My Cultural Project

I have written, published, lectured and spoken a lot since publishing my first book 43 years ago. I have so far published 35 books, dozens of articles, lectures, seminars and have been interviewed on television, radio and press in several languages, mostly Arabic, English, French and Italian.

Despite the variety of subjects I tackled in my books and conversations, they all aim to promote the ideas and values of modern humanity.

These ideas and values are neither Western nor Eastern and do not have a nature and identity other than being the outcome of humanity, modernity and progress.

All that I have written and am still writing, and what I have said and am still saying are aimed at consolidating the recipient’s acceptance and conviction of these values:

Pluralism is one of the key features of life, ideas and systems. The antithesis of pluralism is death, as life, by its nature, produces various patterns of living, ideas and systems. Pluralism enriches life.

Altruism, or accepting others, is not only one of the most wonderful aspects of human reasoning but also a natural and inevitable result of pluralism.

Among the values that result from pluralism and altruism are coexistence and the culture of peace.

Pluralism, altruism and coexistence are the result of the “love of life,” a value missing in some cultures that value death more than life.

All the aforementioned values are clearly correlated and complement each other.

One of the values that I have written about often is that the “rights and duties of women as human beings are equivalent to men’s.”

Promoting women’s rights requires shedding light on “masculinity” as one of the most heinous behaviors created by humans, as well as unveiling the shameful role of religious institutions, which have always supported patriarchal ideologies, systems and values. They presented what some (ignorantly) misread as evidence of “Heaven’s” support for masculine values.

Also, my writings, conversations and interviews have underlined the importance of basing educational systems on the rules and principles of “scientific thinking.”

One of the most important values of modern humanity is having a civilized state since finding values of modern humanity is very difficult in any society in which the state is not completely civil.

It is not possible to talk about the values of modernity without highlighting the mechanisms for ensuring and protecting “human rights” as defined by the international law.

However, is the modernity European?

Yes and No!

It is humane, but it was formed in Europe.

The “humanness of modernity” is the subject of my next article.