Thread: Morocco Fez Festival of Sufi Culture 4th edition

Aims of the Festival

•To allow Morroccan people to discover or re-discover how the Sufi brotherhoods have mainly succeeded in preserving a message of universal spirituality that irrigated the whole of the Muslim culture and nourished its artistic, literary, and even social and economic forms of expression especially in Morocco.
•To allow people from other cultures to discover another face of Islam thanks to the message of opening and peace inherent to Sufism, far from the image generally spread by the media. To show how Sufism, as a school of spiritual and civic education, can be a mean of human development and a peace mediator.

•Through this event, to reinforce the position of Morocco as a link between Orient and Occident in the intercultural dialogue.
•To show the richness and the creativity of the spiritual, academic, artistic and social dimensions inspired by Sufism. To let people know contemporary artists and thinkers, national and international, and with them, to find new ways of social, cultural and artistic expressions that can strengthen the intercultural dialogue and help to the development of the society.
•To question the role of spirituality nowadays, the connection between spirituality and business, environmentalism and social actions. How the spirituality may, under the present frames of the social and entrepreneurial activity, become a particularly prolific contributor to the human development, in its social, cultural and spiritual contexts.

Projected Programme for Morocco Fes festival of suffi culture
(This program may meet a few changes, make sure you consult it regularly)

SATURDAY 17 APRIL 2010 :
10.00-12.00 Lecture of Introduction : « What is Sufism ? » by Faouzi Skali. Lecture : « The Kingdom of the Saints » by Zakia Zouanat (anthropologist, writer specialised in Sufism, Morocco) Lecture : « The Sufi manuscripts of the Qaraouiyine » by Abdellah El Ouazzani (Professor, writer and presenter of a TV programme on 2M dedicated to Islamic issues, Morocco)
16.00-18.00 Round table : « For a poetry of civilization » Presentation : Bensalem Himmich (Minister of Culture - Morocco) Round table : Edgar Morin (French sociologist and philosopher, highly skilled Director at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research, France) Bariza Khiari (a French socialist senator in Paris (Ile-de-France) Nahal Tajddod (member of the world team CNRS and writer of several books on history – Iran/France) Jean Claude Carrière (writer and scriptwriter- France) Mohammed Berrada (former Minister of Finance and Moroccan Ambassador in Paris, professor of economics, Morocco)
21.00 Concert : « Ecstatic chants » - Shaykh Habboush - Jalal Eddine Weiss (Syria - France)

SUNDAY 18 APRIL 2010 :
10.00-12.00 : Round table « Reconsidering development » Assia Bensalah Alaoui (Moroccan roving ambassador, professor of law, Morocco) Patrick Viveret (referendum adviser at the national audit office, philosopher and essayist in alter-globalization - France) Majid Rahnema (writer, former Minister of Science & Higher Education in Iran and professor at the American University of Paris – France/Iran) Zakia Zouanat Katherine Marshall (professor at Georgetown University, Director of the Forum world leader faith and development -USA) Alia Al Dalli (representative resident of the PNUD in Morocco– Iraq) Mats Karlsson (director of the department Maghreb, North Africa and Middle East of the World Bank – Suede)
16.00-18.00 : 1st Part : Nahal Tajddod and Jean Claude Carrière : « The Birds’ Conference » by Farid Eddin Attar (France – Iran) 2nd Part : Karima Skalli and Said Chraibi – Tribute to Abu al Hassan Ash Shusturi
21.00 Concert : The Chishty Sufi Sama Ensemble (Shahi Qawwals ) from Ajmer Dargah Sharif (India)

MONDAY 19 APRIL 2010 :
10.00-12.00 Lecture : « Figures of a living Shaykh : Sidi Hamza Al Qadiri Al Boutchichi »by Mountasser Hamada (writer and journalist – Morocco) et Faouzi Skali
16.00-18.00 Round table : « Spirituality and social changes » Alain Chevillat (director – founder of the University « Terre du Ciel, knowledge and wisdom in the world” -France) Yacine Demaison (Lecturer, educationalist– France) Bernard Ginisty (Philosopher, former director of « Témoignage Chrétien », co-founder of ATTAC -France) Aoua Ly-tall (sociologist, founding President of African Women’s Network – Canada/West-Africa)
21.00 Samaa Evening : Hassani chants of the Tariqa Boutchichiyya from Laâyoune (Morocco)

