PREAMBLE
WHEREAS Allah (God) Subhanahu-Wa-Ta'ala has created Man in the best of forms, provided him with the abilities and resources to improve
his well-being, endowed him with reason, dignified and honored him, and granted mankind the inheritance of life and resources of nature;
WHEREAS Allah has made the pursuit of knowledge an absolute obligation and its acquisition a source of pride and
dignity, and has urged human beings to seek, utilize and disseminate it for the benefit of humanity;
WHEREAS the teachings of Islam emphasize the importance of the well-being of man, and underline the fact that Man's relationship to the
universe and to his fellow-man must be one of stewardship and complimentarily
respectively, and never one of mastery;
WHEREAS Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have now become the prominent features of "globalization," and are continuously
reaching new levels in advancement and complexity;
AND WHEREAS the majority of OIC and developing countries seem to lack a clear vision in the field of Information Technology (IT), and are
thus lagging behind in this area;
NOW, THEREFORE the Islamic Academy of Sciences:
(a) APPRECIATING the activities being carried out by many governments, academic institutions, and
non-governmental organizations in the area of information and communication technology;
(b) REALIZING that some OIC member countries actually face steadily rising child and adult alphabetic
and numeric illiteracy, and the prospect of computer illiteracy that is looming large on the horizon;
(c) ACKNOWLEDGING that information technology can represent an area where rapid and meaningful
advancement can readily be made by OIC countries;
(d) ACKNOWLEDGING that emphasis on advancement in IT should not be at the expense of
investment in basic sciences, which are the backbone of sustainable S&T advancement;
MOREOVER
(a) OBSERVING WITH CONCERN the lack of a long-term IT policy at the national level in most OIC
member countries;
(b) NOTING WITH CONCERN the limited number of centers of excellence and the general deficiency
of S&T institutions in many OIC member countries;
(c) NOTING WITH CONCERN the limited number of enrolled students and quality-graduates, as well
as the low level of instruction at science and vocational institutions;
(d) NOTING WITH CONCERN the lack of specialized IT-based educational programmes at all levels
of education in most OIC countries and the inadequacy of educational institutions;
(e) NOTING WITH CONCERN the widening inter-country and trans-country digital divide that is
developing as a result of the information technology rush;
(f) OBSERVING WITH CONCERN the difficulties faced by some OIC member countries in combating
alphabetical adult illiteracy and in promoting computer awareness among the adult population;
(i) BEING CONCERNED at the lack of IT standards at the national, as well as regional levels in OIC
and developing countries;
(g) BEING CONCERNED at the lack of adequate infrastructure available in most OIC countries to
sustain the growing IT sector in them;
NOTING WITH CONCERN the absence of co-ordination between the various agencies involved in IT
education within the educational process;
NOTING the apparent slow adoption of advanced educational and IT tools such as personal
computers access to the Internet, etc..and the general inadequacy of educational infrastructure;
NOTING the lack of up-to-date IT curricula for all stages of the educational process, as well as the
shortage of qualified and motivated teaching staff ;
THE ISLAMIC ACADEMY OF SCIENCES MEETING AT TUNIS DURING NOVEMBER 2000 CALLS UPON the international
community to:
(1) EXTEND, in the spirit of co-operation, all possible help to developing countries in the area of
technology transfer, as well as debt relief, to enable them to divert more resources to develop
their IT infrastructure ;
(2) EXTEND free-trade agreements with developing countries and open up their IT markets to
products , especially software, being developed in the Third World ;
(3) CONTINUE to support research projects of importance in the developing countries;
AND CALLS UPON the leaders and decision-makers of Islamic countries to:
(1) RE-DEFINE national development objectives in the area of science and technology especially IT,
in view of globalization and the information revolution;
(2) VALUATE their IT policies and where possible incorporate them into national S&T policies;
(3) DIVERT available resources to science education, with a view to building up a scientific and
technological manpower-base capable of adapting and developing new - including information and
communications - technologies;
(4) INTRODUCE IT programmers at the various stages of the educational process;
(5) PROMOTE the adoption of PC-clusters at educational institutions to facilitate optimum use of
computers at such institutions by students and faculty;
(6) FACILITATE the use of Internet to all sectors of society and adopt a subsidized e-rate policy
to enable the public to use the Internet at low cost;
(7) ESTABLISH training institutions for IT, especially for personnel involved in e-commerce;
(8) SPEED UP the introduction of e-systems into national infrastructures including e-government,
(9) INTRODUCE appropriate legislation, including tax and customs exemptions, to promote the various
aspects of the IT industry;
(10) AIM TO develop a coherent national IT system with a view to interlink such a system to other
systems at the regional level at some point in the future;
(11) ESTABLISH linkages and partnerships between OIC member countries in IT to facilitate
inter-country co-operation by governments, industry and academia,
(12 ) EMPHASIZE the key role played by contemporary applied mathematics and basic sciences
education for gaining mastery in IT;
(13) MONITOR the influence of the Internet so as to maximize the benefits of its availability
and where necessary enact regulations to minimize any physical, psychological and social damage
that could result from introducing this new medium;
AND FURTHER CALLS UPON the relevant OIC and other
organizations to:
(a) PROMOTE the supervised use of the Internet at homes, in schools and universities as well as
government and private sector concerns as a means of education and communication;
(b) PROMOTE inter-connectivity of world-wide web sites of OIC countries, institutions, universities,
etc ;
(c) ESTABLISH an Islamic portal that encompasses all the web sites originating form within OIC
member countries;
(d) ENCOURAGE and support OIC-based IT industrial ventures;
(e) DEVELOP databases of IT human resources in OIC countries to facilitate appraising national
strengths and weaknesses;
(f) CONTINUE to address developments in basic sciences and mathematics, and not to marginalize this
backbone of S&T development;
(g) ENCOURAGE and promote the publication of quality research material of OIC scientists on the
Internet;
AND FURTHER PROPOSES
THE CREATION OF AN ISLAMIC IT FUND to help poorer OIC countries to upgrade their IT
infrastructures and invest in small to medium-sized IT industrial ventures; and
THE STRENGTHENING OF THE ISLAMIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION (IBC) to enable it to project
Islamic values, as well as address emerging scientific and technological areas in the
twenty first century, and promote distance education in the Muslim world. The IBC must
cater for coming generations in the areas of sport, culture, entertainment, information
technology, besides combating the blatant propaganda against Islam.
