HOME

CASA ÁRABE AND ITS INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARAB AND MUSLIM WORLD STUDIES

The Arab and Muslim world has taken centre stage in international relations in the early 21st century and, according to a widely-held view, its future is vital to global stability. This is an extensive region which represents a very sizeable portion of humanity, on both quantitative and qualitative scales, and which is credited with important values in symbolic as well as geopolitical and economic terms.

Boasting not only the world’s principal energy sources, a decisive strategic situation across three continents and the holiest shrines for thousands of millions of inhabitants of our planet, the Arab and Muslim countries also offer world heritage in the shape of a rich and diverse historical legacy of a cultural, artistic nature.

A series of simple facts and its long experience down through history have caused the region to accumulate many problems affecting its joint development and to endure conflicts whose repercussions today reach beyond its own immediate context to the international community as a whole. This requires us to devote a special interest to this part of the world, not only in political and economic terms, but also with regard to social and cultural questions, in order to contribute to its stable development and the resolution of these conflicts.

Europe -and specifically Spain- is particularly concerned about this state of affairs, not only on account of the historic ties and the geographical proximity to the Arab and Muslim world, but also due to the urge to strengthen our mutual relations, to promote understanding of our respective societies and to consolidate confessional respect and cultural esteem between all the parties. Regrettably, not enough progress has been made in this field. Stereotypes, bigotry, fears and suspicions have all made inroads in the last few years, aided by such theories as the clash of civilisations, thereby fostering the appearance of breaches and misunderstandings.

It is undeniably up to Spain to perform a lead role in Europe in drawing up and applying a policy of balance and close cooperation with the Arab and Muslim world, capable of providing factors of stability and pacification and of making a decisive contribution to socio-political, cultural and religious rapprochement. In Arab and Islamic imagery, Spain is the most credible and friendly country in all of Europe, as much because we share the common heritage that is Al-Andalus, as because Spain refrained from participating in the colonial adventure of the great empires. For Spain, the Arab world is a priority axis of its international achievement. For all these reasons, Spain’s foreign policy, through various initiatives and proposals, as well as in the different bilateral and multilateral frameworks, plays a very active role in meeting those objectives of stability, pacification and mutual cultural understanding.

The diversity and magnitude of the Arab region is, even today, largely unknown in our country. In order to correct this undesirable situation, there has to be greater social awareness that our increasing relations with the Arab and Muslim world require specific actions and programmes to ensure a far deeper and more genuine social awareness of each country and of the region as a whole. This all requires Spanish society to acknowledge the crucial importance of the region and in order to achieve this goal we need to be able to rely on the participation not only of the public authorities, but also of the business community, the university and academic spheres, the media, the NGOs…

Casa Árabe and its International Institute of Arab and Muslim World Studies has two venues, in Madrid and Cordoba, and is a consortium established on July 6th, 2006 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, the autonomous Communities of Madrid and Andalusia and the City Councils of Madrid and Cordoba. It was created with the mission of becoming, from the political institutions and the business, cultural and intellectual media, an active instrument in helping to strengthen and consolidate multifaceted relations with the Arab and Muslim countries and to develop itself as a reference in the study and knowledge of the reality and the history of those countries. Casa Árabe is also keen to play a dual information role: informing of Arab and Muslim realities in European and western spheres and vice versa. All within the framework of cooperation and institutional interaction with the aim of bridging any gap in communication and the relationship between our respective societies. A space of mutual awareness and shared reflection, a meeting place.

Prof. Gema Martín Muñoz
General Director of Casa Árabe.
PhD in Sociology of the Arab and Islamic World