Muslim Leaders Sign 'Intra-Faith Code of Honor' at National Shia Convention
On Memorial Day weekend, MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati spoke at the Universal Muslim American Association's ( UMAA ) 11th annual convention “ The Conference of Ali ” in Dearborn, MI, about MPAC's "Intra-faith Code of Honor."
In a ground-breaking show of unity with other Muslims, UMAA held a signing of the Code, wherein leaders of the Shia and Sunni communities pledged their devotion to preventing the rise of sectarianism in the American Muslim community.
Five years ago, MPAC first brought together American Muslim leaders to sign onto the “Intra-Faith Code of Honor” to address the increasing sectarian violence abroad and, most importantly, ensure that American Muslim communities are not divided or infected by international events. To date, the Code has been adopted by more than 50 major American Muslim Sunni and Shia leaders including Dr Maher Hathout, MPAC's Senior Adviser; Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University; and Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America. It reads, in part:
"As Muslim Americans who live and struggle together in harmony and cohesion, and who agree that the challenges of the future should supersede the problems of the past, we are eager to offer any help and join hands with all those who wish well for our Ummah (community) toward stopping this vicious cycle of violence in the Middle East, which is abhorrent to all Islamic values and principles."
The UMAA Convention is one of the largest Shia Muslim gatherings in the US with more than 3,000 people in attendance from all over the country. UMAA is a nonprofit organization created in 2003 with the purpose of advancing the social, economic and political affairs of the Muslim community in America, with a particular focus on the Shia Muslim community.
Top experts in their fields spoke at the conference including Juan Cole, historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia and a Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan; Dr. Hassan Abbas, Professor of International Security Affairs of the National Defense Institute; Judge David Turfe, the Chief Judge for the 20th District Court in Michigan and Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly.
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