Jeddah, November 27, 2022, SPA -- The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha has underlined the increasing significance of the partnership between the OIC and the Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilization. ‏In a statement delivered in his name by Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian, Social, and Cultural Affairs Ambassador Tarig Ali Bakheet on 22 November 2022 at the High Level Ministerial Group of the Ninth Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations held in Fez, Kingdom of Morocco, the Secretary General appreciated the initiative by the Kingdom of Morocco of hosting the Forum’s ninth edition. Taha highlighted that the Forum provides the international community with a unique platform to develop joint initiatives and forge partnerships many of which are consistently supported and shared by the OIC. On a different note, the Secretary General pinpointed the new forms of islamophobic sentiments and acts, racism, xenophobia and discrimination that unfortunately seem to be on the rise in some parts of the world, urging that these hate-instigated phenomena could only be banished by striving together to sensitize the diverse communities across our world about the value and virtues of civilizational pluralism and the pursuit of intercultural and inter-civilizational engagement. The Secretary General made the point that the Group of Friends of the UN Alliance of Civilizations needs to sustain its primordial role as a clearing house, a catalyst, and a facilitator for this much-needed dialogue-driven culture. --SPA 13:29 LOCAL TIME 10:29 GMT 0007 www.spa.gov.sa/w1819007