 |
IAS
Resolution on
the Developments in the Middle East
Adopted in Tunis (Tunisia).
The Islamic Academy of Sciences urges the international community to take prompt action to
stop Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians, and to mobilize all possible efforts to help
Palestinians to attain their legitimate right to establish their independent state with
"Al - Quds Al-Shareef" as its eternal capital. The Islamic Academy of Sciences also calls for action in such other areas of the world where
countries of might and power are taking action against defenseless nations.
Conference Report
Under the patronage of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Tunisia Mr Zine El-Abidine
Ben Ali, the Islamic Academy of Sciences convened its tenth international conference under the
title Information Technology for Development in the Islamic World, during 20-24 November 2000.
The conference, which was held at Khamsa Corinthia Hotel, Gammarth, Tunis, was an open activity in
which over 120 participants representing over 25 countries participated. It was
organized and sponsored by the following organizations:
(2) Secretariat of State for Scientific Research and Technology, Tunis, Tunisia;
(3) Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia;
(4) OIC Ministerial Committee on Scientific and Technological Co-operation (COMSTECH), Islamabad,
Pakistan;
(5) OPEC Fund for International Development, Vienna, Austria;
The main objectives of the conference were:
(1)To appraise some contemporary (theoretical and practical) concepts in Information Technology
(IT) with the aim of introducing them into national development policies in OIC and developing
countries;
(2)To define some areas of importance for possible inclusion in IT policies, and develop innovative
proposals for future activities in IT;
(3)To assess the status of IT applications in the Islamic world, with particular reference to countries
with extensive or limited experience in this field;
(4)To define a role for governments and NGOs in IT development;
(5)To study the impact of developments in IT on medicine and education; and
(6)To facilitate the free exchange of views among experts on IT policies
In addition to a number of keynote presentations from Tunisia and Pakistan that reviewed the status of
Information Technology (IT) in the Islamic world, an Internet visio-conference was organised in which Dr
Vinton G Cerf, the eminent American academic and one of the "founders" of the Internet, presented a keynote
paper on the future of the Internet and its applications. In order to generate academic
interaction among the participants, the conference was mostly divided up into roundtable discussions (three in all), in which short
communications were followed by lively discussions on a number of important issues. The roundtables addressed
the themes of IT Policy Issues; IT and Education and National IT Scenarios. The "Education" session was
particularly appealing to the Fellows of the Islamic Academy of Sciences who are involved in higher education.
In the "Scenarios" session, speakers from Tunisia, Jordan, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran and Malaysia were invited to
present highlights of their national experiences in the area of the development of the IT sector. Emphasis was
especially placed on the future courses of action that these countries will take in the field of IT and its
applications.
At the conclusion of the conference, the Islamic Academy of Sciences adopted the IAS Tunisia Declaration on Information
Technology for Development in the Islamic World. The declaration noted that the majority of OIC and developing countries
seemed to lack a clear vision in the field of IT, and that IT can represent an area where rapid and meaningful advancement
can readily be made by these countries. The declaration highlighted some of the problems that face Islamic countries in the
area of IT, and re-iterated IAS's long standing view that countries need to upgrade their national science and technology policies
and, where appropriate, incorporate IT elements into such policies. Some specific recommendations concerning adult illiteracy
(including the looming computer illiteracy), the growing digital divide that is widening between IT rich and the IT poor countries,
and communities, were also made. The IAS also adopted a Resolution at the conclusion of the conference in which it expressed its
deep distress at the developments that were taking place in the occupied Palestinian territories. As part of the follow-up action,
the Academy will circulate the IAS Tunis Declaration to concerned individuals and relevant agencies throughout the world, so that
some measures can be taken to implement the recommendations decided upon at the conference.
The Academy will also publish the complete proceedings of the conference in a quality volume that will be distributed internationally.
Such a book, like all other published IAS proceedings, will become a valuable reference for experts that draw up IT policies. Through
IAS Fellows, personal contact and correspondence, the IAS will promote the ideas that were developed at the conference among the decision
making circles of the Islamic World, and will provide whatever help it can to get the various recommendations implemented.