Saudi Prince Khaled al-Faisal bin Abdel-Aziz on Friday acknowledged the contributions of some 300 thinkers and academics from across the Arab world who contributed to the launch of the Arab Thought Foundation, a new Arab think tank and reformist cultural organization inaugurated in Beirut on Thursday.
In a press conference, Prince Khaled issued an open invitation to any Arab thinker or academic to offer his views and ideas without fear of persecution, which is common in most of the Arab world where criticism of governments, religion or state policies can lead to imprisonment.
“The Arab Thought Foundation was created to become a forum for Arab thinkers to express their views freely,” he told The Daily Star in a separate interview, “and let whoever wants to make use of this opportunity come forward.”
Prince Khaled announced that the foundation’s meeting next December would discuss current Arab affairs.
“Our agenda will address the political, economic, social, and cultural future of the Arab world, in addition to Arab-American, Arab-European, Arab-African and Arab-Asian relations,” he said.
Committees have already been formed to develop topics and assign them to Arab thinkers according to their field of expertise. These thinkers will then develop studies and present them for discussion.
“The studies will hopefully reflect the outlook and express the vision of the Arab nation, especially its youth,” Prince Khaled said, “we need to look away from our glorious past, into the future.”
The choice of Lebanon as the organization’s headquarters was no accident.
“Lebanon was chosen because it was and will become once again the center of thought in Arab society,” former UN Secretary-General Butros Butros Ghali told The Daily Star in an interview Friday.
“Lebanon is one of the most open and free societies in the Arab world in terms of intellectual and religious pluralism.”
Ghali said the foundation was still in its early stages: “I have participated in more than 30 different organizations all around the globe and this organization needs one or two years to develop a working methodology and defined objectives.”
He said the organization was necessary to help the Arab world deal with a new world order.
“The Arab world is in political and intellectual crisis,” Ghali said, “but this crisis is not unique to the Arab world. It is shared by Europe, the EU, Latin America, Asia and the UN.”
Ghali said changes that had taken place in the last few years, including the end of the cold war, the technological revolution and globalization, have led to fundamental changes in ways countries deal with each other.
“The question is: will the Arab nation be able to respond to this new world order or not?” Ghali asked.
“We are confronted by a new challenge which exists everywhere and this center is one of the ways that tries to contribute or help Arab thinkers, the different schools of thought to cope with this challenge,” he said.
Ghali said he would contribute his vast diplomatic experience at the UN to the Arab Thought Foundation.
“What we need to do next is what (Prince Khaled al-Faisal bin Abdel-Aziz) emphasized, and that is look to what ought to be done in the future, and not satisfy ourselves with glorifying our past,” Ghali said.