BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- The Arab Thought Foundation concluded an annual meeting in Beirut Monday with a call for swift reforms in individual countries of the Middle East.
But the Beirut Daily Start said delegates appeared divided on how to create a collective effort to revamp the increasingly weakened Arab League.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said any delay in introducing reforms would invite international pressures to impose changes that might not be suitable for the Arab culture.
Said Bouteflika: "In the last century, many of our Arab intellects warned of the importance of reform, but the forces of tradition and backwardness stood against it. Reform is no longer a domestic demand. It has become a condition that we should fulfill before it is imposed on us from outside.
He said the state of affairs in the Arab world is "unwell," and he attributed a perceived aversion to an Arab and Islamic "renaissance" to a "misinterpretation of religion and fear of anything new."
He added, "Our notion of life is one that does not lend itself to sustainable progress and does not respond well to challenges and overcome obstacles."
