Fatwa Int’l Conference Opens in Egypt

TEHRAN (IQNA) – The 5th international conference on Ifta (issuing religious edicts) was launched in Egypt on Tuesday.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi opened the conference, whose theme is “Managing Jurisprudential Differences: A Civilizational Approach”.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Egypt’s Mufti Shawqi Allam said the issue of this year's conference emanated from a real determination that is not limited to merely addressing intellectual and ethical issues related to jurisprudential differences, but extends to an honest intention to utilize and manage juristic differences with insight and prudence.

The purpose is to render these differences an efficient instrument for promoting a system that allows Islamic jurisprudence and fatwa to contribute to the contemporary civilization on the levels of both the Islamic world and humanity in general, Allam added, according to MENA.

He highlighted efforts exerted by the General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide to counter extremist thoughts and terrorism as well as launching programs that fight extremist ideologies which have become a rising threat in the present and future of the Islamic nation.

He also underlined the importance of handling differences in the Islamic jurisprudence in order to avoid exploitation of such differences by terrorist groups to defame Islam and deceive citizens under the name of religion.

The two-day conference is attended by delegates from 85 countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia, Palestine, Oman, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uzbekistan, Comoros, Burundi, Tanzania, Senegal, Malaysia, Thailand, United States, France, Russia, Greece, the Netherlands, Ukraine, and Albania.

A number of training and interactive workshops will be held on the sidelines of the conference sessions that will focus on mechanisms of treating Islamophobia issues, the announcement of the results of the Global Fatwa Index (GFI) and the Fatwa and Information Technology (IT).

The conference will unveil a number of initiatives and projects that serve Ifta’ research and enable researchers to manage juristic differences. Such initiatives include announcing the “Charter of Fatwa and Juristic Tolerance”, the international day of Ifta' and the Imam al-Qarafi Prize for distinction in Ifta'.