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"ÇáÌÇãÚÉ"Al-Jame’ah
ÌÇãÚÉ "ÞíãÉ ßá ÇãÑÆ ãÇ
íÍÓäå"
The
University of
“Qeematu
Kullimri’en Ma Yuhsenoh”
(A personal
statement)
The two periods
that were very significant in my life, in the sense that they radically
transformed my perceptions, understandings, and practices, were the decade of
the seventies and the first intifada, especially 1987-91, both of which
were in Palestine. The most significant aspect of both periods was that we
(Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) were left alone, in the sense
that we had to take care and manage our affairs, depending mainly on what we
have – as people, as communities, and as a culture. The flourishing of groups
during the seventies in the fields of learning, social action, the arts, and
culture was unprecedented within Palestinian society. It stemmed from people
who responded in a natural and spontaneous way to the realities of the time,
people as individuals and as groups that were formed outside existing
organizations. The closure of modern institutions and structures (political,
educational…) by the Israeli military occupation authorities during the first
intifada, helped – unintentionally of course – to generate creative
energies, and to regenerate what modern institutions usually kill or freeze.
Although the purpose was to paralyze the Palestinian society, the closure set us
free to take care of our affairs without the constant paralyzing interference by
institutions, professionals, authoritative bodies and dominant patterns of
thinking and doing. The only “authority” that was there was the Israeli army
which did not have legitimacy in the eyes of people. Closing institutions
helped revitalize deep-rooted social and cultural “structures” such as
neighborhoods, mosques and churches that were not possible to close down.
Neighborhoods were revitalized through neighborhood committees and through
individuals who took initiatives in neighborhoods – popular education
and communal farming were two visible manifestations of that revitalization at
the neighborhood level.
Mosques were transformed into their original role: places where people meet,
discuss and manage their collective affairs.
I have never seen people and the community as vibrant, alive, energized,
resourceful, creative, and flourishing as much as during these two periods. In
addition to the tremendous resources that communities and cultures have, and
which were made visible, it was also in these two periods that I realized and
learned the power of simple ideas in building self and community, and in dealing
with challenges. I mean by ‘simple ideas’
those that open the door for everyone to join in at one’s own terms and pace,
and in one’s ways. In other words, ‘simple ideas’ start with and build on what
is potentially available to everybody, which was the only thing we could use;
there were no resources from “authoritative bodies” or from outside. It was
also in the seventies that I first realized the narrowness, falseness or
irrelevance of much of what I have learned in schools and universities. And it
was during the first intifada that I saw the value of culture and the
importance of building on it.
Two other
aspects during these two periods helped clarify and deepen my realization of
what people and communities have, which modern institutions and professionals
ignore, whether consciously by design or unconsciously because of ignorance.
The first aspect was the realization of the knowledge and wisdom that my
illiterate mother had,
and which became increasingly clear over the past 30 years in my mind and
awareness. The second aspect was the absence (until 1993) of a “political body”
through which “aid” and development could be channeled into the community, and
which would have resulted – as it did in most other countries that received such
AID – in killing the “immune system” of the community (just like AIDS does to
the human body). The absence of such a “political body” helped protect us from
big development agencies and projects (such as the World Bank). Thus, the scale
and pace of growth, and patterns of living and consuming within the Palestinian
society prior to 1993 were – as a result of this absence – much saner and more
sustainable.
The combination of the paralysis of modern
institutions (which revealed the tremendous treasures that communities and
cultures have), the realization of my mother’s knowledge (which revealed the
tremendous treasure that every individual has), and the absence of big
“development” projects (which led people to depend mainly on their resources),
all contributed to the formation of the convictions that have been growing
within me and guiding me over the past 30 years. They are the concrete basis of
the deep-rooted hope that I carry within me, and which stems from what I
witnessed during the two periods: people are unpredictably incredible, when
there are no institutions and professionals/ experts around to treat them as
imbeciles and incapable of doing anything without official or professional
help. The aliveness that was manifested in people’s actions, and the spirit of
mutual help and service, were part of those periods. [The “service” I am
talking about here is world apart from what is referred to as “services”
rendered and controlled by institutions and professionals.]
