Peace Convoy to France (3)
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Date: 14 June 2017 - 24 June 2017
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Location
: France
Activities:
The convoy made a great dawah effort, which had its mark and pioneering status in the Islamic centers - as we will show - in addition to holding many events, which required the members to exert more effort, which they did in the best way possible. These efforts had a good impact on the French society and helped introduce the council and its efforts, as will be mentioned below.
- Dawah activities:
The convoy's dawah activities varied over ten consecutive days. Most of the convoy members - despite their late arrival to the mosques where they resided - practiced dawah activities since the first day of their arrival by giving lectures and leading prayers, including the prescribed prayers, taraweeh, and tahajjud prayers.
Here are the dawah activities accomplished by the convoy over ten days in several French cities:
- Lectures and sermons:
One of the main activities of the convoy was giving religious lectures and sermons in mosques where each member delivered at least two lectures every day, and thus the members of the convoy delivered altogether no less than 280 lectures and sermons, with varied topics including intellectual issues and concerns, some aspects of jurisprudence (fiqh), and ethics and spiritual sermons.
- Friday khutbahs:
The members of the convoy gave Friday khutbahs at Islamic centers in France, with total number of 10 khutbahs which tackled various topics like the virtues of Ramadan and the rulings concerning Eid al-Fitr, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), and the Holy Quran as a way of life.
- Events and visits:
The convoy held many events and made various visits to many institutions and organizations of French society, such as churches, monasteries, schools and some intellectual figures– 25 visits in all.
These visits aimed to introduce Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the Muslim Council of Elders, its goals and mission, and how the Council’s mission is to spread the culture of peace throughout the world, strengthen the nation’s immunity, especially its youth, against the discourse of violence and takfir, correct misconceptions, and revive the moderate religious influence within the nation and its components. These visits also included many dialogues on some important and urgent issues, such as extremism, ways of combating it, and the roles of Al-Azhar and the Muslim Council of Elders in combating it.