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Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), held a series of meetings with ministers of culture and heads of delegations from several Member States taking part in the 12th Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, which was organized by ICESCO and hosted by the State of Qatar, represented in its Ministry of Culture, on 25-26 September 2023, under the theme “Towards the Renewal of Cultural Action in the Islamic World.”

During these meetings, Dr. AlMalik reaffirmed the Organization’s keenness to promote communication with the relevant authorities in its Member States, to take stock of their needs and priorities to devise suitable plans and programs, adding that ICESCO works to strengthen cooperation among its Member States in the cultural field.

On their part, the ministers of culture and heads of delegations lauded the progress, modernization, and openness that ICESCO has embraced, commending its programs and projects aimed at empowering youth and women, training them in leadership for peace and security, capacity-building in innovation, entrepreneurship and modern technology. They also noted with appreciation the cultural strategies that the Organization seeks to implement in collaboration with its Member States, and its efforts to promote the heritage of Islamic world countries.

The Meetings also discussed bilateral cooperation between ICESCO and the Member States and strengthening partnerships for cultural action renewal. During these meetings, Dr. AlMalik received the following officials: Ms. Haifa Najjar, Minister of Culture of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Mr. Moammar Al-Eryani, Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Yemen; Judge Mohammad Wissam Adnan El-Mortada, Minister of Culture of the Lebanese Republic; Mr. K. M. Khalid, Minister of Cultural Affairs of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; Mr. Atef Abu Saif, Minister of Culture of the State of Palestine; and Mr. Ahmed Abdel-Rahman Mohamed Hassan Siwar Al Dahab, Ambassador of Sudan to the State of Qatar and head of the Sudanese delegation to the Conference.

Additionally, Dr. Mohamed Zinelabidine, Head of the Sector of Culture and Communication at ICESCO, held a meeting with Mr. Hamat Bah, Minister of Tourism and Culture of the Republic of The Gambia, to discuss strengthening cooperation between ICESCO and The Gambia in various cultural fields.

During the closing session of the 12th Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, organized by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and hosted by the State of Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Culture, ICESCO honored Mr. Najib Rhiati, Cultural Advisor to ICESCO Director-General (DG), and Dr. Ahmed Said Bah, Advisor to the Director-General for Partnerships and International Cooperation and Supervisor of the General Secretariat of National Commissions and Conferences, in recognition and appreciation of their contributions during their tenure with the Organization.

Each honoree received the ICESCO Honorary Shield and a Certificate of Appreciation from Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO (DG), Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Thani, the Minister of Culture of the State of Qatar, President of the Conference, and Dr. Hayat Qatat Al-Qarmazi, the Minister of Cultural Affairs of the Republic of Tunisia, the Conference Rapporteur.

Dr. AlMalik underscored that the recognition is an expression of gratitude from the ICESCO General Directorate and all its staff for the outstanding contributions of Mr. Rhiati and Dr. Ahmed Said Bah over the past decades. He noted that their contributions will remain a landmark in the history of ICESCO and cultural action in the Islamic World.

Mr. Najib Rhiati was honored for his dedicated and exemplary efforts over four decades, during which he oversaw several sectors and departments at ICESCO and eventually served as the Cultural Advisor to the ICESCO Director-General.

Dr. Ahmed Said Bah was also honored for his tireless work within ICESCO, which began in the mid-1990s. During this time, he presided over and supervised numerous sectors and departments within the Organization, becoming a role model for enlightened leadership and dedicated work.

The Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and the Ministry of Culture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed the Executive Program for the Islamic World Cultural Index Project. This Project aims to contribute to developing the cultural action system, monitoring all cultural quantitative and statistical data, and rendering it analyzable, assessable, and updatable. The Project is also geared towards monitoring the progress achieved by the Member States’ in adopting the cultural index, with a view to building a knowledge database that supports strategic planning for cooperation and benefiting from experiences and expertise in this field.

The Executive Program was signed in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday 26 September 2023, concurrently with the 12th Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, organized by ICESCO and hosted by the State of Qatar represented in its Ministry of Culture.

Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General, signed the agreement on behalf of the Organization, while Mr. Rakan Ibrahim Al-Touq, Assistant Minister, signed on behalf of His Highness Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Culture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, President of the Saudi National Commission for Education, Culture, and Sciences.

The Islamic World Cultural Index Project, being part of the memorandum of understanding signed between ICESCO and the Saudi Ministry of Culture in Riyadh in September 2022, will strengthen expertise and knowledge exchange between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the other ICESCO Member States. It will also support the cultural system of these countries by building the capacities of professionals and specialists working in the field of culture, as well as researchers in the field of cultural strategic planning.

