The Trap of Identities

Hassan Aourid

"Since the collapse of the communist narrative, identity has replaced class, and culture has replaced economics. The world has witnessed an identity demand that fulfills the desire for recognition. However, this demand soon became distorted in various forms, often leading to the weakening of societal cohesion, threatening coexistence, and destabilizing the state.
What was intended as a solution became a problem.

How can identity demands be reconciled with the requirements of citizenship? How can particularity and universality be combined? And how can a fair distribution of symbols be achieved without disparaging any component of society?

Western societies are overflowing with intense identity discourses, between natives and immigrant newcomers, particularly Muslims. The identity problem becomes the visible aspect of complex issues, concealing more than it reveals.

This book is an attempt to understand the discourse of identity, its legitimacy and deviation, and the trap it leads to, in the West and the Arab world alike. It delves into issues of global dimension, such as Islamophobia, the return of ethnicity in the world, the archipelagic society, the great replacement, and post-colonial discourse. And before all this, the intimate enemy, and the necessary scapegoat. Hopefully, reading it will help in comprehending the burning questions that are spread across the world.

Hassan Aourid – a Moroccan writer and novelist who won the Pushkin Literary Prize in 2015 for his literary achievements, including: "Rawaa Makkah," "Ribat Al-Mutanabbi," "Rabi' Cordoba," "Al-Morisco," and "Biography of a Donkey." His intellectual books have also gained widespread popularity, including "A World Without Landmarks," "The Decline of the West," and "The Allure of Populism in the Arab World."