FOUNDATION'S GOALS AND PRINCIPLE


FOUNDATION’S GOALS

 

Foundation Centre of Islamic Civilization FOCIC has been established to protect, foster and promote the common autochthonous heritage of the Balkan people.

FOCIC objectives are:

·To enrich the scientific and cultural knowledge about the common civilization and heritage of the Balkan people.

 

·To raise awareness among broader population regarding the Islamic civilization in the Balkans as well as to affirm the religious and national identity of the Balkan people.

 

·To cultivate the traditional conservatory culture of the Balkan people, by encouraging tolerance and cohabitation with the others.

 

·To dispraise the spirit of cooperation, mutual respect, universal human values, and to assist in fight against racism, discrimination, hatred and extremism;

 

·To support and encourage cooperation and dialogue among civilizations by finding common language for peaceful cohabitation among different religions and people in the Balkans;

 

·To create capacities and scientific, cultural and social institutions for affirmation of the values that FOCIC is striving for;

 

·To create a database of the common cultural heritage in the Balkans;

 

·To organize debates, scientific conferences, symposiums, seminars and specialized courses in the fields which are in the interest of FOCIC;

 

·To organize cultural and artistic activities, concerts and various festivals in the spirit of FOCIC;

 

·To organize social and educational activities dedicated to diverse ages aiming for the proper development of all the family and protecting it by fighting the negative phenomena in the society;

 

·To create leading professionals in different fields;

 

·To publish books and periodicals for affirmation of the goals of FOCIC;

 

·To create a network for exchange of information with institutions and official authorities which share similar objectives on local, regional and international level;

 

·To cooperate with other sister institutions in the Balkans, in the West, in Turkey and in the Arab countries.

 

·To cooperate with official institutions and civil society organizations in order to incite the integration of the countries in the region towards the European Union.



 



In parallel to these construction projects FOCIC is also working on building its operational structure, creating its institutions and making its programme principles public.

PROGRAMME PRINCIPLES OF THE FOUNDATION (FOCIC)
INTRODUCTION

The civilisation is a complex model of knowledge, believes, consciousness, contemplation, actions and conduct. The durability of that model depends on the capability of the man to acquire knowledge and to transfer the acquired knowledge, the adopted believes, the existing consciousness and the accepted norms of conduct to the next generations. A recognisable characteristic of the Balkan peoples is their love and respect of spiritual and intellectual upgrading and advancing. Exactly that love and respect of science and moral, place these peoples high among those that made a significant contribution to the scientific development not only in the Balkans, but in Europe and around the world. Consequently, the right and the duty of these generations is to establish standards for putting value on spiritual, intellectual and artistic achievements that should stimulate the young generations to work more and better on the affirmation of their religious and cultural essence by strengthening the relations among the peoples in the Balkans, thus ensuring continuity of the multicultural identity. By developing their own values and special identity in the Balkans, the Muslims and the other peoples in the Balkans have created conditions for establishing relations, dialogues and cooperation with a lot of mutual respect.
In order to have prosperity and fair partnership, the nations of the Balkans need to ensure their moral, social, legal, economic, cultural and civilizational progress.

FOCIC has principles, ideas and working programme:

1. RELIGION

 

FOCIC is a socio‐cultural, educational, non‐political, non‐governmental organisation that places special emphasis on the Islam as a religion, as an important segment of the civilisational progress of humanity. Faith/religion was and still is the foundation of cultures and civilisations of all nations around the world. All three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam have their own methodology and application. The disrespect of the differences among these religions comes from ignorance or malice. Religion, the way it has been traditionally cherished for centuries, has managed to preserve the national identity of the autochthonous European nations of Islamic faith. A precondition of all the conditions for preserving religion and tradition is the moral rebirth that means fighting against ignorance
and illiteracy, against bribe and corruption, against lies and slander, against public and secret
immorality, against hatred, extremism and violence.
Religion is the main factor of one’s identity. There is no identity without faith in God, nor civilisation without education and knowledge. FOCIC shall work on the protection and affirmation of the Muslim identity and continuity of spiritual, cultural and social heritage; strengthening of relations and solidarity among different religious and other institutions and organisations in Macedonia and in the Balkans.
FOCIC shall establish cooperation with the kindred organisations from around the world for the purpose of promoting human values and informing the global public about the culture and the tradition of the Muslim and other nations in the Balkans. FOCIC with absolute respect and recognition of the role and the importance of the Islamic Religious Community in the preservati n of religious identity, shall respect the honour and the reputation of the institution expressing special respect for the authority of the Reis‐ul‐Ulema, as the symbol of unity of the Islam and of the Muslims in Macedonia.

