H.E. Dr. Haider Al-Shammari, Chairman of the Shiite Waqf of the Republic of Iraq, received H.E. Prof. Koutoub Moustapha Sano, Secretary General of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, on Saturday 17 Ramadan 1444, corresponding to April 8, 2023, at the headquarters of the Waqf in Ataba, Kadhimiya, in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

His Excellency expressed his sincere thanks and gratitude for the warm welcome he gave him, and to the Presidency of the Shiite Waqf Office for the endowments, and religious places throughout Iraq, especially in Kadhimiya, which His Excellency visited with the accompanying delegation. His Excellency then gave further insight into the International Islamic Fiqh Academy as the greatest contemporary jurisprudential authority for the Ummah, as its members are the Ummah’s leading scholars and jurists who represent the eight considered Islamic schools of law that Muslims follow today in all parts of the world, noting in this regard what the Academy seeks to glorify: mosques, respect for differences, the imams of different schools, and human rights. His Excellency concluded his speech by expressing the full readiness of the Academy to cooperate with the Waqf Diwan in everything that achieves the convergence, integration, coordination and rapprochement between scholars and thinkers of the Ummah, and he also expressed his aspiration to sign an agreement of cooperation and understanding between both sides in the future.

On his part, the Chairman of the Waqf welcomed His Excellency once again and thanked him for this first visit of a Secretary general of the academy, commending the important role it plays in promoting cooperation, communication and rapprochement among the Ummah’s scholars of various Islamic schools and expressed his wish to strengthen cooperation, coordination and partnership with the Academy in various fields of common interest, especially in the field of raising awareness of the importance of awqaaf and their role in nation building and preservation of their heritage.

The meeting was attended by H.E. Mr. Muhammad Samir Naqshbandi, Consul General and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Iraq to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah, and His Eminence Dr. Abdul Wahhab Ahmed Al-Samarrai, as well as Mr. Muhammad Adnan Al-Fihri, Director of Administrative and Financial Affairs of the Academy, and Mr. Amjad Ibrahim Mustafa, Head of Protocol.