Ibn Khaldon Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences at Qatar University (QU), in collaboration with Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU), has started a three-day online international conference on ‘Religion in constitutions within a global context: historical, political, legal and cultural dimensions’.
The conference was opened by Prof Mariam al-Maadeed, vice-president,  Research and Postgraduate Studies. She said the event deals with an important topic. This requires great expertise, knowledge and commitment of the cultural and social, moving from local to global contexts and producing clear ideas capable of achieving the objectives of the centre in preserving the identity of the nation and cultural openness to the other. 
Dr Nayef Nahar al-Shamari, director of Ibn Khaldon Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences, welcomed the participants and spoke about the importance of the conference, in which the fundamental issues will be discussed.
Dr Nayef said, “The conference is part of the strategy of the centre aiming to create a bridge for better understanding of the phenomena in which the relationship between national, constitutional and social issues and their relationship to religion will be discussed.”
“The conference will also discuss the controversy between religion and power in the tangible reality, the constitutional status of the religion according to different practices of some countries shedding light on the issues of external penetration in Islamic constitutions,” he added.
Dr Mohamed al-Mukhtar al-Shinqiti, representative of scientific committee, said that the topic has been his concern for years. The first session of the conference covered the topic: ‘The historical and cultural dimensions of the religious issue in the constitutions of the nations in the world.’