JEDDAH, 12 October 2006 — The Organization of the Islamic Conference has organized a meeting between Iraqi religious leaders representing Sunnis and Shiites on Oct. 19-20, 2006. The meeting will take place in Makkah and the aim is to adopt a reconciliation document calling for ending the bloodshed in Iraq.
The document, entitled “Makkah Al-Mukarramah Document”, will be proclaimed in Makkah during the last ten days of the blessed month of Ramadan with the participation of senior Muslim scholars and authorities in Iraq.
The meeting is an initiative by the OIC to end the bloodshed in Iraq. It is emphasized that the meeting is religious and not political and is held under the umbrella of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, a subsidiary of the OIC.
Once the reconciliation document is adopted, it will be a call to every Iraqi, stating the clear position of Islam on the prohibition of shedding a Muslim’s blood. It will also call on Iraqi Muslims to abide by the clear principles of Islam in this regard.
Preparatory meetings to formulate the document were held on Oct. 7-8 at the headquarters of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy in Jeddah. Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the OIC, chaired the meeting. In his remarks, he said that the OIC saw the necessity of taking an initiative aimed at stopping the turmoil in Iraq. It was taken out of consciousness of the OIC’s responsibility before Allah, the Islamic Ummah and history in order to prevent the shedding of Muslim blood and to put an end to civil strife in Iraq.
He called on religious scholars and the highest religious authorities in Iraq to embark on their duties of stopping bloodshed in their country by emphasizing that the spilling of Muslim blood is against the teachings of the Holy Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet (PBUH).
The Iraqi delegation of religious scholars representing Sunnis and Shiites who participated in the preparatory meetings was composed of Sheikh Jalaludeen Al-Saghir, Sheikh Dr. Salah Abdul Razaq, Sheikh Abdul Satar Abdul Jabbar Abbas and Sheikh Dr. Mahmoud Al-Samidai.
Also at the meeting were Sheikh Muhammad Habib Ben El-Khoja, secretary-general of the IIFA, Iranian scholar Sheikh Muhammad Ali Al-Taskhiri, a member of the IIFA, and the renowned scholar Dr. Muhammad Salim El-Awa acted as adviser to the OIC secretary-general.
