Did anyone go to this conference? It was in DC this weekend and a Shia friend of mine took me there. Being a former Sunni Muslim, I really did not want to go at first, but it was quite interesting and they had many Jewish, Christian and Hindu leaders as well giving speeches on unity and brotherhood. The people there were bringing up issues like women leading a mixed prayer, women judges and jurists, abortion. A lot of the Shia Imams were very moderate in their views (a big surprise to me) and one of them even said that a woman can lead a mixed prayer since times are changing and ijtihad should be done. All in all it was a good experience, I had been to a few Sunni conferences earlier in my life and they weren’t as open minded or tolerant as the leaders at this conference.
Re: UMAA Conference
Suni ulma are open on other fronts.
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^ Like issuing fatwas to kill Shias, Ahmadis, etc?
Re: UMAA Conference
You are absolutely correct. Sunni Islam is less flexible because of the doctrinal emphasis on always adhering as closely to the sunnah as possible.
Whilst Ijtihad is a part of jurisprudence, it is applied less in sunni Islam than Shia islam because in sunni Islam ijtihad is considered to be a last resort.
Re: UMAA Conference
Plus, I think shia women are hotter.
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Yea some were pretty hot. Especially the Arab ones.
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Yeh?
When is the next shia conference? Do they accept conversions from other faiths like Quakers?
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Don't know Roman, this was the 3rd annual conference, they have it every memorial weekend and so far it's been in DC.
Re: UMAA Conference
According to their brochure, next year it's in Chicago.