(May 18, 2012) On Monday, ISNA joined Georgetown University’s Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) to host a Symposium on Religious Freedom and the Rights of Minorities in Islam in Washington, DC.  ISNA President Imam Mohamed Magid and ACMCU Assistant Director Dr. John Voll welcomed an audience of over 100 representatives of faith organizations, academic institutions, think-tanks, and foreign embassies.

ISNA is currently working together with Muslim leaders worldwide to promote a mechanism for developing Islamic standards and protocols on religious freedom and the role of religious minorities in the Muslim-majority communities.  A full video of the conference will be available next week but you can find highlights below.

Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah of Mauritania kicked off the symposium by providing the audience with background on the fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) of the rights of religious minorities in Muslim-majority communities.  The word “minorities” does not exist in Islamic thought, Sh. Bin Bayyah said, but rather multiple “religious groups.”  He added, “Islam sees humanity as one unified group,” quoting the Qur’anic verse, “O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another.”