The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently decided to mark Dec. 18 of each year as World Arabic Language Day.
During the opening ceremony of the first Arabic language day on Tuesday, several scientific institutions and academies called for promoting and protecting the Arabic language to improve its status in science and media, warning of the onslaught of local dialects and foreign languages on Arabic.
In a statement on behalf of Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, director-general of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), the organization stressed the need to promote the Arabic language to make it the lead role in education programs.
It highlighted that ISESCO’s celebration of this day is an occasion to study Arabic language issues, explore ways to promote it, and enable it to surmount the problems it is currently facing by keeping it abreast of developments and arising mutations.
The statement pointed out that this day interests us in the first place, because Arabic is our language as well as the language of the Holy Qur’an and Islam, which unites us.
“It is the language of culture and of the prosperous Arab-Islamic intellectual and literary heritage. It is the language of the civilizational identity of both Muslim and Christian Arabs, and the language of all Muslims, who use Arabic to read their Qur’an and understand its meanings,” the statement read.
In the same vein, the secretary-general of the League of Islamic Universities, Jaffar Abdulsalam, indicated the importance of taking intensive care to protect Arabic, as it is the language of the Holy Qur’an.
“On this occasion, we call the Arab states to promote Arabic in various fields, especially in education and the media; and to counter the invasion of various local dialects and foreign languages in the Arab world, which stretched at the expense of the Arabic language.”
Abdulsalam pointed out that the league, in cooperation with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Culture, on Wednesday organized the annual celebration of the World Arabic Language Day to emphasize the importance of the Arabic language.
The day’s agenda featured scientific presentations on various issues related to the present and future of Arabic.
World Arabic Day to underline the language’s status
