Globalisation - Round Table 1

Preventing the food crisis

Dominique Voynet, founder of green political and ecological movement, former Minister of Land Management & the Environment in France, senator for Seine-Saint-Denis

Pierre Rabhi, writer, founder of 'Terre & Humanisme' movement

Nouzha Skalli, Minister of Family Social Development & Solidarity

Pascal Boniface, director of Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques (IRIS) and professor at Institut d'Etudes Européenes

21h00-23h00 CONCERT

Mohammed Tarwat, Saad Tamsamani & Omar Sermini (Morocco/Egypt/Syria)

Songs of East and West

Sunday 19 April

09h00-12h00 FORUM: A Soul for Globalisation - Round Table 2

The end of capitalism?

Majid Rahnema, writer, former Minister of Science & Higher Education in Iran and professor at the American University of Paris

Hervé de Charette, former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Juppé government, writer

Katherine Marshall, professor at Georgetown University, Director of the Forum, world leader faith and development

Mohamed Berrada, former Minister of Finance and Moroccan Ambassador in Paris, professor of economics

16h00-17h00 CONCERT

Abir Nasraoui & Curro Piñana (Tunisia/Spain)

Tribute to Ibn Arabi

21h00-23h00 CONCERT

Abd al Malik (France/Congo)

Monday 20 April

09h00-12h00 FORUM: A Soul for Globalisation - Round Table 3

Body & Spirit

Henri Joyeux, professor at the Medical Faculty at Montpellier, initiator of the series 'Health, Love & Sexuality', writer

Fanny Didiot-Abadi, psychotherapist, founder of the Centre Ethique International de Formations, and the Association Action Ethique Humanitaire

16h00-17h00 CONCERT

Les Rabia

21h00-23h00 PERFORMANCE

Qadiriyya Boutchichiyya Brotherhood (Morocco)

Tuesday 21 April

09h00-12h00 DISCUSSION: The Manuscripts of Ibn Arabi

David Hornsby, member of the Ibn Arabi Society, Cambridge

Denis Grill, writer on Islam, Ibn Arabi specialist

16h00-17h00 WORKSHOP: Body, art & spirituality

Georges Stobbaerts, Aikido Grand Master, founder of the Tenchi Tessen movement

Mbarek Alaoui, 8th Dan Aikido Master, disciple of Grand Master Georges Stobbaerts

21h00-23h00 PERFORMANCE

Charqawiyya Brotherhood (Morocco)

Wednesday 22 April

09h00-12h00 WORKSHOP: Poems in a Garden

presented by Rajae Slaoui

16h00-17h00 CONCERT

Delgocha (Iran)

21h00-23h00 PERFORMANCE

Wazzaniyya & Saqalliyya Brotherhoods (Morocco)

Thursday 23 April

09h00-12h00 DISCUSSION: Sufism & the Reform of Islam

Cheikh Khaled Bentounes

Eric Geoffroy, writer on Islam, Sufi specialist

16h00-17h00 CONCERT: Music & Chants of the Tidjanis

Daouda Dieye

followed by a discussion on the spiritual culture of Africa, with

Aoua Bocar Ly Tall, sociologist, founding President of African Women's Network

Salamatou Sow, researcher and teacher at the University of Niamey, working towards the knowledge and preservation of the Peul culture of Niger

21h00-23h00 PERFORMANCE

Alawiyya Brotherhood (Algeria)

Friday 24 April

16h00-17h00 FORUM: A Soul for Globalisation - Round Table 4

Democracy: the good and the bad

Assia Alaoui Bensalah, Moroccan roving Ambassador, Co-president of the Groupe des Sages pour le Dialogue des Peuples et des Cultures (EU), professor of law

Emmanuel Todd, politician, demographer, sociologist and French essayist

Benjamin Barber, politician and American writer, professor of Political Science at the University of Maryland, President of the international colloquium, Interdependent Day

Salman Shaikh

Hassan Ibn Ayyoub

21h00-23h00 CONCERT

Cheikh Ahmad al-Tȗni (Egypt)

Saturday 25 April

09h00-12h00 FORUM: A Soul for Globalisation - Round Table 5

The civilisation of globalisation

Edgar Morin, writer, Research Director Emeritus at CNRS, promoter of a new vision of development known as the 'politics of civilisation'

Bariza Khiari, well-known commentator in French politics on Muslim culture, socialist senator for Paris, co-founder of Club 21ème Century

Basma el Husseiny

16h00-17h00 CONCERT

Ali Alaoui (Morocco/France)