Two clarifications are in order: 1) the spirit of
both periods and its manifestations need to be contemplated upon (and expressed)
in more depth than what took place so far. Their significance and inspiration
to the conditions in the world today can be tremendous. And 2) institutions and
professionals may be needed under certain circumstances. Borrowing an image
from an old wise man in Oaxaca, Mexico, describing the role of a governor:
institutions and professionals are like trees, people seek their shade when they
need them.
The spirit of the two periods consisted of several
aspects: every person/ experience was valuable and every act was appreciated,
there was no work that was considered small or insignificant; what a person did
stemmed from inner convictions; each person was a co-partner in a collective
process; there were no comparisons along vertical measures that claimed to be
objective and universal; people built on what they have rather than starting
with needs and what they lack (as development experts usually advise); and
believing that life is worth living without competition and without rushing to
be the first or to win against others or to acquire symbolic gains.
At a deeper level, however, at the level of
fundamental convictions and values, it was the “discovery” of my mother’s math
that made me realize the importance of, and gave me concrete meaning of, having
a pluralistic attitude in life. That “discovery” shook what I now consider the
most powerful and most subtle belief that produced – and is still producing –
many of the social, economic, and psychological ills, which have been
accumulating for the past 3 centuries, and which has been limiting people’s
ability to deal with challenges they face. What I am talking about here is the
belief in a single undifferentiated path for progress – what is usually referred
to as universal thinking. Manifestations of this universal path include the
monopoly of education over learning, the monopoly of knowledge that can be
expressed through words and concepts, and developing universal exams to measure
students. The “discovery” of my mother’s math clarified in my mind the
difference between tools (such as schools, knowledge, science, and technology)
and values (such as wisdom, social fabric, and a pluralistic attitude in
living). Moreover, although I tried (as the title of my article about her
testifies – see footnote 6) to transform her knowledge so it would
fit mine, I realized later that it is impossible to squeeze her knowledge and
understanding (whether in math or religion or the upbringing of children) in
words and concepts; she and what she knew were inseparable. It was not possible
to judge her worth through official tests and committees but by people and the
community. In short, her basic contribution to my learning and growth at the
perceptual, intellectual, and practical levels – without her realizing or
planning that – was perceiving my self and my role as an advocate for a
pluralistic attitude in life, against any kind of monopoly or universal claim,
and an advocate of regaining wisdom as an essential ingredient in living, and in
perceiving, conceiving, and doing science and knowledge.
Three things are necessary to get out of the mess
we are in: (1) to get out of the mental cages that imprison our minds and
imaginations; (2) to unplug ourselves as much as possible from the pattern of
consumption which increasingly permeates all aspects of life, especially the
consumption of words and meanings that are constantly fabricated and designed to
keep our minds and imaginations imprisoned; and (3) to remember and include the
two sources that nurture people: land and history (including history of
concepts). These require that we work at several levels: perceiving ourselves
as co-authors of meanings, values, and measures (i.e., regain our right to
independent investigation of meaning); liberating ourselves from universal
thinking and adopting, instead, a pluralistic attitude in living; daring to
imagine and regain aspects that are labeled old, obsolete, backward or
underdeveloped; and becoming again searchers for truth and re-searchers for what
were made invisible or worthless in our cultures. These are some of what guided
the thinking and work in the Arab Education Forum, Qalb el-Umoor, and
al-jame’ah.
