Hawzah News Agency (Qom, Iran) - Earlier this week, Hujjat al-Islam Sayyed Mofid Husseini Kouhsari head of Islamic Seminary's Office for International Relations received professor Pablito Baydo from university of university of Santo Tomas in Philippines. They discussed the place of interfaith dialogue in Shia Islam and Hujjat al-Islam Kouhsari stressed on promoting unity among Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Hujjat al-Islam Husseini Kouhsari welcomed professor Pablito Baydo to Islamic seminary of Qom and noted that Iran has about 500 Islamic seminaries around the country.
Director of HawzahNews went on to mention some major points about Iran’s seminaries and their participation in interreligious studies and dialogue.

He asserted, “There are 12 fields in the educational system of Iran’s seminaries which one of them is interreligious studies.  This filed has attracted many students, scholars and scientific groups.”
He added, “Seminary scholars hold regular scientific meetings and conferences based on interreligious studies.”

Hujjat al-Islam Husseini Kouhsari explained that Islamic seminary of Qom has many Sunni students who are studying under the supervision of Sunni scholars.” He added, “Of course students are free to choose whether they want to pursue Sunni or Shia majors.”

Pablito Baydo for his part said, “Unfortunately there are conferences in Philippines which promote a negative view towards Islamic revolution of Iran, because they are under the influence of the West.” The Filipino professor said they hold high level dialogues between Catholic bishops and Muslims and they hope to have Shia Muslims take part in their dialogues. He thanked the Iranian party for their generosity and hospitality.

End.