The opening ceremony was held with the attendance of Iranian President Hojat-ol-Islam Ebrahim Raeisi, Secretary General of World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought Hojat-ol-Islam Hamid Shahriari, and a host of senior Shia and Sunni scholars from various countries.

Among prominent guests of the conference are Mufti Abdul Shakoor Sardar Khan, Pakistan’s Minister of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Abdul Razzaq Qasoum, head of the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulama, Sheikh Khalid al Mala', Head of the assembly of Iraqi Sunni scholars, Muhammad Azmi Abdul Hamid, President of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations (MAPIM), and Sayyid Ali Fazlollah, a senior Lebanese Shia cleric.  

The conference is underway with the main theme of “Islamic unity, peace and avoiding division and conflict within the Islamic world”. Some 200 thinkers from 60 countries as well as 100 Iranian political, religious, and cultural figures participated in this year’s event.

The conference’s webinars were held from October 9 to 11. In a total of 12 virtual sessions, 144 speeches were made and all of them were broadcast live from the website of the Islamic Unity Conference with simultaneous translations in English, Arabic, and Persian.

An exhibition is also underway on the sidelines of the conference with the participation of some Iranian cultural and religious centers who have put their products on display. Ahl Al-Bayt World Assembly, World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, and Iranian seminaries are among the prominent exhibitors.

Just war and peace, Islamic brotherhood, countering terrorism, accepting religious consensus, empathy and sympathy, mutual action among various Islamic schools of thought, and condemning normalization of relations with the Zionist regime are among the other main topics of the event.

The conference aims to establish unity and solidarity among Muslims, gather scholars and thinkers to work on proximity of thoughts, offer practical solutions to achieve unity in the Muslim world, and provide appropriate approaches to solve Muslims’ problems.

Guests of the 36th International Islamic Unity Conference are set to meet with Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Friday before issuing the final statement in the afternoon.