 

2. EDUCATION AND SCIENCE

 

The Muslim philosopher and sociologist Ibn Khaldun who lived in the 14th century most probably was the first one who realised the decisive significance of education, scientific research and technology for the faith of the culture and civilisation of a nation. The fall and the rise of a civilisation depend on the approach that a nation has towards scientific research. The level of science and education is a key indicator of the value both of an individual and of a nation and its competing capabilities. The nations that have mastered these disciplines are those who dictate the future of humanity. The weaknesses in the area of education, science and technology could have a bad impact on the future position of the peoples in the Balkans.
The advancing of the level of general education in all the areas, which means striving towards the leading role in science shall be the priority for FOCIC. The measures of the scientific policy should stimulate the younger generation to take on scientific researches and technological innovations. Illiteracy, ignorance and lack of interest are the greatest evil for humanity.

 

3. LANGUAGE

 

The Balkan peoples, and especially the Muslims in Macedonia speak numerous languages, more than the others. For example, with a Skopje native one can communicate in Albanian, Turkish, Macedonian, Bosnian, English, etc. The Balkan is a region that for centuries has nurtured the multilingualism tradition, and in that sense FOCIC looks like a kind of the Balkans in small, where the different languages meet and are cherished. It is an advantage that must not turn into estrangement from one’s mother tongue.

 

4. FREEDOM

 

The freedom is one of the greatest historical and worldly values. Freedom is God’s gift that belongs to every human aware of one’s mission on Earth. The creator demands from the human to obey HIM, and in return he grants him full freedom in regard to the other beings, but knowing that he should exercise his freedom in a world of justice. For the people today freedom is the greatest challenge. Freedom has its own price, because freedom cannot be given away. The freedom is conquered i.e. ensured with intelligence. All that will direct us towards the common goal and that is defence from discrimination and genocide. FOCIC respects the freedom of each individual and collective as the fundamental principle of humanity, as well as the basic principle of all the international conventions and declarations from the leading institutions and organisations around the world that refer to freedom.

 

5. PEACE

 

In the holy scripts it is said that the human was created to fight for truth and justice, for good and useful life values, and against the evil of lies and injustice. The people of the Balkans should know that the time of armed conflicts is over. They should now rise from its ashes and work on securing safety and peace: internal peace, personal peace, family peace, peace with the neighbours and peace in society. The peace is our uncompromising choice with no alternative as a power and an important factor for the civilisation’s longevity. The affirmation of peace instead of war is a normal thing for every individual and every state or Government. Hence, one of the most important things for FOCIC shall be the skilfulness in peace instead of skilfulness in war, skilfulness in dialogue instead of skilfulness in conflicts.
Unlike those who believe that the war is the main driving force for the rise and the fall of the civilisations, we believe that PEACE is the main driving force for success in this world and salvation in the Other world.

 

6. DIALOGUE AND COMMUNICATION

 

Communication, as one of the main characteristics of the human being is maybe the most important segment in the development of humanity. Only by communication, people manage to create values, science, technology and art. As a matter of fact without communication they would not look the way they look today. Apart from the direct communication among people as individuals and communities, there is also communication with the past through the heritage from past times, as well as communication with various cultures, religions and other types of communities.
In the holy scripts the dialogue is described as the necessary precondition for the man to be able to achieve his mission in this world. This primarily means communication and dialogue of the diversities in order to maintain and build constant coexistence and peace in the world. The history has taught us that isolation and lack of communications have been the main reasons for prejudices and stereotypes that often had bloody endings. This means that today the dialogue is necessary for all the people around the world, for all the religions, nations, cultures and civilisations. Regardless of the dark images from the past, still the world has proven that when the sound reason prevails, when there is communication, dialogue, those prejudices disappear and people manage to find a common language for their life on Earth. Setting off from that FOCIC shall strive towards strengthening those values, especially in our region, where the dialogue is necessary and urgent, and where the differences have to collaborate and communicate in order to be able to live in prosperity, coexistence and peace. Apart from this as a place where more diversities from the East and the West (religions, nations, civilisations, cultures) meet, FOCIC believes that the Balkans could serve as a good example for the rest of the world where through dialogue, communication and interaction, people manage to rise above their narrow interests and limitations and to look at the world as a place of prosperity and peace for all the people of the world and as a field for cultural competition among nations. The example of the so‐called pax otomana, proves that it is not a utopia since for almost 5 centuries the Balkan people managed to live in peace, coexistence and tranquillity.

