Discussion "Emir Abd El-Khader: a model of rapprochement between East and West"

The Fondation pour l’innovation politique, joined forces with the Fondation de l’Islam de France and the international NGO AISA to organise a roundtable on Emir Abd el-Kader (1808 – 1883), a figure of modern, humanist and conciliatory Islam of his time.

The roundtable was composed of Dominique Reynié, Executive Director of the Fondation pour l’innovation politique, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, President of the Fondation de l’Islam de France, Mustapha Chérif, former Algerian Minister and Islamologist, Ahmed Bouyerdene, associate researcher at the Institute for Research and Studies on Arab and Muslim Worlds, Yousra Ouizzane, member of the Muslim Military Chaplaincy and Issam Toualbi-Thaâlibî¸ director of the UNESCO channel for Human Rights and Culture of Peace at the University of Algiers.

The discussions focused on capturing the thought of the Emir, tracing his history and his relations with his contemporaries, both Western and Eastern. His religious thought was retranscribed in a political project of rapprochement and reconciliation of opposites, with the objective of “repairing the tears” in a context of strong tensions around the Ottoman Empire, then in a phase of decline.

A precursor of respect for human rights, he defended this fundamental idea of diversity in unity, which precisely characterises humanity, from the perspective of monotheisms, which, for him, “form one and the same religion, which appeared to men in different ways. He represents this model of permanent dialogue and of living together as a moral and even existential imperative, which has marked both the history of France and that of Algeria, and more generally universal history.

His timeless philosophy is echoed in contemporary times, as the tensions of the present can be “repaired” by putting his ideas into practice, more than ever relevant today. As Issam Toualbi-Thaâlibî emphasised in addressing the young people present in the audience: “We must be careful what we find on the Internet, especially on social networks. When one reads that Muslims are supposed to hate Jews and Christians, this is far from the words of Abd el-Kader”.