H.E. Mrs Catherine Corm-Kamoun, Consul General of the French Republic and Special Envoy of France to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, visited the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Council in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday 12 Dhul Quida 1444, corresponding to June 1, 2023.

Her Excellency expressed her deep thanks to the Secretary General for the warm reception and welcome, underlining her great desire to strengthen relations of cooperation and communication with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and its various bodies, notably the International Islamic Fiqh Academy. Her Excellency also praised the important role of the Academy and what it provides under His Excellency’s leadership in terms of moderate and sober thought, as well as distinguished efforts to spread moderation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence between religions, races and peoples inside and outside OIC countries. She concluded her speech by expressing her optimism about consolidating ties of cooperation and coordination with the Academy in order to serve the noble humanitarian objectives that strengthen cooperation and communication between nations.

For his part, the Secretary-General of the Academy expressed his sincere thanks and gratitude to Her Excellency for this visit, and his desire to strengthen the ties of cooperation and communication between the Academy and the various French institutions and centers concerned with promoting peaceful coexistence between peoples and religions. He also expressed his gratitude to Her Excellency for her interest in the results of the visit by Ummah’s scholars to Afghanistan, pointing out that Islam considers it important to educate men and women, and that this is an established religious duty on which Ummah scholars have found no disagreement since the time of the Prophet. To this day, this duty is regarded as an innate right for every human being, man or woman, and the same applies to the participation of women and all components of the people in efforts to build, renaissance and progress. His Excellency then took the opportunity to give a brief overview of the creation of the Academy, its objectives, programs and activities, as well as recent developments, expressing his full readiness to coordinate and communicate with the French authorities on matters relating to Muslims in France, whether citizens or residents, in particular the awareness of the requirements of citizenship, the importance of positive integration, the promotion of a culture of moderation and tolerance, as well as the intensification of efforts to introduce Islam and its principles of cooperation, justice, mercy, equality, and the rejection of violence, hatred, exclusion, and intolerance.

The meeting was attended by Mr. Mohamed Chouk, Director of Cabinet and Protocols, Mr. Mohamed Al-Idrisi, Director of the Media and Public Relations Department, and Dr. Alhagi Manta Drammeh, Head of International Cooperation and External Relations at the Academy.