Moreover, the Program, to be implemented over an extendable period of three years, will support specialized studies in the field of cultural strategies, promote sustainable cultural development by elaborating mechanisms and training methods for cultural management, and invest in cultural diversity and pluralism.
Prior to the signing, Dr. AlMalik and Mr. Al-Touq held a meeting where they reaffirmed their respective institutions’ keenness to sustain their outstanding partnership, stressing the great significance of the Executive Program for Islamic World Cultural Index project, given the central role of data in creating cultural strategies.

Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General (DG) of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), met a host of culture ministers of the Organization’s Member States following their participation in the 12th Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, organized by ICESCO, and hosted by the State of Qatar, represented by its Ministry of Culture, on 25-26 September 2023, with the rallying call “Towards the Renewal of Cultural Action in the Islamic World.”

During these meetings, Dr. AlMalik underlined ICESCO’s support for its Member States in its areas of action, its keenness to achieve synergy towards renewing cultural action and its strategic vision of adopting culture as a beacon of sustainable development. He further stressed ICESCO’s valorization of the heritage of its Member States through its inscription on ICESCO’s Islamic World Heritage List and building the capacities of personnel working in the field.

ICESCO Director-General highlighted the outcomes of ICESCO’s key programmes and initiatives in the Ministers’ respective countries and ways of fostering cooperation between ICESCO and their countries.

ICESCO DG held separate meetings with Mr. Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Ahmed Fakkak Al-Badrani, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities of the Republic of Iraq, Dr. André Jacques Augand, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Gabon, Mr. Ahmed Ould Sid’Ahmed Die, Minister of Culture, Youth, Sports and Relations with the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mr. Jamal Shah, Minister for National Heritage and Culture of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and Dr. Farah Sheikh Abdulqadir, Minister of Education, Culture and Higher Education of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

The 12th Conference of the Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, organized, in Doha, by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), and hosted by the State of Qatar, represented by its Ministry of Culture, concluded its first day’s proceedings, which witnessed the composition of the Conference Bureau and the Islamic World Heritage Committee, the adoption of the Report of the 18th Meeting of the Consultative Council for Cultural Development in the Islamic World, as well as the documents presented by ICESCO General Directorate.

The Conference’s working sessions began with the formation of the Conference Bureau with Qatar as its President, Senegal as the Vice-president, and Tunisia as the Rapporteur.

The Conference adopted the Organization’s Achievements Report in the Cultural Field between the Two Sessions of the Conference, presented by Dr. Mohamed Zinelabidine, head of the Culture and Communication Sector at ICESCO, in which he highlighted the Organization’s efforts to contribute to the renewal of cultural action. He also noted the Organization’s proposal to add an eighteenth goal to the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and submit it to the United Nations General Assembly. Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, Minister of Culture of Qatar, announced Doha’s endorsement of this proposal.

Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General, mentioned that during his meeting with Ms. Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, in New York, he had presented this proposal, which she welcomed.

Dr. Walid Alseif, Chairman of the Islamic World Heritage Committee, also presented a report on the Committee’s prominent efforts during its previous session.

The Conference approved the new composition of the Islamic World Heritage Committee, the membership of which included the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Kingdom of Morocco, the Republic of Burkina Faso, the Republic of Gabon, the Republic of Benin, the Republic of Senegal, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as the State of Palestine, as a permanent member of the Committee, and the State of Qatar, as the conference president.

Mr. Najib Rhiati, Cultural Advisor to ICESCO Director-General, presented a document outlining the mechanisms for developing ICESCO’s Programme for Culture Capitals in the Islamic World. The Document included a new approach to selecting the culture capitals. The Conference adopted this document, which included the names of cities scheduled to be celebrated in the coming years, namely Shusha in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2024, Samarkand in the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2025, Al-Khalil in Palestine, Abidjan in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire for 2026, Siwa in the Arab Republic of Egypt for 2027, and Lusail in the State of Qatar for 2030.

Dr. Ghanem bin Mubarak Al-Ali, the Assistant Undersecretary for Cultural Affairs at the Qatari Ministry of Culture, reviewed the results of the meeting of the Consultative Council for Cultural Development in the Islamic World and a report on the activities performed in the celebration of Doha as the 2021 Culture Capital in the Islamic World, under the theme “A Story of Success and Excellence.”

Dr. Nami Salhi, Director of the Islamic World Heritage Center at ICESCO, outlined the broad framework of the valorization of Living Human Treasures and traditional knowledge in the Islamic World program.

Mr. Mohamed Hedi Shili, Director of the Legal Affairs Department at ICESCO, presented a draft strategic document to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property in the Islamic World. Both documents were adopted.

The head of the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia presented an initiative specific to Hajj’ Routes, in addition to a project on cultural indicators for the Islamic world countries. The Conference welcomed and approved both initiatives.

