Makkah, November 20: Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, the Emir of Makkah, is scheduled to open the 10th Muslim World League Makkah Conference Saturday which will discuss “Muslim Youth Issues in the Age of Globalization”.
MWL Secretary General and member of the Kingdom’s Board of Senior Ulema Abdullah Bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Turki said the gathering, which is held under the auspices of King Abdullah, would address the challenges facing the Muslim Ummah in the contemporary age, notably the “cultural and social currents foreign to Muslim society”.
“These call for increased Islamic efforts and media cooperation to direct the younger generations and immunize them against various behavioral and intellectual deviations,” Al-Turki said in a press statement, adding that the family, mosque and school had an important part to play in that respect.
The conference will hold four sessions, the first on “Intellectual Issues”, which will address the “problem of poor religious affiliation in some youths, cultural estrangement and imitating the other”, as well as their low interest in reading. “Social and Psychological Issues” will tackle marriage, drugs and alcohol, violence and extremism, the rejection of values, and family disintegration, while “Economic Issues” will look at studies on the predominance of material expressions and consumerism, emigration to the west, poverty and unemployment. The final discussion session, “Solutions and Problems”, will hear proposals on how to tackle issues facing Muslim youth and protect them from the “ills of the age” and enable them to confront the challenges posed in the age of globalization.
Al-Turki said he hoped the conference would send out a “direct message” to relevant youth groups addressing particularly “moderation and balance” and to “avoid extremism, immoderation, and those who seek to divide Muslims from others”.
“The conference aims to bring attention to the fundamental issues related to culture and unemployment, as unutilized time leads to problems such as drugs, violence, extremism and terrorism,” Al-Turki said.
The first Muslim World League Makkah Conference was held under the auspices of King Abdul Aziz Bin Abdul Rahman Aal Saud in the Hijri year of 1345, some 82 years ago, to “address problems facing Muslims and achieve a united stance”.
–Agencies