SMC Chairman Vedat Ahmed participated in a Symposium for clerics in Turkey

The 9^th International Symposium for Clerics, which was held under the title “Role of mosques and clerics in the development of the city and the civilization”, took place on November 3 and 4 this year in Istanbul. The forum was organized by the NGO “YECVA” in cooperation with the Yalova University, Sancaktepe District and “Önder” Association.

Within two days prominent university lecturers and field researchers presented theoretical and practical reports and analyses in eleven sub-groups.

Among the titles of the panels there were such as “Mosque and Morality”, “Mosque as a Work of Art”, “Role of the Mosque in Guidance and Development of Man”, “Mosque and Woman”, “Mosques Abroad and Their Activities”, “Exemplary Imams from the Recent Past” and “Exemplary Imams of Our Time”.

The Symposium was opened with reading of verses from the Holy Qur’an which were artistically read by two imams – from Istanbul and from Masjed al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. Welcoming speeches were delivered at the opening by the Vice President of the Diyanet Dr. Burhan İşliyen, the Rector of the Yalova University Prof. Suat Cebeci, the Mayor of the Sancaktepe District İsmail Erdem and others. The hundreds of participants were also welcomed by the organizer of the forum Mehmet Keskin who is an imam in the relatively small mosque “Yunus Emre” and also is a Chairman of the NGO with the same name.

The 9^th symposium, which has already turned into a traditional one, participated nearly 50 scientists and researchers mainly from Turkey. But there were also representatives from Palestine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Bulgaria and Austria.

The Chairman of the Supreme Muslim Council in Bulgaria Vedat Ahmed, who was also invited at the forum, took part in it and presented a scientific study on the topic “Religious Activities in the Mosques in the Region of Shumen According to the Waqf Documents (Vakfiye)”. In his study Ahmed analyses 16 instruments of incorporation of awqaf from the period 1690 - 1870, among which the one of the largest mosque complex in Bulgaria – “Sherif Halil Pasha” (Tombul) mosque. Exactly the instrument of incorporation of that mosque is one of the manifestations of the mosque and the clerics for the development of the civilization.