Category: Culture and Communication

AlMalik: Investment in culture’s soft power a winning bet at all levels

Jirari: Islamic world open to influential sides in our modern world

Amid a high-level official, academic and media audience, the “ISESCO Cultural Forum” kicked off yesterday at ISESCO headquarters, with a lecture on the topic “Future Cultural Challenges in the Islamic World” by Dr. Abbès Jirari, Advisor to the King of Morocco, Member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco and other Arab scientific and linguistic academies.

Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ISESCO Director General, opened the forum with a welcoming address wherein he highlighted that the lecture’s topic touches on two issues: the future and culture as a soft power that can, through its impact and influence, be effective instead of being affected.

In this regard, he stated that elites in today’s world have the influence and impact which he described as being the constituent parts of culture, thought, sports and modern arts. “We should be able to invest this soft power in such a way as to serve high interests of the Islamic world, achieve sustainable development, happiness, and prosperity, and ensure security, serenity, stability, harmony, and peace”, Dr. AlMalik maintained.

He added that ISESCO aims, through its new vision that is open to this ever-changing new, to ensure the visibility of the Islamic world in terms of creativity, innovation, globalization and centralization and to the wide human worlds, pointing out that investment in culture’s soft power is a winning bet at all levels.

In addition, ISESCO Director General mentioned that among the persisting issues of the Islamic world there are the questions of identity and coexistence; dissemination of a culture of life, hope and creativity, the fight against the culture of hate, racism and exclusion; and interest in heritage and language issues. He also cited the assertion of the right of culture and access thereto by all citizens; the right of appropriation of modern technology to create new content; and the establishment of a corresponding digital culture that reflects our history, identity, civilization, and historic character, opens to achievements and gains of modern era, and anticipates the future with all determination, self-confidence, resolve and poise.

In the same vein, he said that the lecture of Dr. Abbès Jirari would touch on these issues and provide answers to our questions, given Dr. Jirari’s rich experience, profound knowledge, and long practice in university work, culture, and other disciplines of knowledge.

“The human mind is unique in its creation and the human soul is from one Divine breath. This compels us to share our unity of determination and values to ensure mutual understanding and preserve the dignity of humanity at large”, Dr. AlMalik concluded.

For his part, Dr. Jirari started his lecture by talking about the future cultural challenges in the Islamic world. He stated that the Islamic world boasts of a glorious past marked by excellence in science and arts, maintaining that the West draw on the Islamic civilization and culture to carry the torch of civilization in modern history and arguing that Muslims are required to keep up with today’s changes and carry again the torch of civilization.

“This is a complex equation whose solution lies in the conciliation of authenticity, the source of our pride, with modernity which we try to catch up with. We pride ourselves on our past and history-steeped heritage without bothering to analyze it and rid it of its stains. We need an accurate diagnosis of our heritage and past to separate the wheat from its chaff. We should handle Western modernity -the product of a different environment- from various angles instead of looking at it from the value perspective which constitutes only one side of the equation”, Dr. Jirari noted.

He continued: “We are a nation that values dialogue with the Other. Undoubtedly, education is key to the dissemination of this culture and awareness thereto. Another factor why Muslims value dialogue is the science on which the West founded its progress. Though the Islamic world abounds with universities, the nature of their impact on the society and contribution to solving social issues may be put into question”.

Despite the dominance of Western modernity, Dr. Jirari pointed out, the Islamic world opened up to other dimensions which have become influential today, adding that despite abundance with qualified competencies, the Islamic world does not benefit from such talents as they emigrate to contribute to the prosperity of the Other. He described this situation as a new challenge and asked about ways to get these wasted competencies back to their societies.

In conclusion, Dr. Jirari said that only through culture, consciousness and self-honesty that we can solve our dilemmas and achieve our objectives.

Shortly after the lecture had ended, Dr. Abdelilah Benarafa, Cultural Advisor to ISESCO Director General, the lecture’s moderator, opened the floor for discussion. The participants asked many questions relevant to the topic of the lecture which were all met with positive responses from the lecturer.

The forum was closed with a reception held by ISESCO Director General in honor of Dr. Abbès Jirari, amid the audience’s praises for the success of the Forum.

Dr. AlMalik extends invitation to hold the 2020 Joint Meeting of Arab Ministers of Tourism and Culture at ISESCO headquarters.

Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), presented ISESCO’s approach to complementarity between the sectors of tourism and culture, which he said reflects the Organization’s awareness of the positive impact of this complementarity on the economy, the social fabric, the fight against poverty, creation of job opportunities for young people, development of local communities’ economies, and promotion of sustainable development efforts, especially with regard to investing in cultural heritage and employing countries’ rich and diverse historic and cultural capacities.

“This approach is part of ISESCO’s new vision to addressing the issues falling within its areas of competence, namely education, science, and culture”, the Director General stated in an address he gave at the opening session of the Second Joint Meeting of Arab Ministers of Tourism and Culture, which kicked off today, in Tunis. He added that ISESCO’s new approach to safeguarding cultural heritage in Member States and rehabilitating its components to become a destination for cultural tourism through upgrading the work, tasks and roles of the Islamic World Heritage Committee (IWHC), particularly regarding inscribing more historic sites and elements of intangible, natural and industrial heritage. Dr. AlMalik also talked about other measures, which included setting up the Islamic World Heritage List and networking it with the Word Heritage List, and creating the Heritage Projects Support Fund for the Arab and Islamic world, and the Heritage Observatory to monitor the situation of cultural heritage and explore ways to invest therein to develop cultural and environmental tourism.

Moreover, the Director General stressed the need to follow through with the implementation of the new vision through ISESCO’s action plans and cultural tourism programmes for the benefit of Member States. “This can be achieved through building partnerships among Member States in the field of cultural tourism, adopting tourism as a vehicle of publicizing Arab-Islamic heritage and a backbone for safeguarding, investing in, developing and highlighting the developmental potentials of such heritage”, the Director General underscored.

In the same vein, Dr. AlMalik underlined that ISESCO’s new line of action did not neglect building the capacities of workers in the fields of culture and tourism, stating that efforts were geared towards promoting cooperation programmes on this matter with specialized regional and international organizations in order to build outstanding capacities and raise their awareness of the cultural facilities, historic sites, archeological landmarks, environmental pathways as sustainable destinations for cultural tourism.

At the close of his address, ISESCO Director General extended his invitation to hold the 2020 Joint Meeting of Arab Ministers of Tourism and Culture at ISESCO headquarters. He also called on the ministers taking part in the meeting to support ISESCO’s effort and establish cooperation and partnership channels with the Organization to help it achieve its set goals.