Muslim Council of Elders' founding body convenes second meet in Cairo

CAIRO: The founding body of the Muslim Council of Elders convened its second meeting on Wednesday in Cairo, Egypt, bringing together an elite of scholars and sages from across the Islamic world. The participants discussed the latest serious developments in the region, namely the infighting and terrorism affecting all societies, destroying countries, and distorting the image of Islam. "Participants agreed on the need to form an active front to address the stream of violence and terrorism, through strong joint organised actions that bring the nation together, unite the efforts of scholars and the educated, and keep-up with all developments on the ground," said the Muslim Council of Elders in the final communique of the meeting. The aim, it said, is to present to the world an insightful vision derived from the divine teachings, and elicited from human experience; a vision that is based on both theory and practice. The scholars emphasised that extremism is an ailment that can only be cured by the Islamic Sharia, using the same speech and Islamic concepts which the extremists resort to in their destructive endeavours, misinterpreting such concepts and deviating them from their noble purposes. "In this regard, the council proceeded to develop an integrated strategic plan to promote peace in the world, and contribute in defusing terrorism in all its forms, whether intellectual or armed. The council’s committees will launch practical and concrete initiatives. The scholars will develop the frameworks of those initiatives and they will be implemented by the young people. These initiatives aim at guiding the nation out of the dark tunnel of dissension." The initiatives will be announced at the beginning of 2015. Some of these initiatives will look into the nation’s approaches and inherited scholarship, in order to conduct serious revisions to many obtrusive concepts that are disguised in the nature of original concepts. These erroneous concepts have left the nation in the midst of infighting and rivalry. The council will also present other practical initiatives that will be carried out to enhance the nation’s capabilities to effectively contribute to world peace, and encourage its young people to take part in the fields of intellectual creativity and scientific innovation to benefit all mankind. The participants have sent four short messages to the young people, the Islamic Nation, the rulers, and the whole world: :: Our advice to the young people of the Islamic Nation is not to seek more than what the nation can grant or to raise their expectations beyond the well-being of the Muslim society, so they overstrain themselves and their nation, provoke hostility of other nations, and waste the chances for correctional and rightful values. We advise them to listen to the voice of wisdom and know that imposing justice while in peace is better than imposing it while in war, on both the rulers and the ruled. :: We address the rulers and the ruled of the Islamic Nation: We must put out the fire of infighting and bloodshed, leave conflicts and discords aside, bridge differences and resort to dialogue. Ideological divisions, sectarian alignments, exclusion and polarisation have hurt the Islamic Nation more than anything else. All parties in the nation must work hard, faithfully and impartially. All parties in the Islamic Nation have to learn from Imam al Hasan (may Allah bless him) to retreat for the sake of Allah. :: We invite the rulers to do everything they can to achieve justice and prosperity for all citizens. This will inevitably, contribute to putting out dissension. We ask them to gain the wisdom of scholars and utilise it in their decisions. Finally we ask them to refrain from security and military approaches as the only solutions, by adopting comprehensive intellectual social solutions. :: To the whole world, we declare that Islam is innocent from terrorism. Over 14 centuries, Islam has been a peace-maker. Islam cannot be judged by some conditional cases that includes complicated historical factors. This is a declaration that the Islamic Nation’s scholars are willing to contribute to world peace, in light of their intellectual background and responsibilities towards the world civilisation. The Council emphasises respect to all different views, as long as they are peaceful and committed to peace of communities. Members of the founding committee have approved the bylaws of the council. They elected the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Dr. Sheikh Ahmad Al Tayyeb President of the Muslim Council of Elders. They also agreed on a proposition to add a number of wise men and scholars in line with the statute of the council. The Muslim Council of Elders also sent their deepest condolences to the families of the "martyr soldiers who were killed unjustly while they were guarding the safety and security of Egypt and other Arab and Islamic countries," the communique said, referring to the victims of the two attacks on Egyptian military positions in the Sinai Peninsula on Friday. "They asked Allah to accept them as martyrs, and give patience and reward to their families, to protect the Islamic Nation from dissension, whether obvious and hidden, and to restore the grace of security and compassion,". – Emirates News Agency, WAM – http://www.wam.ae/en/news/arab/1395271649748.html