Hamzah to open Islam conference

PEKANBARU: Vice President Hamzah Haz is scheduled to open on Tuesday an Islamic conference on Muslim dynamism and its problems in East Asian nations, to be held in Pekanbaru, Riau.

The conference, organized by the Susqa State Academy of Islam Studies in Pekanbaru in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education, will feature speakers Howard M Federsdiel of Ohio University, Mitsuo Nakamura of Japan University, Karel A Steen Brink of the Netherlands and a number of Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai experts.

The conference is expected to be attended by 150 participants from a number of countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam and Vietnam, according to the organizing committee.

The conference will also be attended by several observers from the United States, France, England, Russia and Australia.

Wan Abubakar, chief of the Riau branch office of the United Development Party (PPP), said on Monday that in addition to opening the conference, Hamzah would also open a training course for PPP members. -- Antara