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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Islamic Center
for Harmonization is located in a small West African country
called The Gambia. The Gambia is a Muslim dominated country
with a population of about one and a half million people who
are predominantly Sunnis. Over the recent period under
review, The Gambia has witnessed a growing number of Islamic
scholars graduated from different international Islamic
universities in the world. In addition, there has been an
intensive propagation and Islamic teaching programs across
the country over the years emanating from different
ideological backgrounds and schools of thought. In view of
this, there has been a growing tendency of disagreements and
conflicts among various Muslims scholars as well Muslims.
In the light of
the above circumstances, the Muslim world is witnessing a
growing trend of crisis through which the Islamic ummah is
going through especially in the beginning of the 21st
century. There is no doubt that the worst of its crisis
remains the potential of internal explosion timed in the
differences among Islamic sects and schools of thought. The
ardent enemy of the Islamic faith has always cunningly
exploited this disease to further deprive the Islamic world
off its dignity and self-integrity.
It is incumbent
therefore, upon the Muslims to put all hands on deck and to
consolidate cooperation and leave no stone unturned to solve
this problem. It is in this vein that the above center was
established as it intends to play a vital role in creating
harmony and understanding amongst the intellectual points of
view of Islamic sects and schools of thought in order to
foil the corruptive and degrading covert and overt agenda of
the enemy.
As a center, it
has realized that the most dangerous internal differences
targeted by our enemies these days are the differences
between the Sunnis and the Shi'as. As a result, the center
is determined to shed light on the core of the matter hoping
that it will contribute in putting issues in their proper
perspective and in lessening the significance of such
differences and diverting Muslims' attention into a more
productive approach of consolidating unity and
fraternity.
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