RIYADH, 19 February 2006 — The Janadriya Festival could serve as a useful platform for popularizing Saudi culture in other Gulf states, said Mubarak Mohammed Al-Rahdi, head of the Festivals Section at the Omani Ministry of Culture and Heritage.
And an Indian guest to the festival told Arab News that it could be an effective means of creating cultural awareness among the Saudi youth and gearing them up for the challenges posed by the cultural incursion of satellite channels.
In an interview with Radio Riyadh that will be broadcast soon, Al-Rahdi said it was not enough to stage the Janadriya Festival in the Kingdom alone. It should also be organized in other Gulf states as part of the Saudi initiative to popularize its culture.
Gulf textbooks should include a chapter on Janadriya to promote greater appreciation of the Kingdom’s cultural heritage, he said.
Shoura Council member Muhammad Al-Zulfa said a list of invitees to the festival and the conference being held on the sidelines of the show indicate Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s interest in unifying the ranks of the Islamic Ummah.
“It is significant that people belonging to all schools of Islamic thought have been invited to the conference,” he said.
The views were echoed by Ameeduzzaman Qasmi Kairanvi, working president of Deoband Old Boys’ Organization and one of the delegates from India.
Asghar Ali Engineer, chairman of the Center for Study of Society and Secularism in India, said the Kingdom has taken an important step by organizing the Janadriya Festival, which could go a long way toward strengthening the links between the Saudi youth and their cultural moorings. At a time when the satellite TV is making inroads into Saudi homes and threatening the cultural and Islamic values of the Muslim world, such an initiative was a step in the right direction, he said.
Asghar Ali thanked Minister of Culture and Information Iyad Madani for inviting foreign guests to the festival as it could help bring down cultural barriers and promote a better understanding between Muslims and other societies. Such events, he pointed out, have acquired an added dimension in building a bridge of understanding with the West at a time when the controversial cartoons have created misconceptions and tension in the region.
“Madani is an intellectual and has been playing a major role in projecting the Kingdom in its true Islamic perspective abroad,” he observed.
Asghar Ali lauded Saudi Arabia for its interest in East Asia and said it was a recognition of the growing economic and geopolitical importance of the East, notably economic power houses like China, Japan and India.
He said India’s growing energy needs and its rising stature as a regional power makes it an important player in the strategic alliance between Saudi Arabia and India.
