Category: Front Page

The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) participated in a workshop organized by the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), held in Ankara, Türkiye, on 14-15 October 2025, under the theme “Cyber Addiction: Best Practices to Protect Children from Violence via Internet in the OIC Member States.” The event brought together a group of international experts to discuss initiatives aimed at enhancing digital safety for children and youth across the Islamic world.

ICESCO was represented at the workshop by Mr. Mohamed Hedi Shili, Director of Legal Affairs and International Standards, who delivered an intervention during the fourth session. His presentation addressed strategies to combat internet addiction and protect children within national and international legal frameworks, highlighting the challenges facing the implementation of such policies.

Mr. Shili emphasized the complex and interlinked relationship between digital addiction and online violence, noting that each phenomenon fuels the other and exacerbates psychological and social impacts on children and adolescents, pointing out that legislative gaps in several Islamic countries reveal the need for a comprehensive approach that goes beyond criminalizing certain forms of online violence to addressing the psychological and social roots of the issue. He called for a comprehensive strategy involving the state, family, school, civil society, and the technology sector.

He concluded by stressing the importance of adopting the concept of “human-centered cybersecurity,” and announced ICESCO’s readiness, in coordination with the OIC General Secretariat, to propose a convention on cybersecurity and the protection of individuals in digital spaces. This convention would be based on five principles: prevention and education; shared responsibility; comprehensive protection of children’s rights; international cooperation; and ethical digital sovereignty aligned with spiritual values.

The workshop made several key recommendations, including the development of national frameworks to combat digital addiction, enhanced coordination among ministries of health, education, and social affairs, integration of online violence issues into curricula, training of guidance professionals, promotion of innovation in artificial intelligence, and strengthening of partnerships to ensure a safe digital environment for children.

The 2nd International Conference on Teaching Arabic Language and Literature (ICTALL 2025), held under the theme “Prospects for Teaching Arabic Language and Literature in Southeast Asia: Local Experiences and Inspiring Models,” concluded on Wednesday, 15 October 2025. The event was held under the honorary patronage of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and organized by Sultan Azlan Shah University (USAS) in Kuala Kangsar, Malaysia, in cooperation with ICESCO’s Center for Arabic Language for Non-Arabic Speakers and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY).

In ICESCO’s opening address, Dr. Majdi Bin Haji Ibrahim, Head of the Center of Arabic Language for Non-Arabic Speakers, reviewed the Organization’s key orientations in the field of Arabic language teaching for Non-Arabic Speakers. He emphasized ICESCO’s commitment to promoting Arabic globally through diverse content that fosters dialogue and mutual understanding among peoples, responds to learners’ goals, and continuously develops teaching curricula. He also highlighted the importance of diversifying resources, tools, and services through a forward-looking approach that considers the future role of modern technology in language education.

During the conference’s first session, Dr. Majdi Bin Haji Ibrahim presented a research paper titled “Language Immersion in Teaching Arabic to Non-Arabic Speakers: Insights and Experiences,” in which he reviewed ICESCO’s experience in organizing several language immersion programs in Southeast Asia. These programs, launched mid-year, targeted three countries in their initial phase: Indonesia, Cambodia, and Malaysia.

The opening session also featured addresses by Dr. Wan Sabri bin Wan Yusof, Vice-Chancellor of Sultan Azlan Shah University; Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Qarni, Advisor for Educational Affairs at the World Assembly of Muslim Youth; and His Eminence Dato’ Seri Haji Wan Zahidi bin Wan Teh, Mufti of Perak Darul Ridzuan State.

On the sidelines of the conference, a roundtable meeting was held with representatives of participating organizations, institutions, and universities to discuss joint strategies among Arabic language curriculum developers and digital platform providers. Additionally, ICESCO’s representative held a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor of Sultan Azlan Shah University, who also serves as Secretary of the Association of Islamic Universities in Asia. They discussed prospects for cooperation through student and training exchange programs and the organization of academic forums. The Vice-Chancellor expressed his interest in ICESCO joining the Association, which currently includes 85 Islamic universities across Asia.

The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) held a seminar titled “Narratives and the Question of Identity” on Wednesday, 15 October 2025, at its headquarters in Rabat, in celebration of World Novel Week. The seminar aimed to deepen the discussion around questions of identity in Arab narrative, explore its connections to current cultural transformations, and deconstruct the dialectic of place and memory. These themes were discussed by a distinguished group of writers, poets, thinkers, and academics participating in the event.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General, emphasized that the Organization’s mission is to rewrite the civilizational narrative of the Islamic world with a contemporary spirit that highlights creativity and restores the value of the human being in light of their history and contributions. He added that the Islamic world is currently writing a new chapter in its cultural history, balancing authenticity and openness, and shaping a civilizational narrative based on diversity and mutual respect.

Dr. AlMalik pointed out that identity is not a wall of isolation but a window to the world through which we look with confidence and pride. He noted international data showing that over 50% of the world’s languages are endangered and that 80% of global cultural production is translated from Western languages, while Arabic, Asian, and African languages combined account for only 10% of translation activity. He considered these figures indicative of an imbalance in the fairness and cultural diversity of the human narrative.

In her intervention, Ms. Rawda El-Haj, Director of the Center for Poetry and Literature at ICESCO, stressed the role of narrative in enhancing awareness of identity and expanding its aesthetic horizons. Meanwhile, Iraqi thinker and academic Dr. Abdullah Ibrahim highlighted that identity is shaped within a narrative framework that gives it meaning and purpose, noting that autobiographical writing in modern Arabic novels has accumulated a creative fusion between fiction and autobiography, producing hybrid forms such as the “autobiographical novel” and the “novelized autobiography”.

Dr. Mhamed Dahi, Moroccan critic and researcher in self-semiotics, addressed issues of dynamic identity and autobiographies in world literature, referencing the experience of French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio as a model for reclaiming origins and lineage through narrative travel across time and space. Egyptian literary critic Dr. Mahmoud Eldabh explained that the third millennium witnessed radical transformations that shook the certainty and rigidity of identity, and that the concept of identity now extends beyond the individual and the group to include the “identity of place and time.”

The seminar concluded with the honoring of winners of the first edition of the “Cities of Poems” competition, overseen by ICESCO’s Center for Poetry and Literature. Nine poets from various countries were recognized for their poems celebrating the cultural capitals of the Islamic world for the year 2024: Benghazi, Marrakech, and Azerbaijan’s Shusha. The ceremony also acknowledged the outstanding creativity of other participants in the competition.

This seminar came as part of ICESCO’s ongoing commitment to advancing its programs and initiatives aimed at promoting linguistic and cultural diversity and supporting narrative and poetic creativity as a key pillar in building a contemporary and open civilizational narrative.