Brazil hosts meeting on rights of Muslim communities and minorities

The Committee of Experts stemming from the Organization of Islamic Conference and entrusted with elaborating a plan of action for safeguarding the rights of Muslim communities and minorities in non OIC member states will convene its second meeting in Brazil April 17-19.

The meeting will discuss the implementation of the resolutions adopted by Islamic conferences that call for effective and appropriate measures to protect the rights of Muslim minorities in non OIC member states without interfering or prejudicing the sovereignty of the states to which they belong, an OIC release said.

The conference will as well follow up the implementation of the recommendations of the committee's first meeting held in 1998 in Madrid.

The Madrid meeting had called for elaborating appropriate solutions to problems facing Muslim minorities and communities in non OIC member states and for enhancing the overall spirit of Islamic solidarity and brotherhood.

The meeting--to be chaired by OIC secretary general Azzeddine Laraki-- is co-organized by the Islamic culture and relations organization in Iran and the Islamic Dawa center for Latin America in Brazil.