Under auspices of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Yaaqoub Al-Sane' opened the 22nd session of the conference of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) on Sunday.
In his inaugural speech, Al-Sane', also Minister of Justice, said the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs is keen on hosting such intellectual meetings that materialize the close relationship among the Arab and Muslim nations.
"The current conference is scheduled to discuss the latest developments in the Muslim world as well as a number of scholarly Islamic issues," he said.
"It will debate up to 30 subjects ranging from political, economic and social fields to medical ones, with a view to defining the legal frameworks governing them," Al-Sane' noted.
The minister highlighted the role of Sharia (Islamic law) and the Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) in finding viable solutions to the problems of the contemporary societies.
"The Muslim world is looking to jurists and scholars to provide advices on a number of vital issues which are of common interest for the nation.
"The IIFA, an affiliate of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), is a prestigious reference point for Islamic jurisprudence at present which was able to find responses to a lot of contemporary issues," Al-Sane' added.
On his part, OIC Secretary General Iyad Ameen Madani said the current conference takes place at a time when the Muslim world faces challenging situations and needs advice from credible scholars.
The OIC summits reaffirmed the status of the IIFA as the main credible jurist reference for the Islamic nation, he said in a speech read on is behalf by his advisor Ahmad Al-Basit.
He noted that the holy city of Jerusalem is under a ferocious Zionist onslaught that aims to blur its Arab and Islamic identity.
The OIC chief urged Muslims to visit the city in order to reach out to its Arab residents and support their right to their homeland.
Meanwhile, IIFA Chairman and advisor to the Saudi Royal Court Sheikh Dr. Saleh Bin Humaid spoke highly of His Highness the Amir for sponsoring the event, saying "his kind patronage gives a strong support for us to serve the Muslim nation." The conferees will discuss, inter alia, political, legal, social and economic issues as well as subjects relating to medicines, foodstuffs and beverages with a view to finding legal controls on them from the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence, he revealed.
IIFA Secretary General Dr. Ahmad Ba-Bakr said the scientific revolution, and the accelerated developments on the industrial, political and media arenas as well as the complicated international relations resulted in radical changes in the concepts governing the contemporary world.
He added that the conference will developed common views on the agenda topics which include the spread of extremist ideology, the democratic rights from the Islamic perspective, the women's right to senior posts and the rights of people with special needs.
The four-day conference gathered some 150 experts and senior jurists from 148 Muslim countries.