3rd Meeting of Supreme Consultative Council for Bringing Muslim Madhahib Closer Together in Rabat

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Supreme Consultative Council for Bringing Muslim Madhahib (Islamic schools of thought) Closer Together is holding its third meeting on 14-15 September 2011 in Rabat, at the invitation of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO).  The Council, operating as part of the Strategy for Bringing Muslim Madhahib Closer Together, which was adopted by the 10th Islamic Summit Conference in 2003, will discuss a paper on (Draft methodology to develop a textbook on rapprochement of Islamic schools of thought), and another paper titled (Draft working paper on using media and information technologies to promote rapprochement and necessary academic material).  The Council will also present the prototype for the Aafaaq Al-Taqreeb (Rapprochement Prospects) Magazine.  The Council will also examine the draft (Guide to address stereotypes of Islamic schools of thought in Islamic education curricula), and discuss a working paper on (Role of Islamic constants in Muslim unity).  The Council’s third meeting will be opened by ISESCO Director General Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri. Ahmed Al-Taoufik, Morocco’s Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, and Ahmed Khaled Babacar, Secretary General of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, a body reporting to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, will speak at the opening session.  Participants in the Council’s third meeting will include Ahmed Khaled Babacar, Secretary General of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy; Sheikh Kahlan Bin Nabhan Al-Kharusi, Assistant Grand Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman; Ali Muhieddine Al-Qurrah Daghi, Secretary General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars; Mahmud Erol Kilic, Secretary General of the OIC Parliamentary Union; Abdulaziz Al-Towayan, representative of the Islamic University in Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah; Ahmed El-Khamlishi, Head of Morocco’s Dar Al-Hadith Al-Hassaniah; Magdi Mohammed, Academic Counselor of the Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Al-Murtaza Bin Zayd Al-Mahturi, Director of Sana’a-based Badr Cultural Centre; Dr Mohammed El-Mokhtar Ould Bah, President of Chinguitt Modern University of Mauritania; Sheikh Ali Al-Amin, a Shiite authority from Lebanon; and Mohammed Hassan Tabranian, Assistant Secretary General of Tehran-based World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought.  The Draft Rules of Procedure of the Supreme Council for Bringing Muslim Madhahib Closer Together was approved by the experts’ meeting convened by ISESCO in Damascus in January 2006. The Council convened at a first meeting at ISESCO headquarters in May 2007, and at a second meeting in June 2008.  At the close of its third meeting, the Council will issue a statement interdicting Islamic schools of thought offending one another, as this goes against the spirit of rapprochement of Madhahib./129