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Message of Koïchiro Matsuura

UNESCO Director General

It is with great honour and joy that I address you today on the occasion of the international symposium “Civilizations and cultures: from dialogue to alliance”, organized by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization under the high patronage of His Excellency Mr. the President of the Tunisian Republic. I would like to congratulate the organizers, and in particular Dr. Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, Director-General of ISESCO, on this great initiative and to thank him for his kind invitation. The issues being addressed reaffirm the urgent necessity of situating the dialogue with the Islamic world in a global context.

As you know, dialogue between cultures and civilizations is particularly important to UNESCO, which, since its inception, has set up interdisciplinary programs of cultural cooperation in the fields of education, sciences, culture and communication. The proclamation made by the United Nations General Assembly of 2001, the year of dialogue between civilizations, was an important milestone in the pursuit of these programs. Moreover, during its 32nd session, UNESCO’s General Conference invited me to enhance activities in the field of dialogue between cultures and civilizations. In this connection, a series of symposia was organized, among which figures the one held in Sanaa, Yemen, in February 2004. In addition, UNESCO participated in the Rabat Conference on dialogue between cultures and civilizations held in June 2005, in cooperation with ISESCO.

I am very glad that this symposium is taking place in Tunisia, a land of dialogue which is largely oriented both towards Africa and the Mediterranean, and the East and the West. It is also a meeting point for cultures and civilizations to which testify Tunisia’s sites included in the World Heritage List: Kerkuane city, Thugga city, the archaeological site of Carthage, the amphitheatre of El Jem, the ancient city of Kairouan, and the Medinas of Sousse and Tunis.

In the course of history, civilizations and cultures have developed through contact with each others and through cultural, scientific or even economic exchanges. Thus, the Islamic world, which spread within few centuries from Spain to Indonesia and from the Caucasus to Sub-Saharan Africa, was put in contact with different cultural eras that contributed to its richness. However, it is clear that the ensuing dialogue and exchanges would not have been possible without a certain receptiveness and curiosity of the heart and mind.

Today, in the era of globalization, new challenges are facing dialogue between cultures and civilizations.

As a result of the advances made in transportation means and those made in new information technology, cultures are everywhere in constant and direct contact with each others and the notions of time and space have changed. Yet, while the progress made in the means of communication has facilitated dialogue to a certain degree, the promiscuity resulting from fast and permanent contacts may generate misunderstandings, tensions, and sometimes conflicts. The transition from a bipolar world to a multi-polar structure characterized by the assertion of the cultural identity, has brought in new challenges. To make up for what some consider to be a loss of identity and values, religion appears sometimes as a reassuring refuge.

UNESCO, as an international organization specialized in the fields of education, science, culture and communication and which celebrates this year its sixtieth anniversary, is well qualified to consider dialogue between cultures and civilizations as the cornerstone of a new era founded upon mutual trust and respect.

Contrary to a preconceived idea, cultures are not inherited; rather, they are to be discovered and learned. That is why education plays a major role in learning to live together through the lessons of languages, history, artistic forms and techniques, or even music to secure the conditions of a rich and diverse intercultural communication.

In UNESCO’s culture program, the promotion of tangible and intangible heritage is important, just like the program of Histories, among which figures “the different aspects of Islamic culture” whose publication has been possible thanks to the World Islamic Call Society. Within the context of regional strategies and beyond the fruitful cooperation with ALECSO, the Arabia Plan is intended to promote a better knowledge of the Arab world globally and to foster mutual understanding. Inter-religious dialogue, which is one of UNESCO major programs for this biennial period, represents an essential dimension of the intercultural dialogue: it is the instrumentalization of religion to serve political ends that UNESCO intends to fight via a better understanding of profound truths, moral precepts and aspiration to the good of each one of them. These exchanges, taking place in good faith and founded on respect for the other, will create a real intercultural dialogue. It is a matter of course that new information technologies should also contribute to enhancing dialogue among cultures.

But, to optimize our efforts, it is necessary to develop and strengthen our partnerships. It is precisely the goal of this symposium, which aspires to move from a whispered dialogue to an asserted dialogue through a networking of alliances. This is how the term “alliance”, which has for a long time been impregnated with a strategic meaning that confines it to the offensive and the defensive usage, will have a cultural meaning which is that of the future, a future where no one will be prisoner of one culture, but rather, beneficiary of all the cultures of the world.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Publications of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

-ISESCO- 1428H/2007 A.D