By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The second Annual Muslim Unity Conference was held at the SABA Islamic Center, San Jose on December 7, 2019. The objective of the conference was to promote Muslim unity by bringing Sunnis and Shias together.
The first Muslim Unity Conference was held on December 15, 2018 at the Saba Islamic Center.
The unity conference initiative is sponsored by many organizations including the Northern California Islamic Council (NCIC) which is the prime mover. The NCIC, under the leadership Dr. Hatem Bazian, provides a unifying platform and voice for diverse Muslim organizations in Northern California, to facilitate cooperation and active engagement in the society, and to advocate for the interests of Muslim communities. The NCIS strives to promote peace, harmony and brotherhood between various Muslims sects, in particular the Sunni and Shia Muslims, by highlighting our common heritage and our common bonds.
Dr. Hatem Bazian is Professor of Islamic Law and Theology at Zaytuna College. He is a lecturer in the Departments of Near Eastern and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and founded the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project. Dr. Bazian is founder of American Muslims for Palestine.
Maulana Nabi Raza Abidi, the resident imam at the SABA Islamic Center, welcomed the guests to the second Muslim Unity Conference while Dr. Bazian also welcomed the guests.
Maulana Nabi Raza Abidi is a staunch supporter of Unity Conference. He is actively engaged in interfaith and intra-faith dialogue. Maulana Abidi was one of the main speakers at the conference.
Dr. Ejaz Naqvi, chair of Intra-Faith Committee of NCIC, representing SABA Islamic Center, was MC of the unity conference. Dr. Ejaz Naqvi is past president of Islamic Center of Zahra. He is Amazon best-selling author of The Quran: With or Against the Bible and The Three Abrahamic Testaments and blogs on Patheos. 
The Unity Conference speakers included: Dr. Nazeer Ahmed, Dr. Nooh Kasraie, Parvez Ahmed and Br. Ahmad Rashid Salim.
Speaker after speaker emphasized the need of unity between the followers of Shia and Sunni fiqh or interpretation of Quran and Hadith. It may be recalled that on July 6, 1959 Shaikh Mahmood Shaltoot, the Head of al-Azhar University, issued a fatwa declaring the Shia school of thought a Fiqh of Islam just like four Sunni Fiqhs i.e. Hanafi, Humbali, Maliki and Shafeii.
In his fatwa, Shaikh Shaltoot said: “The Ja’fari school of thought, which is also known as "al-Shi’a al- Imamiyyah al-Ithna Ashariyyah”(i.e., The Twelver Imami Shias) is a school of thought that is religiously correct to follow in worship as are other Sunni schools of thought.”
Shaikh Shaltoot’s fatwa also said “Muslims must know this, and ought to refrain from unjust prejudice to any particular school of thought, since the religion of Allah and His Divine Law (Shari’ah) was never restricted to a particular school of thought.”
In 2016, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb reissued Shaltoot's fatwa, calling Shia the fifth school of Islam and seeing no problem with conversions from Sunni to Shia Islam.
Muslims in American who live and struggle together in harmony and cohesion, believe that the challenges of the future should supersede the problems of the past. They are eager to offer any help and join hands with all those who wish well for the unity of the Muslim Umma.
American Muslims believe in emphasizing the areas of commonality between Shias and Sunnis, the virtue of compassion and empathy.
In 2007, Shia and Sunni community leaders and Imams in America znc Europe signed an Intra-Faith code pledging that “all forms of hate and condescending speech and literature shall not be allowed in our midst.”
They also pledged to respect each other and the personalities, places and events that any group among us holds in esteem and even reading of history that may leads them to agree or disagree on the importance or role thereof, should be expressed in a language which is neither inflammatory nor insulting.
Among those who signed this Intra-Faith code included: Salam Al-Marayati & Dr. Maher Hathout from Muslim Public Affairs Council; Hussam Ayloush from Council on American-Islamic Relations – Greater Los Angeles; Sayyid Syeed & Mohamed Elsanousi from Islamic Society of North America; Dr. Sadegh Namazikah, Iranian Muslim Association of North America (IMAN); Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini from Islamic Center of America, Detroit, MI; Imam Dr. Ridha Hajjar from Ahlul-Bayt Mosque, Pomona CA; Hajj Ghalib V. Begg from Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan; Imam Abdul Latif Berry from Islamic Institute of Knowledge, Dearborn MI; Shakeel Syed from Islamic Shura Council of Southern California; Dawud Walid from Council on American Islamic Relations – Michigan; Sheikh Ahmad Saleh & Dr. Pervez Shah from the Universal Muslim Association of America (UMAA); Dawood Zwink from the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); Sheikh Hanif Muhammad from The Council of Shi’a Muslim Scholars of North America; Victor Ghalib Begg from Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan.
Prof Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University and Sayyid Ammar Nakshawani of Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge also signed this Intra-Faith code.
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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