Within the framework of the preliminary phase of the action programme of ICESCO and Hamdan bin Rashid Project “Mishkat” for Arabic language teaching skills for non-Arabic speakers, “Mishkat” Hall at ICESCO Headquarters hosted a workshop on “Basic principles of integrating language skills in teaching Arabic for non-Arabic speakers”.
The workshop, held on Thursday, May 26, 2022, saw the participation of four groups of educational staff working in the field of teaching Arabic remotely from Chad, Nigeria, Benin and Guinea, as well as a group of young researchers and teachers of Arabic for non-Arabic speakers from Morocco, and Senegal.
In his welcome address, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General (DG), commended the attention that the participants from various countries accord to the development of their skills and educational performance.
He also stressed ICESCO’s keenness to turn “Mishkat,” which was established this year in cooperation with the Hamdan Bin Rashid Foundation, into an international beacon of training and qualification in teaching Arabic for non-Arabic speakers and other fields of the Organization’s action considering its huge potential for organizing face-to-face training sessions and workshops for a large number of participants from different countries.
Dr. M’hamed Ismaili Alaoui, international expert, moderated this workshop, which benefited 112 educational staff, including male and female Arabic teachers from ICESCO’s Regional Educational Center in Chad, ICESCO’s Pole of Excellence in Nigeria, Ibn Batouta African Institute in Benin and the Arabic Language Department at the General Lansana Conté University, in Conakry, Guinea, as well as some Moroccan educational institutions.
The workshop aimed at enabling participants to improve their pedagogical skills in teaching Arabic and encourage them to develop their pedagogical performance, adopt modern educational methods in teaching the four language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing), and learn the strategies for their integration into the teaching process.
Dr. Abdelilah Benarafa, Deputy Director-General (DG) of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), noted that renewing Islamic sciences, particularly Ilm al-Maqasid (the objectives of Islamic law) and Ilm al-Kalam (Islamic theology), has become a pressing need to address contemporary issues, especially that we are witnessing the emergence of new schools of thought that did not exist in the era in which Islamic theology was founded.
This statement came in his intervention during the second International Scientific Conference on “Maturidism and Contemporary Reality,” held by the Imam Maturidi International Scientific Research Center in Tashkent, Capital of Uzbekistan, on Thursday, May 26, 2022.
Dr. Benarafa explained that the Muslim Ummah should be able to accommodate the challenges imposed by current scientific breakthroughs, such as artificial intelligence and scientific research, which altered the definition of al-Aql (mind) as an indispensable condition for Taklif (religious responsibility). “What is the stance of Islamic scholars on hacking, enhancing, influencing and remotely controlling the human mind? How have these scientific advances that generated a hybrid human-machine mind, affect the concept of religious responsibility?,” enquired the ICESCO official.
He pointed out that Uzbekistan is a major center of Islamic civilization, the main contributor to various Islamic sciences, and the birthplace of numerous distinguished scholars, notably Al Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, an eminent figure in the history of Islamic thought, and founder of a Sunni theological school that originated in Uzbekistan in the fourth century AH and spread to the rest of the Islamic world.
Dr. Benarafa then reviewed ICESCO’s efforts in spreading a culture of peace and harmonious coexistence, mainly through the two major conferences that the Organization held in the past two years on the “Role of Religious Leaderships in the Face of Crises” and the “Civilizational Values in Prophet’s Seerah,” following which April 21 was proclaimed as the International Day of Mercy.
The ICESCO official concluded his intervention by commending the distinguished relations between the Organization and the Republic of Uzbekistan, calling for enhanced cooperation with the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan and the Imam Maturidi Research Center in areas of common interest.
Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General (DG) of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), received Dr. Ibrahim Adam El-Dukhiri, the Director-General of the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), and together they explored prospects of cooperation between the two organizations in areas of common interest.
During the meeting, held on, Thursday, May 26, 2022, at ICESCO Headquarters in Rabat, Dr. AlMalik highlighted the main orientations of ICESCO’s vision and working strategy, which adopts promoting Arab countries’ investment in modern technology and its applications in all walks of life. He noted that the programs and projects that the Organization implements aim to contribute to advancing scientific research and innovation in a variety of fields including agriculture and management of water resources in the Member States.
For his part, Dr. El-Dukhiri highlighted the strategic goals of the AOAD, which aims to achieve Arab agricultural complementarity to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. He reaffirmed that ICESCO’s strategy and AOAD’s goals share mutual trends, which would contribute to building fruitful cooperation.
