Civil Society Conference on Critical Reforms in the Arab World
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The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is organizing an inter-Arab conference on ‘Critical Reforms in the Arab World: from Rhetoric to Reality’, from 12-14 March 2004. The conference will bring together members of the civil society in the Arab region including intellectuals, businessmen and academics to discuss issues of economic, social, political, cultural and institutional reform.
About 150 participants from different Arab countries will work on developing an agenda for reform as well as a follow-up mechanism to establish a track record for similar symposia, which may be organized in the future.
Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, said “broad-based, comprehensive reform is an absolute necessity in the Arab world. We were, once, the promoters of science and learning throughout the world, practitioners of tolerance and pluralism at a time when the West was in the grip of intolerance and bigotry.”
Writing in the English language Al-Ahram Weekly (19- 25 February), Dr. Serageldin wrote “it is time for the Arab world to re-affirm these traditions of excellence and to reinterpret them in contemporary terms. We must become active participants in the creation of a better world and capitalize on the distinct contribution we have to make this momentous international enterprise.”