The three-day Conference on Social and Human Sciences, held by the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies, began Saturday based on the theme - 'The concept of political culture and political cultures in the Arab world'.
Dr Azmi Bishara, director-general of the centre and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, delivered the opening lecture.
Then, Dr Abdelwahab El Affendi, president of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, presented a paper titled 'Culture as a Weapon: Culture Wars and Cultures of Wars in the United States and Egypt', in which he dealt with the phenomenon known as “culture wars” in the US, a development that drew public attention in the 1990s. It reached its peak in the era of former President Donald Trump.
El Affendi compared it to similar developments in Egypt in the period leading up to the July 2013 events, and it is still raging today. He reviewed the dynamics of this "cultural" conflict, which reveals that the pivotal role of culture is in shaping identity and giving political and social action. The meaning also interacts with the multiplicity and diversity of the possibilities of using it as a tool for conflict and division. He also disagreed with Samuel P Huntington's contention that the difference of cultures delineates the boundaries of conflict between nations.
Dr Abdel-Fattah Madi, a researcher at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies and director of the State and Political Systems Studies Unit, presented a paper titled 'How does tyranny shape the political culture of the masses? An approach from the perspective of civil-military relations'. He focused on the policy of indoctrination, which usually has long-term repercussions, because it is related to the political culture of the masses.
The subsequent sessions featured Tunisian researcher in sociology, Dr Asma Lahyoul; Dr Shaker Houki, professor of Public Law at Al-Manar University in Tunis; Dr Ahmed Abu El-Ala, professor of Cultural Anthropology at the National Centre for Social and Criminology Research in Cairo; Egyptian academic and architect Dr Ali Abdulraouf; researcher at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies Dr Hani Awad; Dr Ibrahim Morshed and Dr Ibrahim Mansouri, professors of economics at the University of Marrakech, and Dr Hussein Shukrani, professor of public law and political science at the same university; Dr Saeed al-Haji, professor of Contemporary and Current History at Abdelmalek Saadi University in Tetouan (Morocco), and Dr Abd al-Ilah Setti, professor of political science and constitutional law at Ibn Zohr University in Agadir (Morocco).
The opening session
