Within the activities of Ain Shams University's celebration of the International Day of the Arabic Language: a symposium entitled "The Arabic Language and Identity between Literature and Reality"

Within the framework of the celebration activities of Ain Shams University in the Arabic language, under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Meteini, President of the University, Prof. Dr. Abdel Fattah Saoud, Vice President for Education and Student Affairs, Prof. Dr. Ayman Saleh, Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research, Prof. Dr. Ghada Farouk, Acting Vice President for Community Service and Environmental Development, a symposium entitled "The Arabic Language and Identity between Literature and Reality" was held.

During which Prof. Dr. Reem Bassiouni, Professor and Head of the Department of Linguistics at the American University in Cairo, who won many awards such as the State Award for Excellence and Literature and the Naguib Mahfouz Award for Literature from the Supreme Council for Culture, spoke about the novel Awlad al-Nas as the best Egyptian novel. Also Dr. Mark Malhauslor, President of the Center of Excellence for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies at the American University, spoke during the symposium and Prof. Dr. Osama El-Shazly, Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, at the Faculty of Medicine, moderated the symposium.

In the presence of Prof. Dr. Ayman Saleh, Vice President for Postgraduate Studies and Research, Prof. Dr. Ghada Farouk, Acting Vice President of the University for Community Service and Environmental Development, a number of deans and vice-presidents of faculties, and a group of officials, academics, thinkers, and media professionals.

Prof. Dr. Osama El-Shazly explained that the language is a group of signs and symbols that began with acquaintance and then developed after that to carry laws and has many symbols, signs and rules of grammar and morphology, then it developed further to express feeling and conscience, then it became part of the Arab culture and identity.

Prof. Dr. Reem Bassiouni expressed her happiness at her presence in this celebration, stressing that today's attendees have gathered to love the Arabic language, as it is a rich language that carries many characteristics that are not found in other languages. Since its history, it has achieved a great position as a strong language economically, politically and socially.

Dr. Reem said that there is no danger in the idea of the death or extinction of the Arabic language, because it is one of the five most important languages in the world, but the danger lies in the generations that resort to other foreign languages and are proud of their ignorance of their Arabic language, which may be reflected in the idea of ​​affiliation and the strengthening of identity, as language is an entry point to the individual's sense of belonging.

Dr. Reem touched on the idea of conflict between the classical and colloquial Arabic, noting that this was not a problem, but rather is one of the biggest advantages of the Arabic language as it is a complementary language in which there are many ways of writing and speaking, explaining that there is no competition between the colloquial and classical Arabic and that other languages are the competing languages of Arabic, especially English is now considered one of the languages that threaten our language.

As Dr. Mark expressed his love for the Arabic language, especially pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and ancient Arabic manuscripts, although he is German, explaining that since his knowledge of the Arabic language when he was residing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, he got acquainted with a new civilization and culture, as the Arabic language is not only a language, but it is a great civilization that contains literature, philosophy and history that no European student knew anything about, stressing that the Arabic language is a living and young language that is always renewed, capable of absorbing new words in different ages that express all positions.