The forum that kept writing back

The Centre's first international forum closed in Termez last month. The followup letters are still arriving

By the Dispatch team

For five days in July, the conversation about Islamic civilization moved between three cities. The First International Islamic Civilization Forum opened in Tashkent, continued in Samarkand, and closed in Termez, running from 7 to 11 July and drawing scholars, statesmen and representatives of international organisations from more than forty countries.

That itinerary was deliberate. Tashkent gave the Forum its institutional home at the Centre; Samarkand and Termez put delegates in front of the archaeology and architecture the Centre's exhibitions only gesture towards. Officials from UNESCO, ICESCO and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation sat alongside religious leaders and academics, with sessions built around themes the Centre has staked its identity on: tolerance, enlightenment, and the idea that scientific dialogue is itself a form of peacebuilding.

The follow-through is the real story

Forums close; this one appears to have kept working afterwards. Since the closing session, the Centre has been receiving a steady flow of letters from participants and institutions, several proposing concrete next steps rather than simply expressing thanks. Russia's "Russia – Islamic World" Strategic Vision Group has floated joint projects in museology, archaeology and publishing. Jordan's Ministry of Culture praised the organisation and the platform it created for dialogue among scholars, statesmen and religious leaders. And a professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia singled out the scale of the gathering as evidence of the Forum's academic weight.

The clearest sign that Tashkent, not just the Forum, is now on the map: ICESCO's regional office in Baku has separately invited the Centre's leadership to a late-July event on strategic foresight and public-sector innovation — a different kind of institutional relationship than a courtesy visit, and one the Centre appears keen to build on.

What comes next

The Forum's real test is what it feeds into. Uzbekistan's delegation has already been in Paris this summer for working meetings ahead of an international exhibition and conference at UNESCO Headquarters this October, discussing cooperation mechanisms with UNESCO, ICESCO and the OIC and sketching out what joint projects might follow. If the July Forum was the introduction, October in Paris looks like where the Centre finds out whether the relationships it built in Tashkent, Samarkand and Termez travel.