Category: Culture and Communication

Initiative to create accessible routes in museums and provide exhibit labels in Braille

The Director-General (DG) of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, announced that the Organization allocated one million dollars to restore the collections of 30 museums affected by crises in the Islamic world.

Dr. AlMalik called on countries, government institutions, and authorities in charge of heritage to continue discharging their roles during and after the COVID-19 crisis. The stakeholders must take all the necessary measures to reopen museums and raise peoples’ awareness of the importance of their preservation, he added.

The statement came in at his address during the opening session of the international webinar “Using Technology in Managing Risks and Crises Facing Museums in the Muslim World.” ICESCO held the event on September 30, in cooperation with the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

The event saw the participation of several museum managers in the Islamic world. The opening session featured Princess Dana Firas, President of the Jordanian National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS Jordan), Dr. Mohamed Ould Amar, Director General of Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), and Mr. Ech cherki Dahmali, Vice-President of the Arab Museums Organization (ICOM-Arab).

Dr. AlMalik proclaimed the creation of the Network of Islamic Art Museums. The Organization also adopted an initiative to aid people with specific needs to tour museums through the creation of accessibilities, and preparation of exhibit labels in Braille, he continued.

The DG also reiterated ICESCO’s willingness to cooperate and partner with all organizations interested in museums, namely ICOM.

Dr. AlMalik underscored that the vulnerable infrastructures of museums in the Islamic world remain an impediment to publicizing their treasures. At the time the webinar was taking place, about 94% of museums in the world were closed since last March and several Islamic world’s museums faced the threat of complete closure.

ICESCO’s DG underlined the importance of taking advantage of technological advances and AI applications to promote the cultural sector. Modern technology can improve the situation of museums, manage the risks within cultural institutions, and allow the large public access to the cultural property the Islamic world’s museums host, either through websites or virtual visits on social networks.

Dr. AlMalik noted that ICESCO is keeping pace with the changes unfolding in the world through proactive foresight as the world witnesses a technological revolution and imminent authority of AI in digital cultural transformation. He added that vulnerable countries need to be guided during the transformation to avoid the cultural divide, an inevitable corollary fallout of the widening digital disparity.

To promote cooperation between the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, coinciding with the celebration of the Islamic World Heritage Day, on 25 September, ICESCO Digital Home hosts the treasures of the “Egyptian Virtual Museum.” The platform provides 3-D access (through virtual reality technology) to the major Egyptian museums and heritage sites from various historical periods.

Visitors of ICESCO Digital Home can have access to the Egyptian Museum, Museum of Islamic Art, and Gayer-Anderson Museum in Historic Cairo. They can also visit the Red Monastery in Souhag, which is inscribed on ICESCO’s Islamic World Heritage List, Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, Ramesses VI Tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Mosque of Muhammad Ali, and Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. These sites are available via the link below:

https://www.icesco.org/?p=24330

The Organization launched the ICESCO Digital Home initiative at the beginning of the lockdown period. The platform is an outstanding knowledge resource contributing to the efforts to counter the negative repercussions of the pandemic on education, science, and culture.

 The section, devoted to distance culture, includes many international arts exhibitions and millions of books and knowledge sources from Alexandria Library, Sharjah Library, and King Fahd National Library. The Digital Platform of Mohammadia League of Scholars in Morocco is also part of the online content.

As a specialized organization concerned with heritage, culture, and education, the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) expresses its concern over the latest developments of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia on Nagorno-Karabakh and the acts of destruction targeting archaeological and heritage sites and historical landmarks with significant civilizational value, including several mosques and historical sacred places. Accordingly, ICESCO calls the conflicting parties to exercise the utmost restraint and opt for serene dialogue and the resolutions of international legitimacy endorsed by many countries and international organizations including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Recalling the Security Council resolutions 822, 853, 874, and 884 issued in 1993 relevant to the Armenian violations, ICESCO calls on the parties to abide by the principles of international law; respect the historical and cultural rights of their legitimate owners; allow access of international humanitarian relief to the region without any impediments, and endeavor to consolidate peace, good neighborliness, and constructive cooperation between the countries of the region.

The Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) will hold tomorrow, September 30, an international webinar titled “Using Modern Technology in Managing Risks and Crises facing Museums in the Muslim world.”
The Organization will hold the webinar concurrently with the celebration of the Museum Week and Islamic World Heritage Day, in cooperation with the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The event will bring together officials of Islamic world’s museums.
The webinar will start at 11:00 GMT (12:00 Rabat Time). It aims to share successful experiences and anticipate plans and strategies to ensure the right to access museums and valorize the exhibited works. The issue is particularly pertinent amid the pandemic-related circumstances.
The webinar targets the staff of the museum institutions and sectors, experts, and specialists of heritage protection as well as civil society institutions and bodies operating in the field of heritage protection and valorization.
The opening session will feature the addresses of Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General (DG); Her Highness Princess Dana Firas, President of ICOMOS Jordan; Dr. Mohamed Ouled Amer, DG of the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (ALECSO); and Mr. Ech Cherki Dahmali, DG of Maroc Telecom Museum.
Dr. Mohamed Zin El-Abidine, Director of Culture and Communication Sector at ICESCO, will co-chair the first session with Dr. Abdelilah Ben Arafa, Advisor to the DG. The session will focus on the use of modern technology in crisis management at museums.
The list of the speakers will include Maj. Gen. Atef Moftah, General Supervisor of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM); Dr. Badr al-Darwish, Assistant Secretary General of Kuwait’s National Council for the Arts and Culture (Kuwait); and Dr. Fatma Nait Aghil, Director of Bardo National Museum (Tunisia).
Other speakers will be Dr. Hamady Bocoum, Director of the Museum of Black Civlizations, Dakar (Senegal); Dr. Saad Abdelhadi, Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Mahmoud Dawish Museum (Palestine); and Dr. Ahlam bint Yaaqub Al-Aghbariya, Director of Information Technology Department at the National Museum of Oman, Muscat (Oman).
Ambassador Khalid Fathalrahman, Director of Dialogue and Cultural Diversity at ICESCO, will chair the second session. The goal is to explore the alternative solutions to managing museums and exhibitions in light of the COVID-19 health protocol.
The list of speakers will include Dr. Faisal bin Mohamed Al-Sharif, Former Supervisor of Mecca Museum (Saudi Arabia); and Dr. Sabah Abdel Razak, DG of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, Egypt.
Other speakers will be Dr. Rasmata Sawadogo, Director of the National Museum in Ouagadougou, Coordinator of ICESCO Regional Center for Training Museum Professionals (Burkina Faso); Dr. Huges Tchana Heumen, Director of the National Museum (Cameroon); and Dr. Abbes Mendil, Director of Governorates Museums (Iraq).
Dr. AlMalik will give the closing address of the Webinar.

The live is available on ICESCO’s Facebook page via the link: https://www.facebook.com/icesco.en

The Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) is delighted to celebrate the Islamic World Heritage Day and expresses its wishes for this day to be an occasion to consolidate the importance of human heritage in nations’ memories.
The celebration of this day is the culmination of ICESCO’s ardent interest in heritage. The Organization was the one to propose celebrating the Islamic World Heritage Day, which was approved by the 11th Islamic Conference of Culture Ministers, held in Tunis on 17 December 2020.
This day has become an annual opportunity to show the world at large the richness and diversity of the cultural heritage of the Islamic world countries. It is also an opportunity to highlight the remarkable efforts exerted to maintain and preserve this heritage.
The exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic forced more than half the world’s population to stay at home and led to the closure of most heritage sites, historic landmarks, and museums for more than six months.
Against this backdrop, ICESCO reiterates its great interest in safeguarding the human cultural heritage, raising awareness of its importance, and sounding the alarm to the risks of its destruction during crises. ICESCO translated this interest into support and assistance to its Member States, and outstanding efforts to publicize, restore, and rehabilitate the Islamic world heritage.
These efforts include launching several initiatives and issuing declarations that aim to safeguard the Islamic world heritage. Chief among these are the initiative to proclaim the year 2019 as the “Islamic World Heritage Year” and “The Islamic Declaration on Safeguarding Human Heritage in the Islamic World”.
Both the initiative and the declaration underlined the importance of integrating the governmental sectors, international and regional organizations, and civil society bodies as a joint front to pool efforts to safeguard the cultural heritage of the Islamic World.
By the end of 2019, ICESCO launched a new strategy that features a more comprehensive and realistic approach to safeguarding heritage in the Islamic world. Concrete outcomes of this new approach consist of the Islamic World Heritage Center’s variety of programs and virtual activities in the field of heritage preservation.
The Center organized several virtual training sessions for professionals working in different heritage fields such as underwater cultural heritage, intangible heritage, and museums. The Center also organized webinars that brought together experts and heritage directors from Member and non-Member States, and representatives of international organizations active in the field of heritage. These activities discussed heritage-related issues and the losses this field endured in light of the current health emergency.
The organization of the International Virtual Conference on Countering Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property” culminated ICESCO’s heritage efforts.
In light of the current serious and extraordinary circumstances, ICESCO calls on world countries, international and regional organizations, government institutions, and competent parties in charge of heritage to exert more efforts to promote tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
The Organization also urges them to sustain their roles, even after the current crisis, to publicize and maintain this heritage. Stakeholders must employ virtual exhibition mechanisms and AI applications to safeguard heritage and highlight its richness and diversity. They must also take the necessary precautions to reopen heritage sites and raise peoples’ awareness of their significance.
Our heritage is our identity. Let us join efforts to safeguard it.

