Activities
14th International Youth Gathering
14th International Youth Gathering
27 September 2018, Press Meeting, Lahore Press Club
In Lahor Press Club, a press conference was made for the 14. International Youth Gathering, which is realized with the pioneership of the The Union of The NGOs of the Islamic World Youth Council (Young UNIW) and the partnership of Alkhidmat Foundation Pakistan (AKFP). Among the participants of the press conference were Ali Kurt, the Secretary General of UNIW, Serdar Bayram, the President of Young UNIW, Dr. Mushtag Ahmad Mangat, the General Secretary of the AKFP, Ahmad Hasmi, the Director of the AKFP Media Relations, Hassan Afzal, the Assistant Director of the AKFP Volunteer Management Program.
Starting his speech by thanking to AKFP which contributed to the realization of this program in Pakistan, Ali Kurt spoke about the International Youth Gathering, which are one of the most important projects of the UNIW and the importance of these gatherings for the youth of Islamic world. He underlined the importance of Kashmir problem in international area and stressed that this is not a problem only of the people of Pakistan, it is also a serious preoccupation for all Muslims. Therefore they had chosen the special title of Kashmir for the 14. IYM. After dwelling on other activities of the UNIW, he explained that Muslims need to advance in the area of civil society and they aimed at carrying out activities to help leading NGOs to share their own experiences with other organizations
Dr. Mushtaq Mangat expressed his gratitude and gave thanks to UNIW and all participants for their participation to IYG in Pakistan and support to the cause of Kashmir.
28 September 2018 Friday, IYG 1st Day Opening Program, Punjab School
School Program was started with Qur’anic recitation and naat. Dr. Mushtag Mangat, in his opening speech, stated that the existence of so many wars in Islamic world had been ironic. Therefore, he explained that they organized this 14th International Youth Gathering with the theme of “Unity for Peace”and this kind of meetings looms large for the consultation among Muslim Youth as to what they can do.
The founder of World Congress of Muslim Philanthropy, Tarik Cheema expressed that young people were the power of umma and they needed to know to use their capacity in the most effective way. He also stressed that long-term plans should be made up instead of short-term ones.
The Vice-General Manager of AKFP Syed Ihsanullah Wagas, put in his speech that youth had a great role in the shaping of great nations and no society could have been advanced without youth.
After the speech of Secretary General of Cemaat-i Islami Liaqat Beloch, who dwelt on the importance given to youth by the Cemaat in general sense, the President of Young UNIW Serdar Bayram took parole and mentioned their activities for the youth of Islamic World. He stressed that 14th IYG had been a very important opportunity to help youth to share their ideas, and to become acquainted with the problems of Muslims and to know different cultures.
In the final part of opening speeches, the Secretary General of the UNIW, Ali Kurt gave examples from the lives of the Companions of the Prophet. He pointed to some young Muslim leaders such as Hz. Ali (RA) was 23 year old when he was getting ready to sacrifice his life by lying in the bed of Prophet (S.A.V.) during his Hegira; Usame b. Zeyd was 18 years when he was appointed as an army commander, and Fatih Sultan Mehmet was 19 years old, when he conquered Istanbul, and closed and opened epoches. He emphasized that the conciousness of Umma and unity and cooperation of Muslims were much more needed today. He recounted in summary the activities of the UNIW in this context.
In the aftermath of the plaquette ceremony, Amjad Muhktar, he made a presentation with the title of “The Colors of the Pakistan” about the cultural and touristic aspects of the Pakistan. Underlining the cultural variety among Muslims, Muhktar put that this variety is envisaged in Qur’an and the only thing that empowers Muslims is their ability to unite around the belief of tawheed despite their differences.
28 September- Afternoon
Previous member of Pakistan Islamic Ideology Council Samia Raheel Qazi made a speech with the title “Sexual roles and The Power of Woman.” Qazi pointed out that, woman had a very important role in the development of society and women needed material, spritual and modern education. In his speech, he stressed that woman and man is equal but not similar, and women needed to get the support of their families in order to become active in society.
