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.
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.
FOCIC has principles, ideas and working programme:
1. RELIGION
2. EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
3. LANGUAGE
4. FREEDOM
5. PEACE
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
8. ECONOMY
9. THE FAMILY AND THE WOMAN
10. YOUTH