نشریه مطالعات روابط فرهنگی بین المللی
پیاپی 3 (پاییز 1395)

The bitter fact of internal conflicts that the world of Islam is suffering from today has made the majority of thinkers to look for solutions. There is no way but dialogue to solve this complicated status quo. Following a review of the concept of dialogue and some of its specifications, this paper has employed “lived experience” to highlight the importance of Iranian-Arab dialogue and pave the way for its success in generalization of this pattern of dialogue into all other forms of dialogue in Islamic community. Then, pointing to some requirements and prerequisites of such a dialogue, in the first step, the paper has focused on mutual recognition of the two sides and proposed that the intellectual currents in Iran and the Arab world must be analyzed in view of the self and other through five factors of genealogy, situation, intellectual and religious fundamentals, social status and stance vis-à-vis major issues of the Islamic ummah. This needs establishment of a permanent secretariat at one of the institutes trustable to the Muslim thinkers in both Iran and the Arab world.

During the recent years, there has been vast propaganda on ways to establish peace and peaceful coexistence across the world. According to a pessimistic view on human life, the activities made in this regard are not that much valuable, given the fact that these activities are far away from the modern-day realities of world approaches that warn keeping distance from evil, and believes in the biological principle of “struggle for survival”. On the contrary, there is an optimistic approach that renders all human beings as members of a single family and always tries to alleviate the differences. This paper intends to provide an appropriate answer to the question of “What are the principles and origin of “dialogue” in Islamic attitude?” Using a descriptive-analytical method, in this paper we have placed emphasis on the possibility of making diversified interpretations – even in a religion like Islam – knowing that each interpretation will be able to proceed automatically and make its gains from various human movements and social desires. The examples and universality of this approach have been put on trial in the highly complicated world incidents to give humans a chance to pick the best way for proximity to what is believed to be “the right”.

Dialogue has a history as long as the history of human being and it has been embedded in the nature or man. Its excellence and magnificence have an unbreakable link with human nature. Humans started dialogue with one another ever since he attained a level of social life and accordingly diversity and difference in opinions and in understandings appeared. In the course of history, various scientists and thinkers have studied this from various perspectives but the common point in the meantime is the need for dialogue among humans, social institutions and classes, in all fields and subjects needed. The Holy Quran highlights the status and authenticity of dialogue not only by the type, methods and subject matters, but also stressed on its form and purposeful and constructive content as an urgent and natural issue in order to facilitate the ideals, goals and excellence of Islamic community in various individual and groups levels. Since great experts of future studies consider the two main Islamic tenets of “spirituality and culture” as the two future paradigms of humanity, it is necessary for Iran and the Arab world to resort to the Quranic tradition of constructive and purposeful dialogues, in order to pave the ground for a civilized, cultural and spiritualistic society based on human capacities and capabilities. The principal question of this research paper deals with the status and role of constructive Quranic dialogues in the civilized society before Iran and the Arab world. The research method is library based.

Human relations are among the most vital concepts widely accepted by all walks of life in human societies. From among various such relations, cultural relations practiced in cultural fields, are very important. The Persian culture, that must be considered as a broader concept than the Iranian culture, encompasses historical conditions and epochs of time that Iran has put behind, covering vast borders and experiencing various government structures as well as eye-catching events. Signs of all these developments have been manifested in Persian culture. It is among the cultures that possesses elements for proximity to other cultures and admitting those cultures with all commonalities and differences. It is clear that cultures, particularly neighboring and closer cultures, have mutual influence on one another. There is no exception to this rule, be it a Western culture or a Persian one. On this basis, this paper intends to clarify some common points with these cultures to pave the ground for an interaction based on past infrastructures in the course of centuries in order to use it as an appropriate ground for future steps. The principal issue of this research paper is to clarify the need and possibility of cultural relations between Iran and the Arab world based on commonalities and practical or potential capacities. To realize such an objective, the historical background, current conditions, and the prospects shall be studied in view of cultural relations between Iranian and Arab communities. Although the categorization of this research paper is not merely based on studying the historical periods of these relations, it is however important in helping elucidation of the subject matter and in uncovering its hidden aspects.