The Arab Education Forum and
Qalb el-Umoor
The above
aspects were manifested in the Arab Education Forum (AEF) and
Qalb el-Umoor,
both of which embodied the conviction of building on what is available and
positive. Both are built on a simple idea: every person is a source of meaning,
understanding, and knowledge – that stem from maturity of experience and
contemplating on it. Translating this into a “practical conviction”: every
person is a co-author of meanings, values and measures. This is crucial in
nurturing at two levels: the level of the “inner world” of each person and the
level of the social-spiritual-intellectual fabric among people. It looks at
each person as a producer/ creator, rather than as a consumer. And consuming
meanings is probably the most dangerous and most subtle form of consumption.
The role of those concerned about learning and growth of people and communities
is to help provide spaces, circumstances, and opportunities through which people
broaden their circles of contacts (mainly through development of friendships),
their awareness of what is there around the world (in terms of resources,
experiences, ways, etc), and expand their imaginations to realize the richness
and diversity that exist around the world (which are usually ignored and
suppressed by education and development). Since 1998, and through AEF, I met
many people and groups with inspiring initiatives in the Arab world. The space
that Roger Owen provided for me within the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at
Harvard University gave me the necessary base to work from. In January 2001, I
visited Gustavo Esteva in Oaxaca in the South of Mexico, which expanded my
“imagination” as to the wealth and richness that exist in the two-thirds world
that I was conditioned to ignore and to see nothing in it that is inspiring and
worth knowing. That visit led me to look for more people and groups working
within the two-thirds world. Meeting Manish and Vidhi Jain in 2002 provided the
opportunity for me to see the richness and beauty within the Indian
subcontinent. My later visits to Brazil and Pakistan, confirmed the conviction
that a main “lifeline” for the Arab world is peoples and cultures in the south,
and that acquiring education via western universities is just one way, a way
that usually covers very specific and narrow needs, and for an extremely small
elite. Those visits also made me more aware that the “west” is not only out
there but also within me; I carry it in many of my ways of perceiving and
living. In addition, those visits to the two-thirds world deepened my
conviction of the centrality of wisdom and pluralistic attitude in human
living. They deepened in me the conviction that comparing people or cultures or
nations along a vertical measure (that claims to be objective and universal) is
meaningless and inhuman – to say the least: each culture is beautiful in a
unique way. They deepened in me the conviction that in order to build a saner
and happier world, no one group can do it alone; it is a collaborative effort.
Al-jame’ah
The above is part of the history and basis of
al-jame’ah, and contributed – directly or indirectly – to the development of
the idea. Al-jame’ah embodies the importance of providing spaces where
people can learn in a way that is guided by their realities and what they do, a
way that does not have to satisfy any authority other than truthfulness to the
experience, to one’s contemplations on it, to one’s convictions, and to the
context in which one lives and works. The idea of al-jame’ah grew out of
providing such spaces, where knowledges are not sold or bought or compared, but
shared and constructed together. It was first presented as a concrete idea in a
conference on models for Arab universities at a conference held at the American
University of Beirut, Lebanon, in October 2003 organized by Nadia Cheikh.
Later, it was discussed with various people and groups at a meeting of the
Learning Societies Conference in Mumbai, India (within the World Social Forum)
in January 2004, and again in a conference on Diversity in Learning, April 2004
in Jordan. The first manifestation of al-jame’ah took place in Cairo in
January 2004.
Al-Jame’ah
ÇáÌÇãÚÉ
is the Arabic word for university and its meaning in Arabic is also appropriate
to the idea. It means “something” that pulls together many things to create
opportunities for learning and for collective nurturance, enrichment, and
growth. The idea behind al-jame’ah is simple: the
basic ingredient in learning is a learner; everything else is there.
Any person who is doing something and wants to
understand it more and do it better is a learner;
automatically that person can
be a student/ learner in al-jame’ah;
there are no other requirements for “admission”. And every person who can be
helpful or inspiring to a learner and ready to open his/her heart and mind is
part of the “faculty”. Every place where people can meet and learn, or that has
resources, experiments etc that could be helpful to people in their search for
understanding, knowledge, or for walking their own paths in life, is part of the
“campus”. Obviously, every person can be a student in one setting and a teacher
in another. There are neither full time students nor full time faculty.
