JEDDAH, 9 September 2005 — Some 100 Muslim scholars and intellectuals from all over the world will attend a three-day forum beginning in Makkah today to thrash out draft recommendations for the Extraordinary Islamic Summit scheduled to be held in the Holy City at the end of the year.
From India, well-known journalist M.J. Akbar, editor in chief of the English language daily Asian Age, would be attending the forum that will end on Sept. 11.
“The meeting will look into the subjects to be included in the agenda of the summit,” OIC Secretary-General Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who will be inaugurating the meeting, said in a statement made available to Arab News yesterday.
He said that the summit was in response to a call from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to study the challenges facing the Islamic world in the 21st century and identify ways to tackle these “with a new collective spirit based on the principles of Islamic solidarity and the sense of responsibility required at this critical stage.”
In his opening statement, the secretary-general will highlight the current OIC efforts “to reform its working methodology and improve performance so as to face the challenges at this new stage of its history.”
The group of Muslim scholars and intellectuals, representing different schools of thoughts and interpretations, would focus on these main themes — political and media, economy, science and technology, and Islamic thought, education and socio-cultural issues.
“Their recommendations will be drafted into a final document, including a workable plan of action for the coming decade that will be submitted to the leaders of the Muslim world at the summit,” the OIC secretary-general said.
