Exclusive: Burmese Muslim ambassador hails Fatwa International Conference

CAIRO – 23 October 2017: Ambassador of Burma’s Muslims and EU Advisor to International Arbitration Omar Farooq Ye Tun stated in an exclusive interview with Egypt Today that the Fatwa International Conference was very essential in the fight against terrorism and extremism, as well as to offer the real image of the religion of Islam.

“I see the meeting of Muslims from all over the world in this time is very important to confront misleading fatwa that incite and support terrorism,” Farooq added to Egypt Today.

Farooq pointed out that the only way to overcome the phenomenon of misleading “fatwas”, or religious edicts, is to gather Islamic scholars and hold such conferences to coordinate and cooperate on how to face these terrorist groups and display their mistakes.

“We need to provide effective means of communication that gather all Islamic communities over the world by official websites with many languages to confront the blasphemous attempts launched against Islam and Islamic civilization,” stated Farooq.

He further added that Muslim minorities in Asia and the West need more efforts of communication by scholars to respond to their questions, confront misleading fatwas, and change the false image of Islam to its true identity, which he said is the role of scholars in the next period.

He concluded by thanking President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi for his sincere efforts to confront terrorism not only by weapons, but also with dialogue and thinking, adding that he extends his appreciation to Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayeb and Egyptian Mufti Shawky Allam.

The International Conference for Fatwa, under the title of "The Role of Fatwa in Creating a Stable Society", concluded Thursday with issuing a list of 19 recommendations.

The three-day conference held by the General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide, under the auspices of President Sisi, was part of the president’s call for renewing religious discourses.

Delegations from 80 countries were keen to attend the conference and discuss misleading fatwas inside their states and their impacts on societies.

The final recommendations stated that it’s important to consistently conduct regular conferences and meetings globally to discuss new challenges facing Islamic communities. It added that “the culture of giving the right fatwas to people” became necessary and pertinent ever since “many odd fatwas started to spread widely.”

The conference also stressed the importance of establishing a database and an information center to gather all of the ratified and trusted fatwas from around the world to facilitate locating them when needed.

“We also call on fatwa entities and administrations to use new technological means to facilitate the process of receiving and distributing correct, ratified fatwas,” the statement added.