#OurHeritageOurFuture

His Excellency President Idriss Deby Itno of the Republic of Chad will take part at the high-level Virtual International Forum, to be held tomorrow by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), in cooperation with the Muslim World League (MWL) and the International Muslim Communities Council, under the theme “Role of Religious Leaderships in the Face of Crises,” with the participation of a large number of religious bodies and institutions, and renowned intellectuals.

H.E. President Idriss Deby Itno will give an address at the opening session of the Forum, which will kick off at 08:00 GMT (09:00 Rabat local time), under the theme “Towards Global Moral Solidarity of Religious Leaderships.” The agenda also features three working sessions: the first one tackles the best initiatives and practices o religious institutions throughout the COVID-19 crisis; the second session covers regenerative and future features of religious thought and working mechanisms to capitalize on crisis gains and address their adverse repercussions; while the third session explores prospects of joint action between the different religious leaderships and institutions across the world. The closing session and the Forum’s declaration set the guidelines of global ethical solidarity in the face of crises. The declaration would contribute to the development of the aspects of a new human developmental model that depicts the functional roles of religious and university leaderships and institutions.

Among the international, religious, and intellectual institutions and bodies taking part in the Forum are Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, Higher Council of Ulemas in the Kingdom of Morocco, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, the Vatican, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the Interreligious Dialogue Department in the American Jewish Committee (AJC), King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Dar al-Ifta of Azerbaijan and Caucasus, Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, University of al-Qarawiyyin, Globethics, Muslim Elders Council, Lebanese University and the National University of Singapore.

You can follow the live streaming of the Forum on our Facebook page via the link below:
https://www.facebook.com/ICESCO.Ar/live

Under the patronage of H.E. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in the Arab Republic of Egypt, will hold, on 28 July 2020, an international virtual conference on the fight against illegal trafficking of cultural property. The Conference will bring together ministers in charge of heritage from all over the world, along with international experts in the fight against the theft and illegal trafficking of artifacts.

The Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled al-Anany, will represent President El-Sisi in the Conference and read out an address on his behalf at the opening session.

On this occasion, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General, stated that the Organization is pleased with the Egyptian President’s patronage of the Conference, while noting that Egypt is one of the most affected countries on artifact theft throughout ages and that it has deployed considerable efforts to restitute its stolen artifacts. He also stated that many countries in the Islamic world suffer from attempts of the destruction or theft of their antiquities.

In addition, Dr. AlMalik underlined that the Conference comes at a juncture marked by the upsurge in illegal trafficking of cultural property as this crime has soared in the past several years. In this vein, he explained that this criminal act does not only constitute an assault on the cultural aspect alone but also destroys peoples heritage, strips them of their treasures, weakens their capacities and sets back their sustainable development efforts and that relevant international instruments are inadequate to stop or eliminate this crime.

The Conference will explore the following topics:

1. Current situation in Illegal Trafficking of Cultural Property in the Islamic World providing statistics on the theft, trafficking and transport of artifacts, the experiences of some of ICESCO Member States in the fight against this crime and the new trafficking modus.
2. Challenges to anti-trafficking in cultural property, namely the emergence of new markets and techniques such as e-commerce on social media and the complexity and insufficiency of international agreements and local legislations to address this phenomenon.
3. Role of ICESCO in building the capacities of Member States in anti-trafficking of cultural property.

The Conference will issue ICESCO Declaration on the Protection and the Fight against the Theft and Illegal Trafficking of Cultural Property.