DUSHANBE, June 22, 2009, Asia-Plus — An international conference formally titled “Islam and Democracy” will be held in Dushanbe on June 25.
The event is staged by Russia’s Center for Strategic and Political Studies jointly with the Rose Luxemburg Foundation and the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Tajikistan. Chairman of the Council of Ulems of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (Russia) Damir Muhetdinov and specialist in cultural studies Jannat Sergey Markus, working out integration projects for the CIS Muslims, are expected to deliver statements at the conference.
The head of the Moscow-based media holding Tajinfo Muhammad Egamzod told Asia-Plus by phone that the conference was an annual meeting of experts, initiated by Dr. Seifert, former Ambassador and Spokesperson of former German Ambassadors” Initiative “Diplomats for Peace with the Islamic World.” The previous sixth and seventh meetings were held the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek and in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
“On June 18, an international scientific-practical conference “Muslims of CIS for Inter-religious and Inter-ethnic Harmony” was held in Moscow and the conference resulted in the decision to set up the Consultative Council of the CIS Muslims with permanently active working group,” said Egamzod, “The group consists of heads of spiritual boards of Muslims as well as known clerics, researchers and cultural figures of the CIS states.”
“Speaking in an interview with Tajinfo, Damir Muhetdinov said that they began work on formation of the single information space for the CIS Muslims several years ago in various formats of the media holding, Medina, both in Russian and Tatar languages, and the theme of last year’s annual Russian Muslim forum was “Muslims Are for Eurasian Unity!”. Muhetdinov expressed hope that the conference in Dushanbe will help develop traditions of our ancestors,” Egamzod said.