Today, some Middle Eastern countries making their development under the banner of Islam, suffer extremism in traditions, culture and religion in their performance due to weakness in moderation and rationality. From among them, religious extremism – more than anything else-comes from the emergence of immoderate and irrational groups that stir up tensions and portray an unreal image of Islam and Islamic community to the world. In this paper, we intend to use a descriptive and analytical method to respond to the question of “What factors are behind the weakening of moderation and irrationality and the emergence of extremist thoughts and actions in Muslim communities?” To respond to this question, we have first provided definitions for moderation and rationality and continued with elaborating their values in view of the Holy Quran, in traditions and in the words of the elite religious scholars in order to review the factors behind extremism. It seems that a superficial understanding of religious texts, poverty and unemployment, social inequity, substandard living conditions, impression by bad publicity at virtual world and through satellite programs, keeping bad company and living under his/her influence, and concentration of the religions on differences rather than commonalities are among the major factors behind keeping distance from moderation and rationality in an Islamic society that leads to extremist acts and behaviors.

The Iran-Arab relations, dating back to the far past, i.e. to the time of Achaemenid Empire, was based on the principle of good neighborliness. These relations rose to perfection with the advent of Islam and conversion of the Iranians to the new religion. Increased interactions between the two nations deeply affected language, culture and literary productions. An example of the mutual influence of the two nations could be the cultural symbols such as proverbs and sayings, manifested in both Persian and Arabic languages. A comparison of the two cultures and languages will show their cultural exchanges and the degree of impressionability from each other. In this paper, we will review linguistic exchanges and the importance of proverbs in Iranian and Arab cultures by using an inductive-deductive method. We have also studied some commonalities in Iranian-Arab proverbs and used them as cultural media for identifying commonalities in the two civilizations. It was understood through this survey that some Arab proverbs have their roots in Iranian culture and vice versa. Also, many of the proverbs have joint roots that depict the joint experience of the two nations as well as their cultural relations, commonalities, and interactions.

The “Dialogue among Civilizations” is a moderate plan for interpretation of international relations and a reason for the important role of communications among nations, sustainability of civilizations, and a bright future in realization of the peaceful goals. The process of real dialogue among civilizations is a prerequisite for identifying diversified capacities of civilizations, bilateral respect and respecting the status of the owners and special characteristics of their civilization, then initiating dialogue on an equal stance. Culture, with its various layers in big civilizations, is one of the best areas for dialogue in advancing moderation and world peace as well as in keeping the culture alive. Thanks to their vast historical background and dynamic cultural capacities, the two great Iranian and Arab civilizations – considered as the two great pillars of Islamic civilization – can have joint efforts and actions in terms of removing intellectual-historical obstacles, overcoming cultural challenges (such as extremism, infiltration of wrong Western cultures, ethnic and religious discords, the increase in cultural disintegration), through interaction, cultural integration and making optimal use of the cultural stances and commonalities. These efforts, aimed at intellectual and cultural interaction and moderation in the Middle East and the world, can be achieved through a higher level of management of civilizational relations and dialogues as well as cultural cooperation. The entirety of these efforts can be termed as “Cultural Dialogue between Iranian and Arab Civilizations”. Translating an efficient cultural dialogue into action will be realized by moderate policies and overseeing based on moderation such as establishing multilateral cultural committees, planning a cultural roadmap with joint values and goals from among the Arab nations and Iran and publicizing it in the world. Making use of a descriptive-analytical method, this paper intends to provide an answer to the question of “Given the importance of cultural dialogue between Iranian and Arab civilizations, what techniques of interaction can boost civilizational interaction between Iranian and Arab civilizations?” From among the most important solutions for interaction we can refer to cultural cooperation, promoting the culture of self-confidence, and making optimal use of cultural facilities. This paper tries to take a step toward reorganization and maturity of a society by listing equal opportunities and using cultural solutions in the hope of promoting peace, moderation and friendship in the world.