A Special Meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society

will be held in
Fez, Morocco

Saturday 21st April to Tuesday 24th April, 2011.

at

University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah.

on

Freedom, Human Dignity and the Open Society.

This meeting would be the first MPS meeting in an Arab country, which would be particularly important at a time when everyone feels concerned by what is happening in the Arab world. Morocco is particularly well fitted for holding such a meeting because it stands for a bridge between Africa and Europe and between the Muslim world and the Western world. The political and intellectual climate is particularly tolerant and people are free to express all ideas. The king, who has both a political and a religious role, is very efficient in transforming Morocco into a modern country, while maintaining Islamic tradition. Moreover, since its independence and especially in the 60s, the country has been reputed for its being a pioneering country both in the Arab world and Africa in terms of its openness on Market Economy, Free Enterprise and Private Property despite the presence of a number of anti-liberal tendencies at that time.

The city of Fez is an old city which is considered as the cultural and intellectual capital city of Morocco. University Al Quaraouiyine, founded in the 9th century, is the most ancient University in the Arabo-Islamic and Eastern world in general. It still exists as a religious University, but there is now a very modern University (with 80,000 students), Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, which is very prestigious and which will support the organization of the Fez meeting