São Paulo – Brazilian diplomats are taking a course about the Islamic world this week in Brasília. The classes will take place at the Rio Branco Institute, where diplomats-to-be are taught in Brazil. The course is offered via a partnership between the Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil and the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations, with backing Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Institute of Arab Culture (Icarabe).
The course “Islamic World: Society, Culture and State” is in its second edition and will cover religion, doctrinal principles and structure, philosophy, arts, science and culture, history and expansion of the Islamic civilization, Islamic law and its connections with state rights, geopolitics, Islam and contemporaneity, Islam and economy, market and international trade. The first edition took place in 2013.
According to information from Fambras, the course will last 20 hours, from December 1st to 5th. The teachers are Fambras vice president Ali Zoghbi, Beatriz Bissio, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Gisele Fonseca Chagas, from the Federal Fluminense University, Hussein Ali Kalout, from Harvard University, financial consultant Luiz Nelson and Mohamed Habib, from Campinas University.
Classes will also be administered by Fambras president Mohamed Zoghbi, Murilo Sebe Bon Meihy, of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the International Market consultant and Arab Chamber Foreign Trade vice president Rubens Hannun, Salem Nasser from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and Soraia Smaili, the dean of the Federal University of de São Paulo.
The course will be attended by Brazilian diplomats, other Brazilian federal officials and representatives from embassies of South American countries in Brazil. The teachers have been selected by Fambras. According to the organization, they are “capable of delivering a dense theoretical approach, conveying invaluable cultural information and exploring the myriad analytical perceptions of the philosophical and political roots of the Muslim world.”
The final class will feature professor, writer and chronicler Milton Hatoum will expound on tolerance, coexistence and interreligious respect to the diplomats.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
