Alim Zakir Conference 2008

The Islamic Cultural Affairs committee held their annual Alim/Zakir conference on Sunday 23rd November 2008 at the Zainabiya centre in Milton Keynes . Alhamdulilah over 60 Alims and Zakireen serving our communities in the United Kingdom attended the event. We even had a representative from Canada.

The conference had three principle themes the first of which was bringing youth issues to the forefront. This session was lead by Syed Mohamed Naqvi and commenced with an insightful presentation made by Community Youth representatives Sis Mehjabeen Rahim and Br Mohsin Asharia leading to a fruitful debate on current burning issues and how Zakireen can address these from the pulpit and in their interaction with the community.

The second session introduced by Br Taki Jaffer focused on Interfaith activities and strategies that can be implemented in our programmes and how we can reach out to the wider community.

The third session addressed the cultural and social challenges behind the veil and was lead by Sis Ummul Banin Merali.A number of very important issues that need to be addressed emerged from the discussion that followed.

A thought provoking presentation was made by Sheikh Mirza Abbas on the current situation of the shia communities in Pakistan especially in Parachinar.

This years conference was a great success in that each of the above burning topics were discussed & debated extensively. Delegates were split into groups for a thorough discussions aimed at producing a list of key issues. This resulted in an array of potential solutions and a collective proposed plan of action in response to the current issues.

The president of the CoEJ Munawer Rattensey also addressed the delegates on importance of such debates & gatherings and highlighted the current important issue of self regulation under MINAB. The chairman of the ICA, Razahusein Rahim welcomed the delegates and  briefed them on tableegh activities of the Islamic cultural affairs committee in Europe and how the mubaligheens could support this work.

Alhajj Munaver bhai stated after the conference " this was a very well attended & organised conference which had focused on the key challenges facing our community ". This was echoed in the written feedback received from all the participants with over 90% indicating complete satisfaction with the conference & the way it was organised. The Chairman of the ICA of the COEJ Alhaj Mulla Razahusein Rahim reflected that this was probably the most successful conference in that the participation & level of engagement & discussions was indeed very good. Some of the issues raised have  been thought provoking and Inshallah we propose to summarise these as a reminder for implementation & with a proposal to revisit these at the next conference to review progress.

ICA