TUESDAY 20 APRIL 2010 :
10.00-12.00 Lecture : « Spiritual Chivalry (Futuwwa) : a path for our times ? » by Jaafar Kansoussi (intellectual, specialized in Sufism- Morocco) and Nick Pearson (Chairman of the Temenos Academy – United Kingdom)
16.00-18.00 Lecture : « Mystic and poetry in Ibn Arabi » by A. Filali (Academic - Morocco), Cecilia Twinch (speaker in Ibn Arabi Society , Oxford –United Kingdom) , Ahmed El Kheligh (journalist on TV channel 2M and on radio Médi 1, specialized in Sufism- Morocco) and David Hornsby (member of « Ibn Arabi Society », Oxford - United Kingdom)
21.00 Samaa Evening : 1st Part : Tariqa Charqawiyya (Morocco) / 2nd Part : Tariqa Darqawiyya – Taybah Group (Syria/France/Morocco)

WEDNESDAY 21 AVRIL 2010 :
10.00-12.00 Lecture : « Therapy of the soul » by Eric Geoffroy (Writer, specialized in Islam and Sufism - France) 16.00-18.00 Workshop : 1st Part : « Poetry in a garden » 2nd Part : « The path of flavours, how to feed one’s soul, one’s body » Christine Bouguet-Joyeux (gastronome, dietician -France)
21.00 Samaa Evening : 1st Part : Tariqa Siqilliyya Khalwatiyya (Morocco) / 2nd Part : Tariqa Wazzania (Morocco)

THURSDAY 22 AVRIL 2010 :
10.00-12.00 Lecture : « the day of the earth » Environmentalism : an art of living or a practical urgent need ? Kamal Oudghiri (engineer in telecommunications at the NASA – Morocco/USA) Pierre Rabhi (writer, philosopher and international expert in the fight against desertification Pioneer in agro-ecology and founder of the movement ‘Terre et Humanisme’ - France) Caroline Chabot (Journalist« Acts and Meaning » - France) Nicholas Moller (president of Global Institute for new energy technologies GIFNET - Denmark) Fattouma Benabdenbi (sociologist and founder-member of the Moroccon Association for women’s enterprise, Espod – Morocco) Salamatou Sow (Professor from Nigeria) Abdalaziz Eddebbarh (scientist, theologian - Morocco/USA) Jean Marie Pelt (botanist and famous environmentalist, president of the European institute of Environment since 1972 – France)
16.00-18.00 Lecture : « Love stronger than death » by Professor H. Joyeux (professor at the faculty of medicine in Montpellier, initiated the series of lectures on “health, love and ***uality”, writer-France) and Fanny Abadi (a psychotherapist, founder of the international ethic Centre and of the humanitarian ethic Association- France)
21.00 Concert : « Al Munfarija » Samaa of Fez – Haj Mohammed Bennis (Morocco)

FRIDAY 23 AVRIL 2010 :
10.00-12.00 Lecture : « Films and spirituality » - « Cinema and search for meaning » by Nabil Ayouche (Film director-Morocco)
16.00-18.00 Cultural café : « Art and spirituality » with the participation of Zeyba Rahman (Project Director, Muslim Worlds and Chairwoman, World Music Institute, New York), Amadou and Mariam (Malian Singers), Setsuko Klossowska from Rola (Japanese Painter), ), Christopher Merrill (journalist/ director, Iowa University, International Writing Program, USA) and Katia Legeret (professor in arts sciences, searcher and university teacher - France)
21.00 Concert : « Maqamat of desire of God » Hussain Al Aadhamy (Iraq – Jordany)

SATURDAY 24 AVRIL 2010 :
09.00-10.00 Lecture : « Ibn Batouta’s Quest » by Said Taghmaoui (French American actor, native of Morocco - Morocco)
10.00-12.00 Lecture : « The manuscripts of Tombouctou » Abdelkader Haïdara (scholar, collector and owner of a private collection of manuscripts - Mali) Abdul Laraw (collector and owner of a private collection of manuscripts, specialized in techniques to preserve manuscripts - Mali) Ismaël Diadé Haïdara (lecturer, university teacher in Granada - Mali) Souada Maoulainine (Lecturer specialized in Sufism, Morocco) Marie-Odile Delacour (Journalist and writer-France) Jean-René Huleu (French journalist- France) Yahia Abou El Farah (director of « institut des études africaines » in Rabat - Morocco) Fatima Harrak (researcher in « institut de études africaines » in Rabat - Morocco)
16.00-18.00 Round table : « Islam and the West : tracks of light » Mahmoud Hussein (common pseudonym for two writers : Baghgat Elnadi and Adel Rifaat - France/Egypt) Denis Gril (islamologist writer, specialised in Ibn Arabi – France) Zeyba Rahman Hassan Abou Ayoub (former Minister, roving ambassador – Morocco) Maati Kabbal (writer and journalist -Morocco) Abdou Hafidi (political scientist, presenter of the program « Islam » on France 2) Saad Khiari (writer, involved in several programs for the dialogue of religions and cultures- France) Abdessamad Romero
21.00 Concert : « Spiritual Noubas » Great voices of Moroccan Samaa with Mohammed Briouel (Morocco)