Speakers and partcipant during the forum organised by the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University.
Doha: The College of Shariah and Islamic Studies at Qatar University (QU), in collaboration with Qatar National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, organised an international forum entitled “Islamic Culture as a University: Contemporary Challenges and Prospects of Development,” with the participation of leading academic speakers from various Arab and Islamic universities.
The forum consisted of three sessions, each of which addressed a specific topic. The first session centered on the place of the course of Islamic Culture in Islamic colleges and universities, the second focused on the cultural challenges that the course encounters, its decisions and teaching techniques. The third session was devoted to applied and practical discussions about the course hence the expert speakers shared their practical experiences in teaching the course of Islamic Culture.
The forum opened with an address by H E Dr. Hassan bin Rashid Al Derham, President of Qatar University. He spoke about the importance of this forum and how it reflects the continuous efforts of the College of Sharia to improve and develop the courses and equip it with recent effective learning approaches.
He also stressed that the Islamic Culture course continues to be of immense benefit for educating both students and scholars about Islam, deep conceptions, and the nation’s shared concerns and some of the most effective ways of undertaking them.
In his opening speech, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Ansari, Dean of the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies, stated that the forum is a testimony to the College’s commitment to collaborate and share experiences with stakeholders worldwide. He stressed the need to maintain Islamic culture so it can effectively overcome the challenges from other cultures.
In his paper, Dr. Mohamed Al-Musleh, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, declared that the College intends to meet three objectives by organizing this forum. The first is to bring together those who work in the field of Islamic Culture, as educators or researchers, to reflect and discuss the different ways in which the course may be advanced so that it responds to contemporary issues. The second is so that QU and other universities exchange thoughts, experiences, and practices about developing the Islamic Culture course, and finally, urge institutional and individual efforts at the university to advance the course.
Dr. Adnan Muhammad Zarzour, a former Professor of Islamic Culture at Qatar University, addressed Islamic culture in universities as a contemporary challenge, followed by Prof. Dr. Abdul Majeed Al-Najjar, Professor of Islamic Culture at the American University in Cairo. Dr. Fatiha Dawar from the University of Algiers spoke about the vision of thinker Muhammad Al-Mubarak for Islamic culture at universities.
The forum was organised on the occasion of a larger cultural event, “Doha, Capital of Culture in the Islamic World 2021,” which Qatar hosts from March 2021 to March 2022 under the auspices of the Islamic World Organization for Education, Education, and Science (Doha).
With this forum, the College contributes, along with other state institutions, to an amalgam of distinguished cultural events in a historic period as Doha shows the world the bright image of Islamic multiculturalism.