 

7. (GEO)POLITICS

 

Even though FOCIC is a non‐political organisation, as an organisation interested in public developments it keeps its right to express its opinion about political activities in the country and wider, emphasising the scientific approach in the analysis of such phenomena. The first and the most important condition for salvation and biological survival of any human would be farsighted, spiritual and brave political leadership that would base its political mission on righteousness. People in the Balkans have good and bad leaders, but in the future the citizens from this region can no longer stand bad, corrupted and extremist leaders that are not able to ensure, on terms equal for all spiritual, political and material space for their peoples’ spiritual, national and cultural achievements, as well as their physical survival.
FOCIC respects and believes in the rule of law and recognises the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia as well as the international declarations and conventions on human rights and freedoms. We support the Euro‐Atlantic integration of the Balkan states. FOCIC shall strive for the Republic of Macedonia, which is with significant Muslim population in Europe, to become a full‐fledged member or to have a status of a member‐observer in the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah, in order for various funds to be opened for economic and cultural development and for the general wellbeing of the citizens and nations in the Republic of Macedonia. The Balkans have always been exposed to geopolitical influential currents. Consequently, the Balkans today in many areas depend on the geopolitical relations in the world, especially on the relations between the East and the West. We claim with certainty that as never before this region has a very important global role to play. Hence, the local politics must not be passive, narrow‐national and regional, but to be visionary and global.

 

8. ECONOMY

 

The economy is the dominant reason for human development and progress as well as regress. Today the economic development is the most important factor for the development of human culture and civilisation. There are great differences between the times when the Balkan peoples lived in wealth and the times when they lived in poverty. The times of wealth helped their biological, spiritual and intellectual progress as well as cultural and civilisational influence in the surrounding. During the times of poverty due to loss of property and deprivation of the fundamental human rights, wherever they were a minority, these nations
14 went through hard trials under the suppression of the rulers. The path to freedom from poverty goes through systematic and massive education and active participation in the material development. FOCIC will work on improving the economic position of the endangered, in order to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, building a bridge between the businesses in the Islamic world and our region. FOCIC shall work on the promotion of the national economy around the world, especially on the markets of the Muslim countries and the leading economic centres in order to promote better the national economic capacities and
technological investments.

 

9. THE FAMILY AND THE WOMAN

 

The family is a cultural‐civilisational achievement founded on the need for continuity of the human kind on the Earth. God created humanity from a man and a woman so there cannot be a mankind and posterity without a man and a woman. The family helped the Muslims preserve their religion and nation i.e. it's been the faith among the Muslims that preserved the family. At the times when the Muslims and their identity were threatened the woman as a wife and a mother successfully bore the responsibility of preserving morality and spiritual values. It means that the family is in the core of humanity. In order for a nation to be strong its core has to be sound. If the worm of infidelity, adultery, drugs and alcoholism snugs into the family, then the core of the nation is at threat, and it means that we will all lose. The
woman in FOCIC has to have her real place and role. As a matter of fact the future depends on the contribution of women in preserving the family, the birth‐rate and the identity. The erosion of the young generations could stop only with the religious‐moral values, just like the demography could be maintained only with legal marriages within the same community

 

10. YOUTH

 

The youth has always been and shall remain the restorer of energy of a nation. Creativity, courage and cleverness are the basic characteristics of the youth that should be the driving force for a cultural and civilisational renewal. There would be no sound future without a healthy youth. Consequently the care for a sound and perspective future of the youth is a priority in the activities of FOCIC.