Qatar Foundation launches new Research Centre for Islamic Legislation and Ethics

(January 15, 2012) – A new research center that will focus on Islamic legislation and ethical thought was launched today under the patronage of Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) at the Education City.

The centre, Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), will be under the guidance of Director, Professor Tariq Ramadan, a world renowned Muslim thinker and Deputy Director, Dr Jasser Auda, a member of the Executive Board of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.

“Islamic scholars and research centres can benefit greatly from engaging with experts in modern fields that have been untouched by the parameters of traditional questioning,” Dr. Ramadan told the audience..

“We aim to provide not only a theoretical framework, but also concrete contributions and practical applications in areas that are current and relevant to the 21st century communities, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. We are extremely excited by the contributions that will be made from this new line of questioning by reaching out to a global and mixed audience of scholars, experts, students and ordinary people.”

The launch took place at a one day conference that was attended by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and a number of the world’s most prominent scholars and thinkers, including Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and Dr Aisha Al-Mannai, Dean of Shariah College in Qatar University and Vice-Chair of QFIS Board of Trustees.

In her presentation, Sheikha Moza  said: “I have always and still am convinced, especially in light of the developments that occurred in the last decade of the third millennium, of the vital need to create a research foundation and a proficient pedagogy able to encompass the integrated system of the principles and values of central Islamic thought.  This in turn should be presented to us Muslims and to others in a renewed vision and systematic approach that would dispel misinterpretations, exaggerations and their consequences in the forms of preconceptions and stereotypes which are contrary to the necessity of constructive dialogue.”

“The message of this centre must be one based on universal and established principles, ones which integrate values and principles as part of the learning and the formation of individuals who can be agents of change,” she added.

Participants in the event also included representatives of QFIS, the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and Applied Ethics Centre Kanazawa Institute of Technology in Japan.

The conference discussed the application of Islamic ethics in environment, gender, economics, education, art and bioethics.

Various sessions saw inputs from an international panel that included Dr Mustafa Ceric, the Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina and winner of the UNESCO Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize and world-famous musician Yusuf Islam, who discussed the topic of Islamic ethics and the arts.

The conference on ethics is the first of many such conferences and events to be organised by CILE.