In other words, the campus
literally is the whole world – any person, thing, or place that the person needs
and can reach, and is hospitable and relevant for the learner is part of the
campus. This means that anyone or any group that is inspired by the idea and
sees it relevant in their own context, or to what they do or would like to do,
can just go ahead and join in the effort; there is no need to get a permission
or approval from anyone. The idea that a person needs permission to learn is
absurd.
Within al-jame’ah students decide to be students, and teachers decide to
be teachers. People decide what they want or what they can give. All what
people – who decide to join this effort – would be expected to do (obviously
with no “authority” to enforce that) is to be guided by the basic guiding
principle (see below) and to share their experiences, in any form they
feel comfortable with. This accumulation of stories, experiences,
understandings and knowledges are important in protecting the social majorities
around the world from the destructive impact of the claim of universality and
universal tools.
The guiding principle embodied
by al-jame’ah:
qeematu kullimri’en ma yuhsenoh”
From the very beginning, one statement that formed
a main guiding principle in our understanding, thinking, and doing within AEF
(and which we used as the title of our series of publications) has been a
statement articulated by Imam Ali more than 1,400 years ago: qeematu
kullimri’en ma yuhsenoh
ÞíãÉ ßá ÇãÑÆ ãÇ íÍÓäå. In English,
the statement means that the worth of a person is what s/he yuhsen. The
word yuhsen has several meanings in Arabic, which together embody the
spirit of al Jame’ah
ÇáÌÇãÚÉ:
1)
what the person does well,
which requires what is usually referred to as knowledge and technical skills (al-itqan);
2)
what is good for the community
(al-‘amal al-hasan);
3)
what the person gives of
herself/ himself (al-ihsan);
4)
what is beautiful (ash-shay’
al-hasan), which embodies the importance of the aesthetic and the centrality
of the senses; and,
5)
respect for others in debates
and discussions (wa jadelhum billatee heya ahsan).
In practice, these meanings/
principles are manifested within
al-Jame’ah in many
ways:
-
A person’s worth is not judged by
professional committees, official bodies, or measures that claim to be
objective and universal, but by the five meanings embedded in the word
yuhsen. This puts such judgements back where they belong: the community
and the people that the person lives and deals with. They are the judges as
to whether what the person does is beautiful, whether it stems from herself/
himself, whether it is good for the community and does not cause harm to it
or to the surroundings, and whether the person is respectful in her/his
interacting with others. In relation to the first meaning (doing things
well in terms of skills and knowledge), however, professionals and
institutions may be needed. In other words,
“evaluation” – if used in
relation to
al-jame’ah
– is never used in the sense of comparing people along linear universal
objective measures, but in a way that is in harmony with the meanings that
are embedded in the word yuhsen.
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Any person or group that wants to
learn about something (i.e. to understand it more and do it better) does not
need approval or permission from anyone. That person or group can go ahead
and start searching for where they can gain more understanding or for what
they need in order to do what they do better and more beautifully, and in a
way that is more useful to the community, more respectful of others, and
that stems from within.
-
The growth of the self (i.e.
spiritual growth) and one’s relationship to nature are integral parts of
understanding and knowing within al-jame’ah.
-
There is no authority other than
one’s relationship to people (in terms of her/his duty and responsibility
towards people and the community), and other than one’s conscience and
adherence to truth – as the person perceives it as a result of his/her
experiences, experiments, contemplations, expressions, interactions and
readings.
Obviously,
al Jame’ah
is not for those who are driven by degrees to be employed. It is geared mainly
towards two kinds of people: (1) those involved in doing something (including
those who are accomplished in their fields), and who welcome opportunities to
meet and interact with people and experiences that can be mutually enriching and
nurturing, and (2) those – who actually form the vast majority – that either
were told they couldn’t study in existing institutions or who themselves are not
interested in learning according to dominant ways (i.e., those who like to take
initiative and learn from real life situations, and who want to walk their own
paths in life, including making a living).
