In the framework of a Seminar "Political and Religious in Public Space: An Approach in the Light of Postmodern Philosophies and Decolonial Currents"On February 18, 2026, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies organized a lecture entitled "The Civil State in Arab and Western Thought", delivered by the professor Hossam Eddine Darwish, Scientific Editor in the Department of Philosophy of the Arabic Encyclopedia (Arabica) of the Arab Center, and researcher and lecturer in the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Islamic World at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cologne, Germany, and moderated the session Mr. Qasim Al-GharbiResearcher at the Centre d 'études et de recherches économiques et sociales ( (CERES) Editor-in-Chief of the Center's electronic magazine.
The master started dervish His lecture, with an in-depth terminological and historical approach, revealed the semantic ambiguity that surrounds the term "civil state" in the Arab space, considering that this term is presented as a "palliative" alternative, or a linguistic strategy that allows to circumvent the severity of the term "secularism" and avoid the ideological clashes it carries. The lecturer then traced the philosophical roots of the concept, starting from the tradition of the social contract of Thomas Hobbes. (Thomas Hobbes), and John Locke (John Locke)Jean - Jacques Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)The "civil state" was presented as the antithesis of the primitive "state of nature", before it traced the shifts of this concept in contemporary Arab thought. He explained dervish In the local context, the term has acquired a specific functional character; it has come to describe a state that stands at odds with military rule on the one hand, and with the theocratic state on the other, which has made "civilization" synonymous with the restoration of popular sovereignty and citizenship, away from any absolute authority, whether its legitimacy derives from power or from the divine right.
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At a later stage of the discussion, the professor invoked dervish Postmodern tools and postcolonial deconstructive currents (Decolonial Theory), and put the concept of the civil state under the microscope of accountability from two basic perspectives: The first is the critique of Western centralism, where the modern state is read as a historical structure stemming from a special European process characterized by rationality and bureaucracy, which makes its development in the Arab context face the challenge of rejection on the pretext that it is a "colonial construction." The second perspective is to advocate for building cognitive alternatives through the “ecology” of the concept of civility and transforming it into an emancipatory project that stems from local needs. In this context, the professor stressed dervish However, criticizing modernity does not mean reverting to tradition, but rather building a model of citizenship that goes beyond the colonial legacy, and at the same time adheres to the universal values of justice.
The seminar concluded with a discussion that focused on the institutionalization of the civil state in Arab constitutions. The lecturer stressed that procedural solutions remain insufficient in the absence of a solid intellectual ground, considering that the repetition of questions about the civil state reflects in essence a gap between democratic aspirations and the existing political reality. He eventually concluded that the civil state represented the “necessary horizon” for coexistence, to be seen as an entitlement to justice, not as an imported ready-made template.