The second working session of the Conference will involve the delivery of addresses by the heads of participating countries’ delegations to exchange insights and ideas on the importance of renewing cultural action in the Islamic world and the means and mechanisms to achieve this goal.

The 12th Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World kicked off today, Monday, 25 September, 2023, in Doha. The Conference is organized by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and is hosted by the State of Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Culture, under the theme, “Towards the Renewal of Cultural Action in the Islamic World.” The Conference brought together a host of Culture Ministers, delegations of ICESCO Member States, and representatives of various regional and international organizations active in cultural fields.

The Conference’s opening session began with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, followed by the address of Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General, who emphasized that the Organization is fulfilling its cultural responsibilities, stating that culture is not merely an identity or a social label but rather the essence of nations’ contributions to the progression of civilization. Dr. AlMalik also highlighted ICESCO’s efforts and key initiatives aimed at developing and renewing cultural action in the Islamic World, through capitalizing on artificial intelligence applications, engaging the youth in heritage preservation and promotion endeavors, implementing various projects and programs, and creating new concepts to foster civilizational outreach.

Moreover, Dr. AlMalik expressed his gratitude to the State of Qatar, its Emir, Government, and people for hosting this major cultural event in Doha, a city recently celebrated as a Culture Capital in the Islamic World. He added that this city well-represented its proud history and highlighted all aspects of its prosperity and ingenuity, and successfully navigated the challenges of hosting the FIFA World Cup, seizing the largest opportunity to display culture in the history of the World Cup.

Subsequently, a documentary was screened showcasing the achievements scored during the celebration of Doha as the 2021 Culture Capital in the Islamic World, under the theme “Our Culture is Light.”

Speaking next was Ms. Irina Bokova, former UNESCO Director-General, and the Conference’s guest of honor, who stressed that Islam is a religion of peace, highlighting the role of the Islamic civilization as a catalyst for bringing cultures closer together. The former UN official also commended ICESCO’s efforts in heritage preservation and youth and women empowerment.

Afterward, the State of Qatar assumed the Conference presidency from the Republic of Tunisia, the President of the previous session. This was followed by a group photo of the participating Heads of Delegations.

By the end of the opening session, the ICESCO Director-General and the Culture Ministers went on a tour of the Conference exhibition, which features a pavilion dedicated to ICESCO’s key publications in its areas of competence.

The first working session began with the composition of the Conference’s Bureau, with the State of Qatar as Chair, the Republic of Senegal as Vice-Chair, and the Republic of Tunisia as Rapporteur.

In his address, Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, Minister of Culture of the State of Qatar and president of the Conference, welcomed the participants, and emphasized Qatar’s commitment to cultural development, stating that celebrating Doha the 2021 Culture Capital in the Islamic World was a testament to the depth of its cultural heritage and civilizational legacy.

Furthermore, he called for working towards preserving cultural identity and shielding the new generations against detrimental ideologies, noting that culture has often been threatened by external influences.

Over the course of two days, The Conference will continue its proceedings to adopt the reports and documents presented to the Culture Ministers and participating delegations.

Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), held a meeting with Dr. Chakib Benmoussa, Morocco’s Minister of National Education, Preschool, and Sports, President of the Moroccan National Commission for Education, Sciences, and Culture, to discuss ways for ICESCO to contribute to the Kingdom’s efforts to aid those impacted by Al-Haouz earthquake, and help Morocco mitigate the negative impact of the disaster on students and educational facilities.

At the beginning of the meeting, held on Thursday 21 September 2023, at the Ministry’s headquarters in Rabat, Dr. Malik reiterated ICESCO’s solidarity with the Kingdom of Morocco in the face of this natural disaster. He also commended the clear-sighted leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah assist Him, and the efforts of the Moroccan authorities to address the damage sustained by citizens in earthquake-affected areas. Likewise, the Director-General praised the remarkable spirit of solidarity demonstrated by the Moroccan people across all sectors of society, who all rushed to help their fellow citizens by all means possible.

In addition, Dr. AlMAlik expressed the Organization’s readiness to mobilize its resources to provide all forms of support to the Ministry to ensure seamless continuity of the educational process for students in the affected areas, including cooperation to rebuild and rehabilitate some schools damaged by the earthquake. He added that ICESCO can also provide psychological and moral support to students in the earthquake-affected regions and arrange visits for them to the International Exhibition and Museum of the Seerah and Islamic Civilization, currently hosted at ICESCO’s headquarters in Rabat.

On his part, Dr. Benmoussa expressed his appreciation for ICESCO’s efforts and solidarity initiatives with the Kingdom of Morocco during the catastrophe, reaffirming his keenness to strengthen cooperation with the Organization in areas of mutual interest.