The first seminar of the Academy welcomed H.E. Mr. Taha Ayhan, President of ICYF, who addressed the national and international students studying in Turkey, on the issue of “The OIC in its 50th year: Overcoming challenges for effective and fruitful cooperation”.

H.E. President addressed the youth with opening remarks and highlighted that the Muslim World is facing grave political, socio-economic, cultural and scientific challenges with implications for its unity, peace, security, and development. He mentioned that in order to address the challenges faced by Muslims across the globe, OIC developed a ten years plan of action in September 2005, followed by a second one called OIC-2025 Program of Action. Both plans emphasized on concrete and practical measures to enhance Islamic solidarity, combating violence and terrorism, advancement in the fields of economics and science. Projection of true image of Islam and its noble values to the world was also one of the key objectives of the plan.”

The President also remarked that the solutions to the problems which require a multidimensional approach, that is namely the first and foremost objective of OIC should be the revival of the unity of Ummah;the idea of increased economic trade and exchanges within intra-OIC geography needs to become a priority in all Member States’ agendas;coherence in the Foreign policy of OIC states is required now in order to safeguard the collective interests of Muslims.
The seminar was moderated by Mr. Sofiane Tabet, Presenter of Trt Arabi and at the end of the program, students had a discussion on the issue of the solutions to the problems of the youth of OIC countries while Mr. Ayhan answered their questions.

The Academy which gathered more than 150 students from 40 different OIC countries will continue for 13 weeks in every Friday with various themes.