The meeting discussed several cooperation proposals between the two organizations. These include developing Member States’ faculties of agriculture to keep up with world advancements in the fields of agricultural research and management of water resources; promoting rural tourism; raising the awareness of the new generations of their ancestors’ agricultural culture and the related heritage; and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of agricultural development.
At the close of the meeting, the two parties agreed to hold a number of expert meetings to agree on the joint programs and projects to be implemented, and sign an MoU providing for the plans and the timeline of the implementation of these programs.
The Center of Arabic for Non-Arabic Speakers of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) holds a training Workshop in the Republic of the Maldives, on “Developing Methods of Teaching Arabic to Non-Arabic Speakers”, in cooperation with the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance, the Ilm Institute for Islamic Studies and the National Commission for ICESCO in the Maldives.
The opening ceremony of the four-day workshop, which started on May 26, 2022, at the Islamic Center in the capital Male, saw the participation of the guest of honor, Sheikh Mohamad Aneel, Minister of State for Islamic Affairs in the Maldives, Dr. Mohamad Shaheem Ali Saeed, Director-General of the Ilm Institute for Islamic Studies, Dr. Mohamad Qubad Abubakr, former Vice President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and several deans of faculties in Maldivian universities, educational leaders and professors working in the field of teaching Arabic language in the Maldives.
The Workshop aims to develop methods of teaching Arabic to non-Arabic speakers, exchange experiences and expertise in the field of teaching Arabic in Maldivian institutions and open new horizons for participants to invest in modern technologies to develop their educational performance and facilitate self-learning activities for learners outside the school environment.
More than 30 Arabic language teachers from various educational institutions in the Maldives will benefit from the workshop. The training workshop activities are supervised by Dr. Youssef Ismaili, expert at the ICESCO Center of Arabic for non-Arabic Speakers, accompanied by a local expert from Ilm Institute for Islamic Studies.
In conjunction with the activities of the workshop, Dr. Majdi Bin Haji Ibrahim, Head of the ICESCO Center of Arabic for non-Arabic Speakers, holds a series of meetings with officials in the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Arabic language educational institutions concerned to explore mechanisms for establishing a training pole in the Maldives as part of ICESCO’s program for Arabic language training poles and university chairs to non-Arabic speakers.
Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General (DG) of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), called for increasing investment in health and environment systems, promoting scientific research and innovation, capitalizing on the applications of information technology, and involving communities, especially the youth and women as key stakeholders in the response to health crises.
Dr. AlMalik made this statement in a pre-recorded remark he addressed at the opening of the First African Arab Forum on Innovation and Investment in Health and the Environment, held by Yenda Africa, in partnership with Qadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh, Kingdom of Morocco, Helite Group, and Ecologie Media Group. The Forum was held on Wednesday, 25 May 2022, at the headquarters of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ayyad University, under the theme, “Environmental and social stakes of health crises: Is health and environmental sovereignty in Africa and the Arab world possible?.” The Forum brought together the Ministers of Health of Mauritania and Benin, a host of senior officials, representatives of international organizations, professors and researchers in the fields of health and environment in Africa and the Arab world.
At the outset of his address, Dr. AlMalik commended the organizers’ choice to discuss the topic of environmental and social sovereignty in Africa and the Arab world in light of the environmental and social stakes of health crises, highlighting the importance of these discussions in promoting health, environment and development systems.
In addition, ICESCO DG stated that despite the challenges facing them, African and Arab countries have innovative experiences that are worthy of promotion and encouragement at the institutional and social levels. He added that the Program to Fight COVID-19 through promoting youth and women’s sense of initiative and innovation, which ICESCO implemented in partnership with Alwaleed Philanthropies, proved the importance of involving communities in dealing with health crises.
ICESCO DG concluded his address by calling for promoting international cooperation in fostering health and environmental systems through the exchange of expertise and best practices and the joint response to crises, stressing that environmental and health sovereignty in Africa and the Arab world is not a far-fetched goal.
The Forum’s opening session featured the remarks of several officials in the health sectors from the Kingdom of Morocco and several African countries.
ICESCO Regional Educational Center held a training session for teachers of Arabic for non-Arabic speakers in the city of Mando in southern Chad, with the participation of 30 male and female teachers from schools in the city and its suburbs.
