International official opening ceremony Speech of His Excellency mister Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of the Republic in the official opening of "Tlemcen, capital of Islamic culture, 2011"

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Algeria is proud that you have chosen the city of Tlemcen as capital of Islamic culture for 2011. This city, very rich in history, conceals a multitude of artistic and cultural treasures, it gave birth to many thinkers, pious men, philosophers, poets and musicians.
I thank, for this choice, all the Islamic countries as well as the ISESCO and at its head Dr Abdelaziz Touidjri, who thus honoured the Algerian people and one of its historical cities.
You will be able to appreciate, throughout this year, the place that culture holds in the heart of the Algerian people and the deference which it manifests to the men and to the women of culture in every field of their creativity.
Across the cultural weeks which will be organised in Tlemcen and in other cities of the country, Algerians will be able to enjoy and appreciate the cultures of other Muslim countries in their huge treasures and big diversity. From Africa, Asia, Europe and America, they will give, in Algeria, the best picture of the Islamic culture which your people, since the advent of the Koranic message, by including previous cultures, could construct, work out, create in a constantly renewed humanism, showing thereabouts that culture is what integrates and what get integrated.
The putting into symbiosis of all geniuses, all talents, of all cultural, artistic and scientific creation of the Muslim people will allow us to participate considerably in the deepening of the cultural diversity of humanity.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The country and the city that welcome you today are proud of their ancestors and their contribution in the development of the Islamic knowledge and culture. Very early, many Algerian cities knew a radiance amplified by the arrival of Islam. So, Constantine, Béjaïa, Algiers, qalaât Beni Hammad, Ghardaïa, Adrar as well as Tlemcen, to name but those which constituted favourable places for the development of sciences, knowledge and education, at the same time as the maintenance of relations between them, the deployment of national and international trade, are going to allow productive exchanges.
Tlemcen could develop and maintain many crafts whose refinement proves the big workmanship of these artisans. This refinement is found in the musical practice, gone from the Maghreb and returned from El Andalous, where talents of this society of the highest cultural level and much pleasant company are revealed. These very ancient inheritances are still practiced in all the Maghreb and even beyond, they continue feeding the contemporary national musical creation, thus constituting the nicest example of the source of heritage feeding living creation.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The cultural, artistic and scientific programs which were worked out with your competition aim at showing to the world that Islamic culture knew, throughout centuries and everywhere where it fanned out, to include other cultures into their most advanced aspects. These programs also aim at highlighting the modernity of Islamic culture and at reminding of its decisive participation in all big inventions and innovations which punctuated the forward motion of humanity.
Our cultural heritages will make the object of exhibitions heading with past monuments, our famous figures as well as literary or scientific productions which are shared by the whole world today. Muslim humanism is recovering the place which unfortunately ceased being his, put in trouble by the different colonialism which set on it the fate that we know and which is made of despoliations, alienation, of depersonalisation and acculturation.
These heritages make our people, the heirs and the keepers of a part of the memory of the world. They say the progression of ours, our victories and defeats. All these monuments, cities, this legacy and inheritances identify us, characterise us and they make of us what we are, that is to say of people who deeply plunge their roots into the history of human cultures.
International scientific symposiums of high level which will be organised on the occasion of this year will allow to the scientific community of foreign Islamic countries to take stock of the situation of knowledge on many subjects concerning culture, History and advances of our people.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We believe in the unity of the humanity, because if its cultures are numerous, diverse various and as much respectable to one another, nonetheless there is a worldwide civilisation which includes all these cultures. We are supporters of dialogue, exchange, sharing between cultures because it is in it that the message addressed to the whole humanity by the Holy Koran invites us: "We made of you people and tribes so that you know eachother".
This year of Islamic culture will allow better knowledge of Islam by the Westerners at the same time as a bigger understanding between the people. Our duty is to work in solidarity, not for the institution of confrontation and rupture but in the building of consensus, dialogues, and exchanges founding the big reconciliation of human cultures.
The adaptation of our culture to globalisation constitutes a challenge which is up to us to take up. This modernisation, more necessary now than ever, must be done in accordance with our personality and values.
On the occasion of this year, we will say to the world that we intend to disavow nothing of our faith, conviction and customs, but without delaying ourselves on the edge of the way looking at the passage of time. Modernity is also us, our rhythms, songs, tales, books, films, theatre, creativity and talent.
Our golden ages, we want to conjugate them in present because human civilisation cannot go without our affluence of spirituality, culture, history and imagination. Our golden ages do not any more content themselves with being recalled, they want to succeed one another, to continue, to make their ways in the gift, to continue their roads as supports necessary to the rise of the sap of generations. We want to give light with light of past, because we know perfectly that it is not enough to be the contemporary of the world to be modern.
Just as I would like to remind that our creations testify by their quality, their expanse and their refinement at the same time of the sensitivity of our creators and the freedom which is left to them to express it in their productions.
The role of each of our States is to impulse, manage, encourage, give means, create environments, draw and implement cultural policies.
This is what the Algerian State applies itself to make by opening big doors to talents, expressing recognition to the creators, accomplishing productive relations and supplying the necessary means for creation, thought, art, innovation, to the emergence of the genius of our people and the development of its talent.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Muslim world faces today many obstacles which can upset its realisation as stable cultural sphere likely to count in the alliance of nations. This situation calls in our part a more active solidarity and a densification of our networks of cooperation. This event of "Tlemcen, capital of Islamic culture" constitutes an important act that can allow us to measure the richness of our culture, its capacities of innovation as well as its force of proposals.
It is necessary for us to search, study, write, emphasise our heritages, because it is, more than a noble and thrilling task, but a duty; not only in relation to our ancestors who took theirs, but especially in relation to our children. Because if this past, history, heritages must be used, it is well as support and ramp of launching towards future for our youth. I am persuaded that no sustainable development can be conceivable without having human being as target and medium.
We want this exhibition, "Tlemcen, capital of Islamic culture", to be at the level which suits our culture and civilisation. It is in this spirit and with the biggest optimism that I declare it opened.
Thank you.