The Department of Research at Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs concludes the activities of the first cultural season Tuesday within the series of its cultural project, scientific and intellectual symposia named as Umma symposium.
The closing symposium under the title of cultural incubators, 'Majlis as a Model', will be held at Sheikh Abdulla Bin Zaid Al Mahmoud Islamic Cultural Centre.
Director of the Department of Research and Islamic Studies Sheikh Dr Ahmed Mohamed Ghanem al-Thani said the symposium will discuss the prospects of the role Majlis have undertaken and is still undertaking as cultural incubators to safeguard the nation's identity, the Qatari community's culture, customs and traditions, and in particular Gulf and Arab, and in general spanning over time through three core themes.
The first theme, under the title 'Concept and Function', will discuss the dimensions of the Majlis concept and considers their social function throughout history, pauses at Poem's Majlis in the Arab Peninsula, and ends with reflection on the outstanding role of old and modern Majlis in Qatar, Sheikh Dr Ahmed outlined.
He pointed out that the second theme addresses the cultural dimension of Majlis through tackling the Islamic etiquette when engaging in Majlis discussions, role of Majlis in achieving knowledge accumulation and maintaining intergenerational customs and cultures, altering life patterns, as well as impact of modern communication methods on the inherited cultural dimension for Majlis mission.
He outlined that the third theme of the symposium seeks to unlock the future and lay out a vision that ensures continuity of the anticipated role of Majlis as one of the most important cultural incubators that contributed to community's cohesion and preserving its identity.
Sheikh Dr Ahmed highlighted that the second season of Umma symposium is due to start in October under the slogan: our values are pillar of civilisation and the way to rise, outlining that the symposium includes four vital symposia, the first one discusses Islamic values as the absent alternative in an attempt to explore methods of evoking this alternative, stemming from the values that constitute the most critical elements of rerise since civilisation requires these values.
He added that the second symposium lays out the problem of building family's values, stemming from the fact that families are core pillars of communities and the ladder of civilised evolution. In this context, the symposium explores elements and tools that target the components of family cohesion, lays out a future vision to counter this target, prevent disintegration, as well as maintain communities' rise.
He said the third symposium will address the culture of moderation and tolerance based on the vision of the Holy Qur'an, in addition to operationalising the role of a variety of institutions to promote this culture through evoking events of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament as a modern and distinguished example the world witnessed.
The fourth symposium, he said, comes under the title of: countering the contemporary atheism which discusses the phenomenon of atheism in Western community and attempts of exporting it to the Muslim community as being one of the modern tools in the war against Islam, stressing that these tools must be prevented, and their impacts addressed.
Umma symposium is a cultural project combining quarterly scientific and intellectual symposia organised by the Department of Research and Islamic Studies to discuss a myriad of the most exigent issues and problems at the community and national levels in collaboration with a contingent of intellectuals, scholars and researchers.
