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The United Arab Emirates has announced plans to set up a modern ‘Arab House of Wisdom’ in Dubai. It will be the modelled after the medieval Baitul Hikmah of the Abbasid period which led to blossoming of knowledge, science, technology, and human science in the Middle East.


The plans were made public by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and the ruler of Dubai on October 29 while opening the Dubai Knowledge Conference. He said the proposed complex will help reduce unemployment and illiteracy in the region. The modern ‘Arab House of Wisdom’ will be at the heart of the $10 billion education initiative namely Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, which will work towards redeveloping the knowledge roadmap of the Middle East, Dubai ruler said. The opening session was also addressed among others by the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and the Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.


Sheikh Mohammad unveiled 15 new programmes, part of the Foundation’s effort to face these challenges. They include, in addition to the Knowledge Complex, providing scholarships for young Arab professionals to study for masters’ degree, an online programme for women who have family or practical obligations that do not allow them to continue their higher education, and a loan program to help refugees in disaster areas to start small businesses. “We were the first who knew schools, houses of learning, laboratories, hospitals and endowments.


We are proud of our past and its scientific achievements. But this pride does not reduce the heavy weight of the bitter present situation in education, universities, laboratories, scientific and intellectual output, whether original or translated, and the endowments assigned for the public good,” he added.


The Dubai ruler also announced that the foundation will work with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to bring out an annual report to provide an Arab index gauging the situation of knowledge in the Arab states to evaluate performance, develop policies and plans and encourage competition.


In the Arab world alone, as Arab League chief Amr Moussa points out, there are 71 million illiterates. Not a single university from the Muslim world home to 1.6 billion people, a quarter of the world’s total population figures in the top 500 centres of learning. Welcoming the new initiative Khaleej Times commentator Aijaz Zaka Syed wrote: Even as the world progresses and conquers new frontiers of knowledge and ideas by the hour, the Muslims are yet to stir out of their slumber of centuries.

As many as 1,000 delegates representing more than 35 countries will come to Bahrain to join the debate on Islamic Finance at the 14th annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC), scheduled to be held on December 8-10 at the Gulf International Convention Center here. Discussions will focus on opportunities in Islamic bond market (Sukuk), which have recently transformed the dynamic Islamic investment banking landscape. The conference will also address the increasing market and product sophistication that is forging the next generation of Islamic financial solutions that will drive further growth in the consumer banking segment.


With experts predicting growth to continue to surge in Islamic banking at rates that exceed conventional banks into 2008, the challenge for leading institutions will be to focus on segments that have the greatest potential for exciting growth. The focus will be on the key strategic drivers of the industry and feature specific summits on retail banking and corporate & investment banking sectors. Now in its 14th year, the WIBC has firmly established itself as the largest and most significant gathering of Islamic banking & finance industry leaders in the world. European Islamic Investment Bank (EIIB) will participate in WIIBC 2007 as the corporate & investment banking partner.


John Weguelin, managing director of European Islamic Investment Bank PLC, said: “WIBC is the one event that successfully brings together the major players in the Islamic finance market and is unquestionably the most important conference on the Islamic banking calendar.” European Islamic Investment Bank Plc is the first independent, Shariah-compliant Islamic investment bank to be authorized and regulated by the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA).