Hawzah News Agency-Nearly three weeks ago, the Islamic Conference Youth Forum was held in Mashhad, Iran.
The youth from OIC members took part in the event in which they simulated the real OIC conferences; that is, every participant took on the role of an official diplomat representing their own countries and followed the same procedures which are taken during a real OIC session. The Muslim youth who attended the event were mostly majoring in international relations studies and during the conference they got to deliver official speeches, hold negotiations, discuss major issues and draft political resolutions all by themselves as if they were real diplomats.
On the one hand, the above-mentioned conference could serve as a rewarding educational opportunity in order to train professional future diplomats, and on the other hand it created an opportunity for in-depth dialogues among Muslim youth from different countries.
In a world filled with diverse or often contrary ideas and beliefs, it’s completely natural that some discrepancies exist among different ideas, especially those of younger generations’ who come from different cultural, religious or educational backgrounds. However, during Mashhad Islamic Conference, such disagreements did not separate the participants rather opened up a chance for further dialogue and discussion. During the course of conference, disagreements persevered, but a strong friendship was also formed among the participants as if all those who attended the event had already practiced how to maintain a peaceful coexistence in addition to their diplomatic skills.
The other point that is noteworthy here is the hospitality of people of Mashhad, while holding the conference they did their best in receiving the guests and making them feel at home. They did a great job. The majority of the participants were young and a good relationship was established between the host and the participants. The people of Mashhad proved that their city has been properly elected as the cultural capital of the Islamic world.
The writer of this report has been born and raised in Tehran, he has also lived in Qom for a couple of years and been to Mashhad at least once a year, but he experienced a new perspective of the city of Mashhad and its citizens while attending the Islamic conference; Mashhadi youth managed to hold the conference by presenting a faithful Iranian face.
Surely, holding such conferences on the international level could pave the way for developing the spirit of unity and friendship in the Islamic community in order to move towards the new Islamic civilization; it’s possible that we occasionally regard some events, countries or ethnicities with positive or negative attitudes influenced by the media and such preconceptions could be far from truth, holding international conferences could help increase mutual interaction and dialogues in order to familiarize with different cultures and nations. The friendly relations as well as the great hospitality shown by the people of Mashhad during the conference caused the Muslim youth form a new conception and understating about one another.
* Hasan Sadraei Aref , Chief editor of International News at the Hawzah New Agency and participant of the Islamic Conference in Mashhad.
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