Program is continued with the motivation speech of Abdul Samad on cognition control. Discussing the criterions of success Samad offered an influential presentation with scenes involving active participation of the spectators. Later on, a panel with the title, “The Importance of Peace and the Role of the Youth in Peace-Building” was realized
Dr. Ayesha, Dr. Tariq Cheem, from Panele Lahor University, Javed Hassan from Business Administration and Techology University, Serdar Bayram, the President of Young UNIW, Dr. Mushtag Manga, the General Secretary of the AKFP, and Rana Usman Wadood, the AKF Punjab General Secretary contributed as speakers.
Among the subjects taken up in the panel were the education of the youth, the importance of self-confidence in the development of character, giving responsability to youth in decision mechanisms, equality of each individual in sociey etc. Along with this section, the first day program of the 14th IYG was completed. Later on, the participants of the IYG met with the Governor of Punjab and the former Primer Minister, Mohammed Sarwar in the governor’s palace.
29 September 2018 Saturday, IYG 2nd Day, Punjab School
Program was started with Qur’anic recitation. Then, Salman Haider recited Naat Shareef
Under the coordinatorship of Shoaib Hashmi, a session with the title, “the Importance of Peace of Mind and Harmony in Religion,” was carried out with participation of Dr. Shamshad, Amar Nath Randhawa ve Ahmed Jameel Rashid as speakers.
Asif Mehmood, Aamir Shahzad, from Gazali Education Institution, Abir Sherwani from Business Administration and Technology, Mr. Shafique, Director of Oku Foundation, Asif Mehmood and Mr. Sajdad participated as speakers to the special session “How Education Can Play Role in Peace-Building.”
Underlining the important potantiel of youth, Asif Mehmood said that “Education brings self-confidence, self-confidence brings hope and hope brings peace. If you want the spreading and advance of Islam, you need to do nothing expect giving importance to education. Education is the essence of peace.”
Other speaker Aamir Shahzad pointed out that, we needed to return to the decrees of Qur’an Kareem, we should take the life of our prophet as example, Islamic countries wherein the percentage of youth within population is too much should take particularly care of young people and every individual should work for the peace of mind of all humanity.
In the aftermath of the special session, a group activity is realized. In this section wherein participants are involved actively, requests are demanded from youngs to form groups which must finish the assigned mission as soon as possible. The aim of this session is to ensure a closer relationship between participants and to help them to develop a team spirit.
The problem of Kashmir which was determined as the special topic of the 14th IYG was accomplished under the “Special Session on Kashmir,” Mr. Sohail, Abdul Rasheed Turabi, Dr. Riaz Ahmed, Prof. Imran were the speakers of the session in which the urgency of the intervention of the international society is expressed for the human rights abuses experienced in Kashmir. The right of self-determination for the region which is under the occupation of India is emphasized.
29 September- Afternoon
Atif Iqbal, made his speech with the title “Trends in Young Entrepreneurship.” By refering entrepreneurship to the period of the Hz. Muhammad (sav), he spoke about the steps that must be taken by young people in order to be successful entrepreneurs.
In the session with the title “ Islamic World and Difficulties Suffered By Young Muslims” Abdul Samad made a speech in which he stressed that young people should choose a mentor for themselves in order to take better decisions.
The 2nd Day of the IYG was finished with “Culture Day.” In this program, peculiar clothes of Pakistan were exhibited, partipants tasted local feed, and found the opportunity of seeing traditional clothes, local mass trasport vehicles, etc. closely.
30 September 2018 Sunday, IYG 3rd Day, Punjab School
The 3. day of 14. IYT was again started with Qur’an Kareem recitation and Naat Shareef. The President of of Fitness Pro, Mudeser Ali made his speech with the title, “Nourishment and Health.” He emphasized that, it was necessary to pay attention to nourishment order for healthy mind and he gave advices to young people for nourishment order.
