Islam fights back

The Muslim Council of Elders—an independent body of Muslim scholars, experts and dignitaries established in Abu Dhabi in 2014 has announced the launch of an international youth forum to be held in 2017.

The aim of the Council, which in September this year hosted a historic meeting between the World Council of Churches and the Muslim Council of Elders, chaired by the Grand Imam of Azhar Ahmed Tayeb at the WCC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, inviting the Pope to address seminars and Muslim youth and seeking peace that comes through intellectual centres—has been aiming to promote peace and to address conflict and religious extremism and fragmentation among Muslim communities.  

The newly launched forum will also aim to be an international project that promotes dialogue between Muslim religious leaders and youth. There is a concerted belief that several young people are being made vulnerable to unauthorised interpreters of religious texts.

To make conversation and interpretations more accessible, the international youth forum, 2017 will also issue a declaration to clarify against misleading extremist ideologies. It will be circulated in multiple languages and is to be adopted by different religious institutions, such as Al Azhar, in Cairo Egypt, one of the most influential Muslim scholarly institutions in the world that has also been fighting the unauthorised issuing of fatwas and the randomisation of preaching.

The Council is also taking several steps in order to combat misinformation being spread in the name of Islam. This will include an exploratory campaign in print and on the web, using social media, in multiple languages about Islam. This campaign will be called ‘Islam, Religion of Peace’. It will also launch discussions on social media and digital platforms, with an aim to create a space for dialogue. The hope is that with providing a concerted push to the access not only will young people from within Islam reach out with clarifications on their misunderstanding of Islamic ideology but it will also initiate  a dialogue with those from other religions or from non-religious backgrounds who may seek clarifications.

The Council also wants to open conversations with religious leaders from other religions. High on the agenda of the Council is extending support to Muslim refugees currently facing hostile situations across the world, primary being the situations faced by Muslims in Aleppo, asking international aid organisations to focus on the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire and facing hostilities, besides the destruction of the city itself, as well as by the Rohingyas in Myanmar.

It will be reaching out to several representatives across religions and political leadership positions to discuss the issue of ethnic conflict in Myanmar and propose solutions.

Professor Hassan Al Shafe’ei, member of Al Azhar Association of Senior Scholars and head of the Arabic Language Academy in Egypt, told Gulf News: “the meeting focused on the tragic conditions of the Muslims in Burma and the relationship between Muslims and Christians in the Arab region, especially after the tragic and devastating terrorist bombing of the cathedral in Cairo, Egypt, and the urgent need to tackle the consequences that might be result.”

At the meeting of the Council, Al Zeid Ali Al Ameen, Lebanese religious scholar, highlighted the role of the UAE. “The UAE is a leading country in terms of humanity and humane relationships, it works to create dialogue and communication between different nations and people across the world, and has issued resolutions based on humanity, regardless of sects, affiliations and ethnicities,” Al Ameen said.

The Council had previously put out a statement that due to the conflagration raging in the region and in other parts of the world, it becomes necessary to have the world listen to “a voice of reason, wisdom, and logic that cannot be attained unless cooperation become the norm of the age.

The train of dialogue has left the station starting a journey, particularly with regards to religious dialogue, shifting from rhetoric to urging all people to cooperate and to jointly get involved in the field of construction.”

The Council repeatedly focuses on the term ‘culture of peace’ in its conference sessions and attempts to spread this as a constructive rather than a destructive force.  

A CONSENSUS

In March 2016, the earlier collaboration between the World Council of Churches and the Muslim Council of Elders brought the following five common points which serve as a suitable basis for local, regional, and international meetings:

1. Rejection of all forms of bigotry and racial discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, gender or origin.
    
2. Encouraging religious leaders to work hand-in-hand with the local authorities in order to expose the sound image of religions.
    
3. Supporting and repeating successful initiatives like the “Family House” imitative which was launched by the Azhar in cooperation with Coptic Orthodox Church and other Egyptian Churches. In this respect they could point out their successful Jordanian initiatives.
    
4. Looking for suitable means to encourage women’s serious contribution in the process of peace-building.
    
5. Encouraging all efforts designed to stop arms race that threatens the security of all peoples, and calling to direct these resources to fight poverty, illiteracy, and disease which the poor and the rich nations suffer from alike.