The Merzouga festival is not only an artistic event of musical animation where a diversity of quality groups and artists perform. But also a space for reflection on such important and topical subjects. In this sense, we note in particular the conference on the theme of "Tolerance and Peace", led by young researchers Khadija Outoulount and Brahim Mouradi.
Young researchers Khadija Outoulount and Brahim Mouradi spoke in turn about the pressing need for a real dialogue between peoples, in order to prepare the right conditions for interculturality. As they tried to determine, each according to their research, the factors that hinder this sharing in an atmosphere of openness and coexistence. In her intervention, Khadija Outoulount spoke about the human being between identity and alterity, raising the crisis of living together that we can notice today. "If the current world is haunted by violence and terrorism, it is essentially because there is this crisis of identity and alterity. And especially because we see in the other and their difference a threat. Identity is conceived in a perspective of purity that reinforces the idea of rejecting any dissimilarity and which carries within it a morbid hatred against any person who displays their religious, ethnic, cultural, or other alterity.
In this order of ideas, the encounter with the other can only be unhappy and the project of living together peacefully remains chimeric", stresses Khadija in her presentation where she specifies that we are living the crisis of the modern era. "We are in the difficulty of living our 3rd millennium and it is very difficult to inhabit our world. The modern era, supposed to be that of the global village, has become where man no longer supports his fellow man and where the gap is becoming more and more enormous". This is a real threat to humanity in its difference. Because interculturality has always existed and allowed man to evolve, by knowing the other in their specificity and by sharing many things with them. Khadija believes that art, literature, and translation have the power to concretise these rapprochements. "This festival constitutes a perfect example of exchange between the different peoples of the planet. Through these meetings, we can elucidate many problems of this kind and reap the benefits of cohabitation". The research of Brahim Mouradi pointed the finger at man through a general vision throughout history. He relied on revelations by Edgar Morin and Jean Paul Sartre regarding their thoughts on secularism, religion, and other claims for freedom. Brahim also spoke about the creation of these differences and barriers from which humanity still suffers, because they generate endless wars and conflicts. "Unity is the treasure of human diversity.
The latter serves unity", he adds. But, he continues, we can well, through art, find a little meaning to fight the fanaticism and current barbarism. "Going towards the other with art and culture is a task that can be well carried out by the intellectual and the artist to try to get out of this tunnel of resentment and animosity between peoples". The academic Mustapha Elouizi, who played the role of moderator, did not fail to express his reflection on this subject by evoking modernism and all that it can entail as destruction of society and the human being. "Every human being should be committed to human values, namely love, fraternity, solidarity, cooperation, living together... All these values contribute to the human being being open to their counterpart.
We cannot say that the world has lost its soul. Because there are still many good things to exchange, it is a glimmer of hope, a luminous path, and a guide for a radiant world to love and share. Knowing that the path that leads towards modernity possesses a negative facet that destroys everything we are in the process of building. That is what we must pay attention to so as not to fall into contradiction."
