Minhaj-ul-Quran European Council and Minhaj-ul-Quran International (Italy chapter) organized Peace & Integration Workshop in Ripa Monti Hotel of Milan city of Italy from July 17 to July 19, 2009. Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, founding leader and patron-in-chief of Minhaj-ul-Quran International, graced the occasion on special invitation. Besides him, the distinguished participants who attended the Workshop included Sahibzada Hassan Mohi-ud-Din Qadri, president of MQI Supreme Council, Sahibzada Hammad Mustafa Qadri al-Madani, Dr Raheeq Ahmad Abbasi; MQI Secretary General, Allama Nazir Ahmad Khan, Dawood Hussain Mash`hadi, coordinator foreign affairs; Allama Hassan Mir Qadri, Amir European Council, Sayyid Arshad Shah, president of European Council, Muhammad Naeem Shah, vice president of European Council, Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal Azam, Secretary General European Council, Mian Maqsood Ikram, director Media of European Council, Naveed Ahmad Andalusi, and other leaders of MQI Europe. Sarfraz Ahmad, president of MQI North Italy, Haji Khalid Mahmood, vice president, Muhammad Ashraf, and office holders of MQI South Italy Muhammad Ali Baghat, Manshad Ahmad, Samee Ullah Warriach, Hafiz Abdul Manaf, Zaheer Anjum and other workers made strenuous efforts day in and day out to make this Workshop a success.

Proceedings of the Day One
The participants had started reaching the nearby airports i.e. Bergamo and Malpensa near the Milan city one day before the start of the workshop for participation in the Workshop. The associates and workers of MQI across Europe began to arrive at 7 am since morning on the first day of the workshop on July 17. The host organization had made arrangements of buses and cars for transportation of the participants who were coming from different parts of Europe to the hotels. The guests, who were coming in the form of caravans, were divided into various groups and transported to the Ripamonti hotel through hired buses and cars from all the airports of Milan. The host organization formed two committees to look after the transport matters and facilitate the incoming guests in the best possible manner with minimum of inconvenience.

Caravans and their leaderships
A caravan of 154 people led by MQI France chapter president, Abdul Jabbar Butt, reached Milan, which was welcomed by Haji Muhammad Khalid and its companions. A 40-member delegation from Barcelona (Spain) reached Milan under the leadership of MQI patron, Muhammad Nawaz Kiyani, which was received by Sarmad Javed of Youth League, Milan. Other caravans from Austria, New Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, and different cities of South Italy also reached Milan led by their respective leaderships. Upon their arrival in the hotel, the delegates were registered and handed down room cards. Due to rush of the participants, the registration process continued from 7 am to 4 pm. Muhammad Naeem Chaudhry, Allama Iqbal Azam, Naveed Ahmad Andalusi and Muhammad Ashraf Khokar undertook the registration process amicably. Dr Raheeq Ahmad Abbasi, MQI Secretary General, kept on supervising the registration process from time to time.

After the registration and other formalities were over, the delegates gathered in a hall located near the hotel for offering Juma prayers. Media personnel and secretaries of Information of MQI also came all the way from different parts of Europe to cover the historic Training Workshop, which included Naveed Ahmad Andalusi, vice secretary information & broadcasting, Rao Khalil Ahmad, In-charge of Media Council France, Muhammad Shakeel Chughtai, media coordinator of Minhaj European Council, Muhammad Akram Bajwa of Jazba International Austria, Shafqat Ali Raza of Pak News Spain, and Sayyid Muhammad Jamil of the Community Radio in Austria.

A special media team also reached the venue for the video coverage of the event on the invitation of Minhaj-ul-Quran France. These videos would then be dispatched to QTV and central Directorate of Productions. The team included Azhar Saddiqi, Sajid Fayyaz, Farhad Gulzar and Numan Aslam. The youth of Minhaj-ul-Quran Italy welcomed the guests at the external gates of main hall. The internal doors featured the stalls of CDs, DVDs and books of Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri put up by MQI Italy. Amir of MQI European Council, Allama Hassan Mir Qadri, addressed the Juma congregation on the topic of ‘Worker and Leader’. The Juma prayer was offered at 3:00 pm.

The formal proceedings of the Training Workshop got underway with the recitation from the Holy Quran by Qari Muhammad Tariq (France) followed by recital of Naat by various Naat-Khawans like Muhammad Asghar Qadri (Greece), Qari Muhammad Tariq (France), Farhan Aslam (France), Muhammad Qadeer Ahmad Khan (Spain) and Muhammad Afzal Qadri (Italy). Allama Hassan Mir Qadri gave introductory talk, briefed the delegates about the schedule of the camp and passed on other instructions. Muhammad Naeem Chaudhry, vice president of MQI European Council, welcomed the guests on behalf of Minhaj European Council and Minhaj-ul-Quran International Italy. Asr prayer was offered afterwards.

At 6:40 pm, Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri entered the hall and more than seven hundred workers, associates and leaders of MQI from across Europe gave a standing ovation to His Eminence. Before the formal start of speech, Shaykh-ul-Islam welcomed all the delegates and congratulated MQI Italy for holding prestigious and historic Training Workshop on Peace & Integration. Mr. Giampiero Alberti, in-charge priest of interfaith relations of Catholic Church (Italy), also came to the camp on special invitation and held a meeting with Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri. Shaykh-ul-Islam welcomed the guest and said that he was pleased at his coming. Conversation between Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri and Mr. Giampiero Alberti took place in Italian language. Mr. Faizan Ashraf and Muhammad Arshad Shah rendered the translation services.

The representative of the Christian Community said in his talk that he was working for promotion of interfaith relations and was immensely impressed by the work Minhaj-ul-Quran International was doing for the promotion of global peace and harmony among civilizations through its worldwide network. He said that the doors of all Churches of Italy were open for MQI. He said both Christians and Muslims believed in the same God and this fostered the feelings of brotherhood and mutual respect. Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri told the Christian leader that MQI was playing its important role in bringing people of different cultures, religions and civilizations closer to one another in the entire world including Europe. Welcoming the gesture of the Christian Community leader, he also conveyed the message of good will to the followers of Christianity on behalf of the Muslim community.

Shaykh-ul-Islam’s keynote speech
His Eminence Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri spoke on the topic of mutual brotherhood and the Sunna of the Holy Prophet (saw). Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said that Islam espoused and promoted peace and harmony and has ordained its followers to become the source of peace for those around them. Some misguided people were bringing a bad name to Islam and peaceful Muslims through their actions. However, presence of such fringe elements should never be construed as being the representation of Islam