Documenting Diversity A recent conference brought together music experts from all five continents in the Moroccan town of Assilah. The event defined itself as an initiative to take stock of the diverse musical forms in all the countries of Islamic culture. Manfred Ewel reports The responsibility of cultural policy for music education is of essential importance for musical development, but this issue was not discussed at the conference The first conference on Arab music was held in Cairo in 1932, attended by music experts and musicians from Europe and the most important Arab countries. Due to the fundamental changes that the world and the Islamic-influenced countries have been through since then, the subject area was broadened this time around to cover the entire Islamic world and phenomena such as music and the mass media, global trends in music consumption and the influence of state cultural policy.