Campaign aims to find the seven wonders of the Islamic world

The Swiss-based New7Wonders Foundation hopes the initiative, which is still “on the drawing board” will spark discussion from Abu Dhabi to Africa and Indonesia.

Doha is representing the region in a New7Wonders campaign to determine the seven top cities of the future. Sebastian Widmann / dapd

From the Grand Mosque in Mecca to the Alhambra in Spain and the Imam mosque of Isfahan, Iran, the Muslim world boasts exquisite architecture reflecting the culture, message and history of Islam.

A campaign is now aiming to find the most stunning examples – the seven wonders of the Islamic world.

Public online voting and expert opinion will be used to narrow down a list of the most popular monuments and symbols representing Muslim heritage worldwide.

The Swiss-based New7Wonders Foundation hopes the initiative, which is still “on the drawing board” will spark discussion from Abu Dhabi to Africa.

“I always felt, even when you look politically, that for a long time the Islamic World, the Arab World, were not talking in one voice,” said Bernard Weber, the foundation’s founder and president.

“And I do not mean that they should be always talking in one voice because I also learnt and understand that the Arab world, the Islamic world, is very diverse.

“But it is always good to find consensus on certain things. It is a great opportunity to make an exercise of consensus for a positive thing of pride.”

The foundation has run several campaigns that attracted wide-scale media attention and online public participation.

In July 2007 it announced the New7Wonders of the World initiative, which focused on monuments of cultural significance across the world.

A second campaign identifying wonders of the natural world included Abu Dhabi’s Bu Tinah Island as one of its finalists, although it did not make the list of seven.

Mr Weber said the appeal of such campaigns was that they presented positive messages to a public weary of a news agenda saturated by the world’s problems.

“Every force needs a resistance to grow, so whatever you oppose, whenever you oppose it, you are actually doing that force a favour because you are giving it the resistance to become stronger,” he said.

“My philosophy was, I am not going to oppose, I am not going to resist, I am trying to make a parallel force to divert the energies.”

The foundation has been criticised by countries that participated in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign. In May 2011, the Maldives withdrew from the competition, while Indonesian officials later complained they were asked for US$45 million (Dh165.2m) in licensing and sponsorship fees and to organise a world tour event.

The event, said Mr Weber, was subsequently cancelled and Indonesia’s Komodo National Park was one of the seven winners despite the controversy.

Mr Weber insisted that finding sponsorship and supporting events was never a condition imposed on countries.

“We never said to any country you must bring sponsors to participate. There were many countries who did not have sponsors and funny enough, the poorest country, Bangladesh, had a sponsor,” he said.

“Unfortunately, when something becomes important and big, you cannot avoid that in certain places. In certain countries it becomes the play ball of politics.

“The problem with politics is that [political careers] can be short. Very often it happens that if a minister starts something, the new minister does not want it.”

The foundation is running a competition to determine the seven top cities of the future and the number of countries that applied was greater than the number represented at the Olympics, said Mr Weber.

Representing the region is Doha, which overtook both Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the competition.

“The campaigns are not necessarily about the best, because like in a real campaign, it is not the best candidate necessarily that wins. It is the candidate who knows how to motivate the voters,” he said.

As for the plans to determine the seven wonders of the Islamic world, the foundation is looking for media partners and authorities interested in taking part.

“We have the know-how to do it now and we would assist and I would like to see it very much as an independent thing that I am inspiring them to do,” Mr Weber said.