DHAKA, 5 January 2004 — Dr. Abdullah Omar Naseef, former deputy chairman of the Shoura Council, recently visited three Islamic universities in Bangladesh and urged their graduates to set a good example and work to improve the Ummah.
“I do hope that the graduates of this university will be role models of morality and character for those of other universities in the country and society as well,” Naseef said at the International Islamic University Chittagong’s (IIUC) convocation. “I do believe those who are receiving certificates today will be able to bring significant change in society. I am also optimistic that they will not only engage themselves in this country but will also render services to alleviate the sufferings of the Muslim Ummah and become a model in the global village,” he said. Bangladesh President Professor Dr. Iajuddin Ahmed, who is also chancellor of the university, conferred bachelor and master’s degrees on 471 graduates during the ceremony. IIUC was founded in 1995 and now has 3,500 students with 223 full-time and 57 part-time faculty members.
Dr. Naseef also attended a meeting of IIUC’s board of trustees and approved its budget. The board discussed issues such as development of curriculum, ways to improve the university’s performance and employment of its graduates. A four-storied central library building for the university has been opened in Kumira, a donation from the emir of Qatar.
Dr. Naseef was accompanied by Dr. Abdul Razaque Zafar, secretary-general of the Makkah-based International Islamic Foundation for Education, and Dr. Abdullah Mosleh, secretary-general of the Council of Miracles of the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah, an affiliate of the Muslim World League, Makkah. Both are members of the board of trustees.
Dr. Naseef also attended a convocation at the Darul Ihsan University (DIU) at which some 640 students, both males and females, received bachelor and master’s degrees. Twenty-four outstanding graduates received the Professor Syed Ali Ashraf Medal for excellence.
DIU was the brainchild of the late Professor Syed Ali Ashraf, secretary of the first world conference on Muslim education held in Makkah in 1977. Established in 1989 at Savar Campus with the aim of providing a meaningful link between “revealed” and “acquired” knowledge, DIU is a faith-based institution. There are about 2,500 students, mostly from Bangladesh, in addition to 170 teachers, a number of them from Al-Azhar University, Cairo. Dr. Naseef also visited the Savar campus of the university, which plans to move at least one faculty to its own campus. “We are expecting to complete the building, mosque, etc. here soon,” said Dr. Naseef.
He later visited the Islamic University Project in Sylhet, known as the Jalalabad International Islamic University, and attended a meeting of the Hikmah International Islamic Trust (HIIT) of which he is chairman.