Thus, the above is not a call
to abolish universities in their current form; they can be resources for certain
learners in their search for understanding and growth. No one has the right to
tell those who like to take the university path that they cannot (otherwise we
would be falling into the same logic we are criticizing). What is not
acceptable however is the monopoly of existing forms over the process of
learning: of who can learn and who cannot, and what, where and with whom one can
learn. From the
perspective of al Jame’ah, only the claim to universal thinking needs to
be overcome. Universal thinking refers to the belief in a single
undifferentiated path for progress and having universal tools to impose that
universal claim on all peoples. Part of this claim is the refusal to
acknowledge knowledges/ wisdoms that are gained through living, sensing,
contemplating, interacting, expressing, and which cannot be put in words and
concepts.
First concrete manifestation of al-jame’ah:
apprenticeship for illustrators in Cairo
An apprenticeship was organized with Mohyeddin
Labbad in Cairo. Labbad has a long and diverse experience (extending over
several decades) as an illustrator, artist, writer, graphic designer, and
producer of books and magazines for children and adults. However, he never
perceived himself only as a skilled professional or a master in his art, but
also as a person who tries to be attentive to the world around him and to
express that honestly through his illustrations and words. This is in complete
harmony with the philosophy of al
Jame’ah.
Ten
accomplished artists
in the field, from 8 Arab countries, joined Labbad for two to four weeks in
January 2004. All of them have jobs and are very busy, yet, when we suggested
that they get together, all showed readiness and enthusiasm. The group is still
constantly in touch with one another, and a book reflecting their experiences
during and after the workshop is being produced. The apprenticeship forms a
concrete and inspiring manifestation of learning as embodied by al-jame’ah.
We hope that with the accumulation of such activities over time, it will be
possible to demand part of the education budget to support and legitimize
diversity in learning in schools. This way, “education for all” will be
replaced by the more respectful and reasonable motto: “learning for all”.
The apprenticeship embodied a set of convictions
that lie at the heart of al-Jame’ah: every person is a teacher and a
learner (nurturing is always mutual); each person is uniquely complete (no one
can be a copy of another); learning involves building both the “inner world” of
each person and the social-spiritual-intellectual-cultural fabric within the
group; and experiential maturity is the basis for creative expressions and
authentic understanding and knowledge. Participants exchanged art that they
have produced, and books, articles, and works that they found useful in their
work and life (in other words, these formed part of
al Jame’ah
“library”). The workplace of Labbad, along with people and places they were
exposed to, formed part of the “campus”.
Activities being organized
within the frame of al-jame’ah,
First,
within the Arab region: the
Arab Education Forum, within the framework of al -jame’ah’ and in
collaboration with several partners is planning to engage in several activities,
with the theme search/ research as a common thread knitting them together.
These include the following:
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A space in Lebanon to host several sessions in
October 2004. The themes
are chosen depending on the readiness of people who decide to use the
space. The themes so far include: social research outside academia,
renovations of old parts in Arab cities, and innovative ways of looking at
Arabic and science.
-
Providing an opportunity for some
Arabs who have had rich “mature” experiences to start writing their
stories. This is crucial in the search for self-understanding and in
building meanings and knowledges that are authentic in the various fields.
Currently, there are very few materials (in the Arab world) that reflect the
lives of people with long, rich and mature experiences.
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Al-Jana,
a Lebanon-based partner of al-Jame’ah, is initiating a project for
school walkouts (rather than dropouts) in Palestinian refugee camps in
Lebanon, with the help of resource persons from India. The idea is to look
at leaving school as an opportunity for moving on and not necessarily a
“dead-end” situation. This first stage includes gathering stories about
people who have walked out of schools in the camps and led productive
lives. The plan is to extend this to include walkouts in Arab countries in
the future.
-
Al-Warsha,
an Egypt-based partner of Al
Jame’ah, has been using theatre and popular culture as a way of
learning. It has been documenting forms of popular culture past and present
with the purpose of creating a renewed dialogue.