Program was continued with the presentations of local and foreign participants. The president of Pulse Pakistan, Kashif Hafeez, realized his presentation with the title, “Growing in Digital World: Risks, Benefits, Opportunities.” Stressing how the use of Social Media penetrated into our daily lives, Hafeez underlined the importance of conscious use of digital media.
30 September 2018 – Afternoon
From The School of Leadership, Kamran Rizvi, made his speech with the topic “The Characteristics of Leadership.” Saad Zuberi, in his presentation, with the title, “The Difficulties of Future and Youth,” spoke about the importance of critical thinking. He underlined the functions of conciousness and sub-conciousnes in the process of critical thinking.
Closure program was carried out by reading conclusion declaration, “Lahore Declaration” with the participation of the Pakistan Ambassador of Turkish Republic Mustafa İhsan Yurdakul, Pakistani Senator Sıracul Hak, The Islamabod PKO Coordinator of Turkish Cooperation and Coordination agency (TIKA), Emre Aktuna, Turkish Education Foundation Pakistan Director Salahattin Batur, President of Turkish Red Crescent Pakistan Delegation, Ibrahim Carlos, and the authorities of AKFP.
Lahor Declaration, 30.09.2018 | Lahor, Pakistan
1) Islamic countries should develop their own peace building mechanisms for the establishment of a new peace-centered World. It is obvious that these mechanisms and solutions will be established by education and development.
2) Formation of Islamic education to respond to current problems and the development of methods to use new tools effectively are of great importance for the spiritual development of Muslim youth. As the young members of civil society we have the responsibility to work in this field.
3) All works will be carried out to help the empowerment of Muslim countries’ education and development all over the world and cooperation between civil society organizations will be improved.
4) Studies will be carried out by non-governmental organizations in order to organize exchange programs among Muslim students for the establishment of the consciousness of being the Ummah. Projects will be developed in cooperation with governments to make these programs permanent in education systems.
5) Studies will be planned by young people and non governmental organizations in order to unite the most basic and common human values without discriminating language, culture, race or ideology.
6)Youth is the most abused, tried to be used and played in today’s world. For this reason, the knowledge and awareness of youth should be seriously developed.
7) We are aware of the urgency of strengthening and improving the communication network amongst the Muslim youth. The influence of young people from different geographies of the Islamic world, and the production of joint projects and activities will influence the politics of the world. It is important to evaluate this opportunity.
8) At this time of the world’s identity crisis, it is our most important goal to make and announce Islamic services as young people who appreciate, live and enjoy the Muslim identity. For this reason, it is important for Muslim youth to take part in civil society activities as much as possible, in order to live their own religions.
9) Civil Society activities should enable Muslim youth to understand each other, cooperate, produce solutions to their problems and act together.
10) In our works, the problems of Islamic World will be prevented from being presented as ‘learned helplessness’ and the common strategies will be developed for our common problems.
11) The double standards and the pressures faced by Muslims throughout the world forces us to establish sustainable cooperation and communication between Muslim societies. Work to ensure unity between Muslim civil societies; in this context, lobbying activities will be carried out at the level of governments.
12) The Islamic world will have the opportunity to perform their religion wherever they would like if they share their problems and produce their own solutions by themselves. Muslims should act taking care the current conditions and produce realistic solutions without making any concessions.
13) The connection between Muslims, who are exposed to various discrimination and persecution, will be the main starting point for them to understand each other and try to produce common solutions to their problems. Kashmir, Palestine, Rohingya, Syria, Yemen and many wounded parts of the Islamic geography.. Because the Muslim, troubles with the troubles of Muslims.
14) In this international youth gathering, where we met with the theme of ‘Union for Peace’, we understand that the construction of peace is possible through education and development, being aware of the role and importance of youth for building the peace. Therefore, we feel the responsibility for ending the war and conflicts in every region of the Islamic world.