Adab or Allying with the Stranger as the Strategy to Win the Globalized Planet

Fatema Mernissi

Writer and sociologist

The Adab is an information and communication strategy used by the 9th century Abbasid caliphs to broaden dialogue and help create and sustain an international Muslim community. The Adab involves an ethical conduct and a discipline of self-learning with the objective of each human being bettering himself adding the intelligence of the stranger to his own. For this, travelling is absolutely essential and treating strangers as equals is the first step to communicating with them. Therefore, this strategy shows that movement creates prosperity as long as it is accompanied by learning. In the present context, this is the best way of creating worldwide security and eradicating terrorism, which is based on isolation and paralysis to sow fear.


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