Islamic summit to specify who speaks on religious issues
Regional, Religion, 12/7/2005

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister prince Saud al-Faisal announced on Tuesday that the special Islamic summit which starts its deliberations today in Mecca will discuss developing the Islamic Fiqh ( Islamic jurisprudence ) and giving it enough power so as to become a higher reference for al-Ifta, agreed upon in the Islamic world, and the development of the structure of the Organization of the Islamic conference to enable it to play its role.

The 57 OIC member countries drew in a meeting held in Jeddah on Tuesday the final touches on the two documents "Mecca announcement" and the " ten-year plan" in order to develop the performance of the organization and the common Islamic work which will be submitted to the leaders of the Islamic countries which includes almost one fifth of the world population.

Faisal said at the opening of the foreign ministers meeting that the document on the program of the ten- year work plan includes "restructuring of the Islamic fiqh complex," so as to be a reference for the peoples of our nation, that enlighten the road for it and unite the references and the various Fatwas (Islamic pronouncements), besides having the necessary development in the structure of the OIC and the way of it performs that enables it to carry out optimum role.

The spokesman for the organization Ata al-Mannan stressed the need of "finding a common reference agreed upon in the Islamic world" in order to organize the Fatwa phenomenon, which stems from various religious establishments in the Islamic world (issuing their own Islamic pronouncements).

The so-called "Mecca announcement" stresses that any Muslim being a Shiite or Sunni who follows the teaching of Islam can not be considered "a non believer" and that any Muslim is not permitted to issue "unaccepted Fatwa." It calls on the Muslim countries "to have a sincere stand with oneself based on the ground of the Quran (the book of God and the Sunna of the prophet, and firm confrontation against those who deviate, and to develop rules to criminalize every and each practices of terrorism." However, this document made a distinction between terrorism and legitimate struggle against foreign occupation which does not kill innocents.

Representatives unveiled that differences occurred between Qatar and Jordan on the case of fighting terrorism. Jordan indicated that the final statement states clearly that the Islamic states have to fight terrorism, while Doha persisted on a lighter expression, that is not explained as a subjugation to the American pressures.

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