Lebanon’s Dar al-Fatwa upholds co-existence

Lebanon's Dar al-Fatwa has been working for years to elevate religious discourse, improve the teaching of religion in schools and encourage co-existence and citizenship among Muslim youth.

Building on this work, the grand muftis of Egypt and Jordan and the deputy of al-Azhar traveled to Beirut on April 18th and 19th to attend a conference that explored the role of religious institutions in reinforcing peace and dialogue.

During the conference, organised in collaboration with the Berghof Foundation, a German non-governmental organisation, attendees exchanged expertise and formed follow-up committees to develop curricula at religious schools.

New curricula will reinforce dialogue and peace between Christians and Muslims.

"Arab intellectuals, politicians and religious institutions face three main tasks," said writer and sharia council member Radwan al-Sayed, who is an adviser to the Grand Mufti of Lebanon.

These are to highlight the role of the national state, stress the peaceful tenets of religion and instate reforms to correct the negative perceptions of Islam, he told Al-Mashareq.

State religious institutions can play an active role in all of these areas, he said.

"Due to changes happening in the world on the one hand, and religious divisions on the other hand, we need a qualified approach," al-Sayed said.

"As workers at these religious institutions and as part of our emotional rehabilitation, we have to be bearers of a message to support religion and our communities," he said.

"We have to rehabilitate religious institutions by developing religious education programmes and organising the fatwa process," he added.

Supporting Dar al-Fatwa

"If you follow the events in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East [in general], you will see flagrant exploitation of the Muslim faith so that all sides can justify their actions and settle scores," said Feras Kheirallah of the Berghof Foundation.

Such distortion of Islam requires a collective stance and serious action by Muslims and official religious institutions to protect religion and end the state of fragmentation that is ailing the Muslim community, he said.

"Official religious institutions shoulder immense responsibilities as they represent Islam in local and global events and forums," he said.

"From this perspective, we are working with Dar al-Fatwa to develop their plans, strategies and tools, and investing in their staff so they are capable of building bridges of dialogue and channels of communication with Muslims and others," he said.

The Berghof Foundation entered into an agreement with Dar al-Fatwa in 2015 to support its institutions and employees with the goal of restoring confidence between the Lebanese people and religious institutions.

As an official religious institution affiliated with the Lebanese government, Dar al-Fatwa oversees more than 2,500 mosques as well as the zakat fund, several schools and tertiary level institutions.

It also oversees universities that produce imams and clerics.

"Extremist rhetoric in the region shows there is a need for a strong Dar al-Fatwa to provide a correct image of Islam," Kheirallah said, adding that this calls for updating curricula, training imams and supporting peace, dialogue and co-existence.

"We have worked with Dar al-Fatwa to build its internal structure and all its associated agencies and we put together a study on religious education," he said, as well as commissioned a study on the root causes of extremism.

These studies aim "to provide information to Dar al-Fatwa to serve as a foundation for sound strategies, such as updating religious rhetoric in mosques and changing or amending religious textbooks", Kheirallah said.

Updating religious textbooks

"Owing to its authority over other official religious institutions, Dar al-Fatwa has to take the initiative" for overseeing the reform of religious education curricula, said Mohammed al-Nuqari, a sharia judge from Zahle in the Bekaa Valley.

Religious textbooks issued in previous eras are no longer suitable, and Islam must now be taught following a modernised approach, he told Al-Mashareq.

Those textbooks must be updated for the 21st century in "collaboration with local and international universities affiliated with Islamic educational institutions under supervision from Dar al-Fatwa, to confront extremism", he said.

Al-Nuqari noted that an overhaul of religious education should be implemented in order to "build a generation of preachers that reinforce dialogue and deliver moderate sermons".

This is key to "confronting violent and extremist rhetoric emerging from mosques or from places that are not acknowledged by state religious institutions", he said.