Conference to Discuss Role of Scholarly, Cultural Centers in Proximity

TEHRAN (IQNA) – A conference is planned to be held Wednesday on the role of scholarly and cultural centers in promoting proximity among Islamic schools of thought.

The World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought (WFPIST) will organize the online event in cooperation with the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLI).

It will be held on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of a visit by a delegation from Egypt’s Al-Azhar Islamic Center to Iran.

WFPIST chief Hojat-ol-Islam Hamid Shahriari, NLI president Ashraf Boroujerdi, former president of the University of Islamic Sects Abdul Karim Biazar Shirazi, Syrian deputy Mufti Sheikh Alaeddin Zaatari, Lebanese scholar Sheikh Ghazi Hunaina, Harvard University professor Mohamed Saqqa and University of Tehran professor Mohammad Ali Azarshab are among the speakers at the conference.

It is slated for Wednesday, from 5 to 7 PM Tehran time, and can be watched on live.taqrib.ir.

A delegation of scholars of Egypt’s Al-Azhar Islamic Center travelled to Iran half a century ago as part of efforts made by Shia and Sunni scholars to promote proximity and unity.

Gholam Reza Amirkhani, a faculty member of the National Library and Archives of Iran, told IQNA in April that the visit was historic one in the course of the relations between Iran and Egypt.

He noted that an Iranian cleric named Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Qomi had settled in Egypt years earlier and strived to develop proximity among Islamic schools of thought.

Ayatollah Qomi established an institute named Dar al-Taghrib for Islamic proximity with the participation of representatives from the four Sunni schools of thought, Amirkhani noted, adding that such activities were supported by senior Iranian and Egyptian clerics, including grand Ayatollah Borujerdi and then sheikh of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltut.

It was then that the Egyptian delegation travelled to Iran and held meetings with Iranian scholars in the cities of Tehran, Mashhad, Qom and Isfahan, Amirkhani said.

He noted that accompanying the delegation was prominent Quran reciter Sheikh Mahmoud Khalil al-Husari who recited verses from the Quran during some of the meetings in Iran.

3983848