Islam against violence

On 14th of February in the premises of Grand Mufti’s Office in Sofia was presented the book “Islam against violence”.

The program began with a welcoming speech on behalf of the Chairman of the Supreme Muslim Council Vedat S. Ahmed.

The event was attended by intellectuals, writers, representatives of NGOs, some of the translators of the book and the reviewers. Comments and criticism were made by Dr. Emine Bayraktarova – historian and lecturer at the High Islamic Institute, Dr. Ivan Dyulgerov – Arabist, lecturer at the University of Sofia and Dr. Memish Merdan – historian and a lecturer at the Department of Turkish Philology in the University of Shumen.

For the need of such a work Vedat S. Ahmed said: “It can be seen one wrong interpretation of Islam. We published this book in order at least a little to manage to explain the essence of the problem and to prove that Islam is against violence, and not the other way around as unfortunately is presented in media and is accepted in the society”.

The lecturer – Arabist Dr. Ivan Dyulgerov believes that “We have a lot of chances in front of us to deal with the situation. In fact when one enters the cultural space on the other bravely, sincerely, truly and without prejudices, he discovers many, many things which are acceptable, which are similar. He understands the other.”

Yuzlem Tefikova