A main aspect of the work of al-Warsha
has been to capture the spirit of daily life - as it is played out in the
village and the city. Documenting the spirit of daily life, as it is
manifested in various cultural forms of the lives of women in some areas in
Egypt, is what will take place in this activity.
Each person/ group in these
activities will be asked to express – in the form they feel most comfortable
with – what took place during the experience together and how people perceive
future directions and actions in their respective fields. This is crucial for
two purposes: to start accumulating examples of what al-Jame’ah means in
practice; and to start building “discourses” that reflect more honestly people’s
experiences, realities, contemplations, and dreams.
Second,
activities in non-Arab countries
Projects planned in non-Arab countries will help
enrich and be enriched by projects in the Arab world, and together will continue
to knit the social-spiritual-intellectual-cultural fabric among the various
groups. The following is a brief description of some projects:
CEDI and
Universidad de la Tierra, Oaxaca, Mexico
Several activities will be undertaken
and shaped by the Universidad de la Tierra and the Centro de Encuentros y
Dialogos Interculturales, Oaxaca, for learning and cultural regeneration in
Latin America. The purpose is to get deeper understanding of the people and
organisations involved in generating learning communities, the communities
themselves and a deeper insight into the notion of ‘learning’ and ‘lay
literacy’.
Kufunda Village, Zimbabwe
Kufunda Village is a learning, training and
experimentation centre in creating sustainable communities, based on a different
understanding of how life works and on
fostering the development of
practices or systems that work in accordance with life.
Kufunda is planning to research and share the learning paths and consequent
shifts that have been experienced by the villagers and communities that Kufunda
works with.
Other India
Bookstore, Taleemnet, India
A fairly significant number of
individuals who have been wholly disillusioned with the schooling system have
charted their own paths of deliverance from conventional educational
institutions because of their love for learning and teaching. Some of these
individuals have worked in their areas for periods in excess of a whole decade,
some longer. They have not only created and managed diverse and fairly joyful
learning institutions for considerable periods of time but have also
meticulously recorded their own work, even though this record has been largely
in their vernacular languages. Few of these enterprising individuals or learning
communities have been interviewed and the insights developed during their
work-experience documented.
Possibilities, Mumbai, India
Having seen the negative impact of
education and other systems on society today, and inspired by some highly
enriching and practical insights from Indian philosophy, Possibilities
started in order to propose a learning path for children to become aware of the
immense possibilities of people’s original nature and generate a spirit that
each of us carries the innate divine potential of Inner Strength, Universal
Wisdom and Happiness. We can discover feel, experience, consciously learn, live
and use this potential for a better life for ourselves and others and a better
world at large.
Kumbham Murals, India
Documentation of natural ways of
learning among rural/ tribal children, building on the crucial role of the
senses in understanding the world and forming a worldview.
Document stories (via interviews on
videos) of a number of elderly remarkable thinker-doers in India. And, also
document stories of walkouts.
IDSP,
Pakistan
On the Search/ Re-search dimension in
al-jame’ah
The kind of search/ research we
are talking about within al-jame’ah
is not one that is geared to the needs of the market as much as to personal
growth and understanding. We are talking primarily about search/ re-search that
has direct bearing on the searcher’s
way of living and becomes part of the person’s
life style. There is no meaning for researching in al-jame’ah
if one is not searching. In searching for what makes sense in the reality in
which we live, work, and interact, we would most probably need to research
(search again) for what has been lost/ made invisible or worthless in our ways
of living, knowing, learning, understanding, relating, etc. We may also need to
search for what has never been there. We cannot truly search again for
something if we are not involved in searching for meaning and truthfulness in
our lives. Otherwise, we would be doing what is usually done within dominant
research: it does not spring from an inner calling, personal meaning or passion
or concern; rather, it is done because it is a requirement for graduation or
because there are funds.
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