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SPEAKERS from five different countries will address the 10th International Academic Conference on Islamicjerusalem Studies in Dundee today  (Monday, February 4, 2008.)

The conference is being held at the city’s internationally-renowned Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies and it co-incides with the Institute’s Academic Training Programme for 25 female degree course students from the United Arab Emirates who are being trained for future potential leadership.

Seven speakers from Yemen, Germany, Israel and England plus Institute lecturers will address the one-day conference whose topic this year is ‘Islamicjerusalem: Model for Multiculturalism in the Early Muslim Period’.

“This is a new and exciting field of study that clearly demonstrates how the Institute is taking the leading role in setting the new agenda for the study of Islam and Muslims at this crucial time,” said Professor Malory Nye, Acting Principal of Al-Maktoum Institute.
 
“Islamicjerusalem offers a way for people from different religious and cultural backgrounds to live together in an environment of multiculturalism and religious as well as cultural diversity and tolerance.

“The speakers today will be exploring the paradox that although this region is so commonly associated in today’s news with conflict, within Islam the region of Islamicjerusalem is an important model for multiculturalism, security, peaceful co-existence, and conflict resolution.

“We are delighted to host this landmark 10th anniversary conference and are very pleased that such respected and high calibre speakers are attending.

“It will be a very interesting and stimulating academic conference.”

One of the main speakers will be Professor Abd al-Fattah El-Awaisi, founding Principal of Al-Maktoum Institute, who is now Director-General of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Centre at the University of Science and Technology at Sana'a in Yemen.

www.almi.abdn.ac.uk

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Issued on behalf of Al-Maktoum Institute by:
MIKE RITCHIE MEDIA
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For further information, please contact Mike Ritchie.


Note to editors: 
Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Dundee is a new and exciting development in teaching and research in the study of Islam and Muslims.

It is an independent, research-led institution of higher education that offers postgraduate programmes of study with its degree programmes validated by the University of Aberdeen. 

The aim of the Institute is to be a centre of excellence in the Study of Islam and Muslims, in particular to promote intelligent debate and understanding of Islam and the role of Muslims in the contemporary world, and to be a place of knowledge and reflection on the issues facing a diverse and multicultural world in the twenty-first century.

In pursuit of this aim the Institute is actively working to educate the next generation of scholars – nationally and internationally – in the study of Islam and Muslims to enable them to face the challenges and opportunities of today.