The training session, which was held from May 17 to 21, 2022, aimed to build teachers’ educational and linguistic capacities by introducing them to the latest methods used in teaching Arabic to non-Arabic speakers, developing the four language skills in one language lesson, focusing on effective ways to teach Arabic sounds, teaching vocabulary and structures, and preparing language exercises.
The training session is part of the terms of the agreement signed between the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and ICESCO Educational Center in Chad, within the framework of the Arabic language teaching project in Chad for 2021.
Three of the best Chadian educators from the Higher Institute for Teacher Training in Chad oversaw the courses of the training session, namely Dr. Abdel Wahed Al Jaber Mohamed, Dr. Tirab Jibril Hassan and Dr. Mohamed El Kabeer Mekki.
Dr. Ali Mohamed Qamar, Director of ICESCO’s Regional Educational Center in Chad, supervised the organizational aspects of the training session and represented ICESCO.
The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) took part in a symposium under the theme “The United Nations Ocean Conference 2022: What Roles for Science and Innovation in Morocco and Africa?,” held by the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, in cooperation with the Portuguese Embassy in the Kingdom of Morocco.
The symposium, which took place on Monday, May 23, 2022, in Rabat at the Hassan II International Center for Environmental Training, the Foundation’s academic arm, was held in preparation for the UN Ocean Conference, to be held from June 27 to July 1, 2022, in Lisbon.
The high-level event saw the participation of ministers, government officials and ambassadors, along with a large group of people who are interested in environment and ocean issues from Morocco and Africa. The symposium’s programme included a discussion on the expected outcomes of the UN Ocean Conference regarding the protection of the marine environment, and the role of science and innovation in achieving sustainable development goals, particularly SDG 14 on oceans, in addition to a special session where experts discussed the technical aspects of the issue and its manifold dimensions.
Dr. Abdelmajid Tribak, Consultant in Joint Environmental Action at ICESCO, represented the Organization at the meeting.
The Headquarters of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) in Rabat hosted the 4th International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Systems for Sustainable Development, held under the patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah assist him.
The Conference is organized by the National School of Arts and Professions (ENSAM) at the Mohamed V University in Rabat, in partnership with ICESCO and its Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW), and Abdelmalek Essaadi University in Tetouan. The event saw high-caliber participation including ministers, ambassadors and a host of academicians and specialists in the fields of modern technology and digital systems.
The opening session kicked off today, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, followed by a general overview by Dr. Omar Halli, Advisor to the Director-General (DG) for the FUIW, where he noted that this conference is a major international event bringing together more than 350 participants from 20 countries.
In his address, Dr. Abdellatif Miraoui, Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation of the Kingdom of Morocco, stated that Morocco has chosen the digital model and adopted digitization as a pillar of sustainable development. He added that it is important to capitalize on the capacities and talents of young people and hone their digital skills to achieve development and prosperity.
In his address, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO DG, stressed the need to reconsider curricula in schools and higher education institutions, noting that universities have comprehensive visions that contribute to identifying today’s needs. He added that development has become heavily reliant on the applications of modern virtual technology and digital systems are now a prerequisite for keeping up with future changes.
“ICESCO seeks to promote artificial intelligence and conclude partnerships with the major global space institutions. It accords strong attention in its plans to issues about developing digital education in the Islamic world, encouraging innovation initiatives among young people, linking research scientific studies with contemporary needs, and supporting university institutions to adopt optimal curricula for further innovation,” added ICESCO DG.
In his address, Mr. Younes Sekkouri, Moroccan Minister of Economic Integration, Small Enterprises, Employment and Competencies, stressed the need to develop policies and programmes likely to strengthen intelligent systems, bridge the gap between researchers and develop the investment market.
For his part, Dr. Mohammed Rhachi, President of Mohammed V University in Rabat, highlighted the close relationship between economic development and social development. “Morocco strives to promote scientific and technological research in the private sector and universities,” added Dr. Rhachi.
Dr. Khalid El-Bikri, Director of the National Higher School of Arts and Professions in Rabat, reviewed the school’s efforts in training generations of engineers and researchers through its various programmes that attach special importance to modern technology. Dr. Mostafa Ezziyyani, Professor at Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Chairman of the Conference, pointed out the conference’s role in developing innovative ideas by finding academic solutions to various economic problems.
