Former foreign affairs minister of Thailand Kasit Piromoya during his visit to the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies.
DOHA: Kasit Piromoya, the former foreign affairs minister of Thailand, recently visited the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS) to enhance their relationships and student exchange programmes.
Piromoya expressed his keenness to establish a huge Muslim institution that provides government assistance and scholars, and encompasses all academic grades from kindergarten to high school. The aim is to provide proper Islamic studies in the Thai academic world.
He said that the visit intended to set up cooperation, in addition to sending Thai students to QFIS to do Islamic studies programs.
Panyarak Poolthup the Ambassador of Thailand also accompanied Piromoya to QFIS.
Professor Dr Hatem Al Karanshawy, the Founding Dean of Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS), and Member of Hamad Bin Khalifa University, welcomed the Thai delegation and emphasised that the visit marked a continuation of a longstanding relationship between QFIS and Thailand.
The Thai delegation particularly commended the idea of collaborating with charity institutions in Qatar, and the potential application of intensive courses offered by QFIS to members in Thai Muslim community.
Piromoya expressed his desire to invite someone on behalf of QFIS to study the situation in Thailand and assess their needs. Life in Thailand is active and robust combined with varied diversity, considering 8 million Muslims living among Buddhists and other groups, the atmosphere is quite tolerant.
At the academic level of cooperation, Dr Hatem emphasised that QFIS is willing to provide any kind of academic support that pertains to curricular, occasional visits by scholars, in addition to offering scholarships to international students on merit bases.
QFIS arranges intensive courses that meet demands of the modern age leaders from various parts of the world, from both minority and majority Muslim communities, such as Macedonia, Ukraine, Bosnia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Germany. It is a two weeks intensive course whereby the participants are given training on fatwa issues and exposed to fatwa questions that relate to Muslims in general, and to minorities in particular.
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