The lecturer started by presenting a chronology of the beginning of Islamic movement foundation in the Arab world. He mentioned that Algeria was the first Arab country that had witnessed the foundation of such movements, followed by the foundation of Islamic movement in Morocco sponsored by King Muhammad V. The lecturer then moved on to talk about the most prominent Islamic movement in the Arab world, which is the Muslim Brotherhood founded in Egypt by Sheik Hasan Al-Banna. In this context, the lecturer talked about the moderation tendency that prevailed in the Muslim Brotherhood movement in that time, giving some examples and historical evidence on that. For instance, Hasan Al-Banna considered (that Shiites follow the doctrine of Fatima Al-Zahra, peace be upon her). He then turned to talk about the foundation of Islamic parties in Jordan, Palestine and Iraq, the most prominent of which was Liberation Party in Palestine. He also referred to the party’s radical tendency compared to the Muslim Brotherhood. He also mentioned about the foundation of the Islamic movement in Iraq, especially Islamic Dawa Party that was to the point of the lecture. Allamah Al-Rifai touched on the beginning of the party’s foundation, in his opinion, was in 1959, with which he dismissed some writings and opinions that date the foundation of Dawa party back to 1957. For the present time after 2003, Allamah Al-Rifai said that the huge legacy of Saddam Hussain’s regime was bigger than a single party can bear on its own. Therefore, his opinion was that Islamists should stay away from taking office after 2003.

The panel also included interventions by the attendees, taking the form of an open debate that focused on the reasons behind the failure of Islamists to run the country.

It is worth mentioning that several academic, intellectual and religious elites in the holy city of Najaf attended the session.