After the opening session, Dr. Ibrahim Adam Ahmed El-Dukheri, Director-General of the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development; Mr. Karim Amor, President of Moroccan Entrepreneurs worldwide at CGEM, which is dedicated to Moroccan entrepreneurs and High Potentials of the World; and Mr. Hicham El-Abbadi, Business Sales Manager Afrique Francophone at Epson, as well as the guests of honor stressed the importance and role of technology in achieving sustainable development and facing challenges.
Afterward, the Conference presented appreciation awards for international excellence in scientific research to ICESCO DG, the President of Mohammed V University and the President of Abdelmalek Essaadi. Awards were also granted to the winners at the innovation competition. Besides, the participating universities signed several agreements in the field of scientific research and innovation before the beginning of the working sessions of the conference.
Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General (DG) of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), reaffirmed that the Organization strives to promote investment in modern technology and artificial intelligence to safeguard and document heritage given the importance of tangible and intangible heritage in contributing to achieving sustainable development and highlighting the identities of nations and peoples.
This was part of Dr. AlMalik’s video address, delivered to the third international conference, held by the Faculty of Archeology at Fayoum University in the Arab Republic of Egypt, in cooperation with the University of Marburg in Germany, under the theme “Technology and Digitization for Safeguarding, Documenting and Conserving Antiquities.” The three-day conference kicked off on Monday, May 23, 2022, at Fayoum University headquarters, with the participation of many officials, professors and researchers in the field of heritage.
At the beginning of his address, Dr. AlMalik praised the city of Fayoum, where many civilizations coexisted side by side, and its rich heritage sites dating back to different eras, stressing that ICESCO has focused on heritage within its new vision through the establishment of the Center of Heritage in the Islamic World as an effective tool for implementing its strategy to protect, safeguard, conserve and benefit from heritage in achieving sustainable development goals in its Member States.
“ICESCO has established a unit within the Center of Heritage in the Islamic World to use artificial intelligence technologies and applications to uncover, document and protect heritage sites, and combat heritage-related crimes,” added ICESCO DG.
Besides, Dr. AlMalik underlined that the Organization has launched academic programmes for teaching heritage, particularly the international master’s degree program in preserving and digitizing archival heritage, in cooperation with Ain Shams University and Philips Marburg.
In conclusion, ICESCO DG noted that the Organization will hold an international conference on the use of artificial intelligence and digitization applications and technologies in heritage fields, in 2022, in cooperation with international and academic institutions operating in the field of heritage.
Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General (DG) of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), noted that the publication of the first volume of the Encyclopedia of Occidentalism, which is elaborated by the ICESCO Chair for Civilizational Dialogue at Qatar University’s College of Sharia and Islamic Studies (QU-CSIS), introduces a new vision that accommodates the human and intellectual developments that have taken place after years of adopting a narrow approach to assessment and evaluation, indicating that the central Western culture is facing intense internal strife.
This statement came in the address he delivered, via videoconference, during the ceremony organized by Qatar University on May 23, 2022, in celebration of the publication of the first volume of the encyclopedia, which is the first scientific work in the Islamic world that studies the West. The encyclopedia was elaborated with the support of ICESCO’s Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW), and the Qatar Committee for the Alliance of Civilizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The celebration saw the participation of high-level Qatari officials and prominent academics and scientific figures.
In his address, Dr. AlMalik expressed his delight at the encyclopedia that he denoted as authentic, bold, judicious and unique, being the first work in the Islamic world that analyses Occidentalism through a scientific prism and compiles its historical and cultural concepts into an encyclopedia.
He also expressed his pride in the fruitful cooperation between ICESCO and Qatar University, which testifies to the effectiveness of the division of labor despite geographic distances. He also commended ICESCO’s scientific and cultural chairs’ programme, noting that the Organization established forty scientific chairs over the past two years.
ICESCO DG conveyed his gratitude to Qatar University and its College of Sharia and Islamic Studies, and to ICESCO Chair for Civilizational Dialogue at the same University, as well as to all the researchers who brought this project to fruition.
In their interventions, the speakers emphasized the importance of promoting scientific research in the field of civilizational dialogue and exploring its intellectual, scientific, religious, social and historical aspects.
At the close of the celebration, Dr. Hassan Rashid Al-Derham, President of Qatar University, presented ICESCO DG with a special prize in recognition of his efforts toward developing and modernizing the Organization. Tribute was also paid to many of the researchers who contributed to the elaboration of the encyclopedia.
