The Kingdom will offer an effective leadership to the Ummah in this moment of crisis for the world Muslims, participants at the three-day conference, “Muslim World Issues and Problems,” which concluded here Monday, said. Almost 300 delegates, including Islamic scholars, intellectuals and representatives of Islamic organizations who attended the conference, organized by the Muslim World League (MWL), said the Saudi model of Islamic leadership will pave way for the unity of the Ummah. “The most important thing I found is the gathering of so many Muslim luminaries at one place, discussing Ummah problems,” said Hussain Mudavoor, principal of an Indian Arabic college. “This is the characteristic of Islam, which the Kingdom is upholding well despite upheavals in the Muslim society.” Praising the timing and significance of the gathering, Hamid Azad, assistant CEO of Muslim Aid, London, said: “The Muslim World is facing many crises. At this point in time, Saudi Arabia has organized this conference. It will definitely contribute to the unity of the Ummah.” While the event addressed a wide range of issues, some questions were left unanswered or unclear, some participants said. Some scholars Saudi Gazette spoke to were either unsure about the term ‘fitna' or shared different views about what speakers meant in discussing sedition taking place in some Muslim countries. A scholar from Australia said: “I do not agree with the word ‘fitna,' because what is happening is not fitna, it is the onset of democracy.” Hussain Mudavoor, however, termed developments in some Muslim countries as acts of sedition because “people have no right to take to the streets because several innocent people will get killed if demonstrators turn violent, which is inevitable.” “If the rulers have their duties, the people also have obligations to maintain order in society and they must not resort to violence,” said Hafiz Abdul Hameed who is from Pakistan, a country which is suffering from an unabated spate of violence. Participants agreed that developments in parts of Muslim World are due both to people's deviation from the straight path of Allah and to negligence by some governments in establishing a system of justice and benevolence, performing their duties, protecting freedom, preserving rights and respecting human dignity. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which takes guidance from the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah, is the best model of governance and maintains a perfect balance between the government and the subjects, which is a lesson for other Muslim governments to emulate,” said Shaeb Ahmed, an Imam from London. __
