The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) launched its initiative “Read it… to Understand It”, on Tuesday (9 July 2024), as a positive response to the desperate attempts disrespecting the Holy Quran, and bring to light western stances that provide positive views of the Holy Quran, so that non-believers can discover the mercy and guidance of the Holy Quran.

At the close of the International Seminar “The Quran and the West: Towards a Rational Approach”, held at ICESCO’s headquarters, in Rabat, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director General, announced this initiative, stressing that it is the outcome of a rich consideration of how the Holy Qur’an is dealt with all over the world, by believers, following its teachings and protecting its sanctity, to respectful non-believers, to the rest who build their whole character around their hatred towards the Quran, manifested in behavior that can only described as uncivilized, an ungrounded hatred as they did not even bother to read it and ponder upon its meanings.

Dr. AlMalik indicated that the initiative contents are drawn from proposals received from a number of ICESCO Member States’ National Commissions, and inspired by the constructive scientific discussions put forth during the Seminar, reviewing the mainlines of the initiative, which hinges upon establishing partnerships with Western think tanks and scientific research centers to highlight the richness of the Quran and expose the flimsy grounds of wrongful claims about its teachings, urging governments in the Islamic world to capitalize on cultural diplomacy to accord special attention to addressing Quran-related matters within the spheres of their bilateral and multilateral relations. In this regard, the Organization will provide the Member States with an annual report highlighting trends in dealing with the Holy Quran.

The initiative also encourages Muslim communities in the West, through their religious institutions, to respect national legislations, indicating that ICESCO supports the design of a vision to prioritize according better attention to the Holy Quran in Muslim communities and fostering its presentation in a tolerant, convincing and easy way, exchanging visits between intellectuals in both the West and the Islamic world, especially from among young people, and stressing ICESCO’s willingness to support the translation of the Holy Quran, coordinate between Quranic translation institutions and hold the Conference, Quran and the West, at a periodical basis.

The initiative includes organizing travelling exhibitions equipped with the latest display technologies in major capitals, in addition to advertising campaigns in public squares and transportation means to express the humanitarian and cultural aspects of the Holy Quran, cooperating with relevant parties to provide introductory brochures in several languages, and announcing ICESCO annual Prize for the best applications and proposals presented in the context of urging the (Other) to read and understand the Holy Quran.

The initiative appreciated the positions of European countries regarding the extremist desecration of the sanctity of the Holy Quran, and affirmed ICESCO’s willingness to strengthen its ties with various Western legislative institutions to counter fanaticism and racism.