QATAR MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

The end of the 8th International Conference on Islamic Economics and Finance - ISDEV delegates (L-R: myself, Muhammad Yasir and Dr Zakaria Bahari) with Br. Ismail Abdul Rahman from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Alhamdulillah, I am home from Qatar safely. The Conference in Qatar was one of the most joyful and beneficial conferences that I have ever participated. All of us from ISDEV, Dr Zakaria Bahari, Muhammad Yasir and myself, have put forward whatever thinking that we wanted to through the presentation of our respective papers. The Conference provides a platform for a discourse on the latest thought and research findings of the presenters from all over the world. Beside that, many old friends were also here and met, and many new friend too were made, to broaden ISDEV networking. Though it costs the organisers QR500,000 to organise such a big conference, it was worthwhile, I think.

I am looking forward to participate in the next 9th ICIEF to be held in two years time in Turkey, InshaAllah. But like this Conference in Qatar, it would be definitely very competitive to be chosen as a paper presenter. For the Qatar Conference, a total of 815 abstracts from 40 countries were received  by the organiser. After careful consideration, only 50% were accepted to pursue to the writing of full papers. Of 340 full papers received later on, only 35%, or 119 papers, were accepted for presentation at the Conference. It took 6 months, that is from April to October 2011, for the organiser to process the evaluation of the abstracts and the full papers.

Brother Rafi-uddin Shikoh, the CEO/Managing Director of Dinar Standard based in New York, USA - the last new friend I met during our departure home

Arriving at KLIA from Doha, Qatar