Jordan Times
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Scholars to discuss 'Islamic Rule and Democracy'
By Mahmoud Al Abed
AMMAN — Muslim scholars meeting here on Saturday will showcase Islam as a faith
that accepts democracy and has potential to promote pluralism and freedom and to
coexist with modern democracies in the West, organisers of Aal al Bayt
Foundation's 13th conference said.
According to Hussein Rawashdeh, a spokesman for
the conference, about 90 Muslim scholars from 40 Arab, Muslim and other
countries will gather for the event which runs this year under the theme
“Islamic Rule and Democracy.”
Participants will discuss 33 working papers, including five in English that will
revolve around three topics. The first is on Islamic rule and the concept of
“shura” in Islam, while other researchers will tackle the issue of democracy in
its modern sense. The other papers will look into historic and modern examples
of democracy and shura, Rawashdeh told The Jordan Times.
Participants include key clerics and academics specialised in Islamic thought.
The celebrated Sheikh Yousef Qardawi, and Murad Hoffman, former German
ambassador to Morocco who converted to Islam are on the list of invitees.
Other participants include Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (ISESCO) Secretary Abdul Aziz Tweijri, Organisation of the Islamic
Conference Secretary General Eklemeddin Ihsanoglu, in addition to leading Shiite
clerics like Iran's Mohammed Taskhiri.
The spokesman said current issues like the relationship between the Muslim world
and the US in particular and the Western world in general will be under the
spotlight in the conference.
The Aal al Bayt Foundation, established in 1980, is an international,
nongovernmental charitable foundation based in Jordan but comprising a
membership of 70-100 of the world's top Islamic scholars and clerics from almost
every Islamic country and major community in the world.
The aim of the foundation, according to its website, is to “promote, propagate
and preserve moderate, orthodox Islamic thought and intellectual heritage.”
“By `orthodox,' the foundation means the seven traditional maddhabs (or schools
of Islamic Law) of Islam.”