Shia and Sunni clerics attend forum on Muslim unity in UK

Senior Shia and Sunni clerics in Britain have held a meeting to exchange views on ways to promote unity among Muslims and thwart a media campaign to create sedition in the Islamic world.

News ID: 1136

Date: 14 September 2014 - 16:19

Senior Shia and Sunni clerics in Britain have held a meeting to exchange views on ways to promote unity among Muslims and thwart a media campaign to create sedition in the Islamic world, Press TV reports.

On Saturday, a group of prominent Shia and Sunni clerics took part in the 18th annual conference on Proximity Amongst Islamic Schools of Thought in Birmingham, where they discussed promotion of dialogue and respect among different Muslim sects. The annual conference, which is organized by the Islamic Centre of England, brings together scholars from various Islamic schools of thought to hold talks on the latest developments in the Muslim world.

“Unfortunately, when extremism comes, it can make two brothers work against each other. We have to be working together as one family. We are all brothers,” Mohammad Ali Shomali, the head of the Islamic Centre of England, told Press TV. Allamah Rabbani, the secretary general of Jamaat Ahle Sunnat, also described the Takfiri groups operating in Middle Eastern states as “real terrorists” and said that they are “bringing bad name to Islam by killing innocent people.”

The forum was held amid recent attempts by Western media to falsely portray the crises fuelled by Takfiri terrorists in Syria and Iraq as Sunni-Shia conflicts. However, senior Shia and Sunni leaders have repeatedly stressed that what is taking place in Syria and Iraq is not sectarian strife as the Takfiri criminals have threatened all communities and religious groups during their terror operations in both neighboring states.

Terrorists from the ISIL Takfiri group are controlling large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria. The extremist militants have even claimed the formation of a so-called Islamic caliphate or state in northern Iraq.

PressTV.ir

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