Representatives of Grand Mufti’s Office participated in a workshop on personal development in the Republic of Turkey during the period of March 02 – 06, 2020. The five-day event was organized by the Turkish organization YTB and was aimed at people with higher Islamic education from the Balkan countries.

23 people in total participated in the program – from Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Albania and Bulgaria. Our country was represented at the workshop by three officials of the Muslim Denomination – Bahri Izet – expert in “Irshad” Department of Grand Mufti’s Office, Suray Mustafa – expert in “Waqf” Department at Regional Mufti’s Office - Haskovo, and Ali Sviryov – imam at Regional Mufti’s Office – Stara Zagora in the village of Koprinka.

The program for personal development takes place for a second consecutive year and this year’s event was held under the slogan “School: Istanbul”. It included a part with lectures, held every day before noon, and the afternoons were dedicated to visits to various cultural sites and landmarks.

“The lectures were delivered mostly by associated professors and professors from the Faculty of Islamic Theology of the Marmara University. The program included also a presentation by the YTB Chairman on the activities and the projects of the organization in Turkey, the Balkans and entire Europe. I was impressed by the opened by YTB modern libraries with cafeterias in many different places.” – commented for Grandmufti.bg the official from the mufti’s office in Haskovo Suray Mustafa. He said that during one of the days the participants in the program had the opportunity to visit also the mufti’s office of Istanbul, where they were welcomed by the host Prof. Dr. Mehmet Emin Maşalı – Grand Mufti of Istanbul.

“The visiting group managed to see the archive of the mufti’s office where are kept more than 10 000 historical manuscripts, including such dating back to the time of Abdulhamid II” – Mustafa further added.

Author: L. Chausheva