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The C-100 Secretariat created a project submission process and started receiving project proposals along strategic themes. A number of projects were approved by the C-100 in the past. A synopsis of each project including its current status is found below.
I. C-100 Projects Endorsed and Funded in 2005
Through the generosity of HRH Price Al Waleed of Saudi Arabia, the Xenel Corporation, and others, several C-100-endorsed projects were funded .
1. ASMA Society: Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow
American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA)’s Cordoba Initiative proposed to convene young Muslim leaders from the US and the broader Muslim world to expand its network of Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow (MLT). The mission of the MLT is to foster a unified, uniquely American voice of Islam capable of accelerating the development of a healthy Islamic identity that is both western and closely connected to Muslim communities worldwide. MLT will act as a platform and network of emerging young Muslim leaders who are committed to this mission and have the capacity to act as change agents. With funding from the National Center for Community and Justice, ASMA launched the MLT in December 2004, convening 100 emerging Muslim American leaders, ages of twenty-five to forty-five, for a retreat in New York.
ASMA Society in partnership with The Cordoba Initiative launched its first Western (North America/ Europe) Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow conference in Copenhagen, Denmark July 7-10, 2006. A dynamic group of 100 emerging leaders representing 16 nations and embodying a wide spectrum of Muslims by: sect, ethnicity, profession, religiosity, and individual politics, participated. The overarching theme of the conference was "Muslim Integration in the West". Program: The program of the conference covered the following general themes: 1) Islam as an aspect of personal identity 2) How does one define an ummah? 3) Do Muslims need to be unified? 4) What breeds alienation among young Muslim? 5) Is Islam in crisis? If so, what does it mean for if to be in crisis? 6) Is a clash of values between the Muslim World and the West inevitable? Next Steps: A new MLT website was developed. MLT artists included a comedian and a cartoonist who performed and exhibited their work. Outcomes: Short term: A creation of a young global Muslim leadership. Long term: Development of participants into prominent Community leaders.
2. Soliya: Connect Programme
The non-profit organization Soliya provides internet-based links between colleges and universities in the Middle East and in the U.S. Students dialogue together and practice developing short documentaries using simple media-development software. The documentaries cover major events at the root of Islamic-Western conflict, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq, the Madrid train bombing or the September 11 attacks. Students learn how the same events can be presented differently by the media and use the documentary-production process to discuss why they view these events differently. Students are then invited to co-produce documentaries on issues of shared concern that are marketed to local TV broadcasters in their communities.
Soliya provided a unique cross-cultural education programme in which university students from the United States and throughout the Middle East collaboratively explored and discussed the issues dividing the West and the Arab & Muslim World. Students engaged in intensive, facilitated dialogue about these issues through a cutting-edge web-based videoconferencing application, most of them as part of an accredited course at their universities. To date, 20 universities and over 400 students have participated in the programme from the United States, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Qatar & Kuwait. In the future, Soliya plans to expand the reach of the programme to include universities in the Middle East and the broader Muslim World as well as universities in Europe and other regions in the US. The underlying technology is being enhanced to enable the programme to scale in the coming years to work with thousands of students a semester. In addition, Soliya is further developing its Continued Engagement Activities that enable alumni from the Connect Program to continue working to improve relations between the West and the Arab & Muslim World through conflict resolution and facilitation skills training, cooperative action projects, and media outreach initiatives.
3. World Faiths Development Dialogue: Religious Leaders’ Study Exchange
The C-100 is working with leaders at Al-Azhar University, the Anglican Communion, and the Roman Catholic Church to assist them in establishing extended Religious Leader Study Exchanges. Promising young scholars and senior clergy would take part in full-term exchanges at one another’s seminaries, during which they would engage in shared study, private and public interfaith dialogues, and joint community outreach. The aim is to foster lasting ties between Christian and Muslim clergy, enhance knowledge of one another’s faith traditions, strengthen the resolve of religious leaders to advance reconciliation and peace making, and facilitate inter-religious cooperation in promoting justice, serving the less fortunate, and promoting social development. Inclusion of Shi’a and Jewish centres of religious study would be explored pending the results of this initial round of exchanges.
4. Search for Common Ground: Media Outreach for Reconciliation Activists
At a meeting convened by HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal in 2003, leaders of interfaith and intercultural dialogue centres in the US and in predominantly Muslim countries expressed a desire to learn how to better engage Western mass media so that they could become a resource for commentary on Islamic-Western relations, particularly during times of crisis. Included in the meeting were the Centre for Civilizational Dialogue (Malaysia), Majlis el-Hassan (Jordan), the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (USA), the Media and Dialogue Center (Kuwait), the Interfaith Center (USA), the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue (Indonesia), among others.
Media training workshops were conducted in Indonesia, the Middle East and Washington, DC. The trainings combine "common ground" conflict transformation techniques with media skills, the latter to include communication as well as public relations training. The media skills cover issuing press releases, giving television and radio interviews and writing op-eds, with tips and tricks and real-time case studies. The trainers conducting the workshops include local and international media professionals as well as Search for Common Ground staff.
II. Other Projects approved in the past:
1 Film “Islamic Spain: Three Faiths in One Land”, Unity Productions Foundation (Davos 2006)
2 Supporting the Fes Festival Forum, Fes Festival (Davos 2006)
3 Connecting Western and Muslim Youth through "Voices of Collaboration", iEARN (Davos 2006)
4 TV serial and multi-media series for Interfaith peace-building, Spanda (Davos 2006)
5 Digital Town Square, Meadan (Davos 2006) – Supported by IBM
6 Strengthening interfaith youth curriculum and exchange, Interfaith Youth Core (Davos 2006)
7 Fes Global Institute for Diplomacy, Al-Akhawayn University (Davos 2006)
8 Yallafanous, TV programming with positive social content and authentic characters rooted in Arab and Muslim culture, Funworks Media (Davos 2006)
9 Combating Extremism with Compassion, Humanitarian Forum (Davos 2005)
10 Religious Criteria of Governance, ASMA Society (Davos 2005)
11 Youth Leader Exchange, Seeds of Peace (Davos 2005)
12 Mid-Career Professionals Exchange, 21st Century Trust (Davos 2005)
13 Arabic Literary Heritage Trust, DecoType (Davos 2005)
14 Multi-Media Educational Materials On Islam Past and Present, ORTV (Davos 2005)
15 Reality TV Show, Search for Common Ground (Davos 2005) – Supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund
16 Common Ground News: Partners in Humanity, Search for Common Ground (Jordan 2004) – Supported by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and the US Institute for Peace
The C-100 is not looking for projects to approve or fund at present.
For further information please contact:
Saman Ahsan
Project Manager (overall coordinator)
Email: saman.ahsan@weforum.org
Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff
Senior Advisor, Sustaining In-Depth Dialogue
Email: a.madrad@aya.yale.edu
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