A new website was launched for the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics, based in the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Doha which is a member of the Qatar Foundation. The center hopes to ‘provide a methodological and theoretical framework that leads to concrete contributions and practical applications and in the process transforms reality to bring about a more just and ethical world.’ Their mission is to bring together the islamic scholars to advice on contemporary ethical issues.
The center will hold seminars, public talks as well as an annual conference where scholars of Islamic text with scholars of context come together to discuss current controversial ethical issues. They are also offering training workshops on Islamic ethics with particular focus on maqasid/objectives for academic and research institutions worldwide. The center is also conducting research on ethics in collaboration with other Qatari and global institutes.
In his speech, Dr Tariq Ramadan, the Director of the Center, said ‘It is often the case with some interpretations of the texts by scholars within the legal field that whilst the norms (akham) are defined, the ethical understanding is not always highlighted. It is as if Islamic Ethics has to do with “good behavior” and not with “questioning the meanings and the goals”. The Centre’s objective is to reconcile the legal framework with the ethical horizon and to try to understand the necessary relationship between the two fields of study. To achieve this, the Centre will focus upon specific fields of research – arts, economics, education, environment, finance, food, gender, media, medicine/bioethics, politics, psychology, etc’. The center aims to publish the resulting research in academic journals in order to promote applied Islamic Ethics.
The website hopes to offer resources for the different fields of interest such as gender studies, education, psychology and medicine & bioethics. A media center is available with a list of upcoming events, newsroom and audiovisual gallery.
To visit the website follow the link Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethic and the news report on Albawaba outlet, New website unveiled by Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics.
Very good news. It is always very much needed.