** AlMalik: The new name opens wide prospects for the Organization’s presence at the international level

The 40^th Executive Council of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), which kicked off today in Abu Dhabi, State of the United Arab Emirates, adopted the modification of the name of the Organization into the “Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization” (ICESCO).

In this regard, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director General, stated that the modification of the name of the Organization aims to clarify the nature of its missions, which are not D’awa-related, and open wide prospects for its presence at the international level.

Dr. AlMalik also highlighted that the new name accurately reflects the nature of the civilizational mission of ICESCO in the fields of education, science, culture and communication, as well as its purposes and objectives.

In the document on the draft modification, the General Directorate of ICESCO underlined that the proposed expression ‘Islamic World’ refers to the civilizational space which takes into account the global dimension in all the regions which include Muslim populations and minorities, or the regions which have contributed in a way or another to building and enriching the common civilizational heritage of these regions. “Thus, this concept is not constant or stagnant; it is rather flexible, integrated, open and expandable. Besides, the Muslim population in some non-Member States is larger than its counterpart in some Member States. The name ‘Islamic World Organization’ allows the Organization to cooperate with these countries and implement programmes and activities for Muslims in such countries within an institutional and official framework,” the General Directorate added.

The General Directorate also stressed that the modification of this name will open wide prospects for expanding the bases of partnership and cooperation in Member States and with non-Member States and an important number of international and regional governmental institutions which were not fully aware of the nature of the Organization’s missions, fields of action, and beneficiaries, as well as their strategic commonalties and development priorities shared with ICESCO.

It is worth mentioning that the 40^th ICESCO Executive Council enjoys the powers of ICESCO General Conference, the highest power representing all the 54 Member States in supervising the Organization’s action and general policies, by virtue of the powers vested in it by the 3^rd Extraordinary General Conference, held in the Area of Makkah Al-Mukarramah, on 9 May 2019, which commissioned the Executive Council to examine and adopt the amendments proposed by the Director General to ICESCO’s regulations, plans and working mechanisms.