KARBALA – Masarat Foundation
The Masarat Foundation recently visited the “Faiz Husayni” Association of the Bohra community in the Holy City of Karbala. The visit featured an intellectual and humanitarian dialogue aimed at consolidating the values of coexistence and strengthening shared human commonalities.
During the meeting, Sheikh Mohammed Thabit provided a concise presentation on the community’s identity, highlighting its history, achievements, and its philosophy of prioritizing economic development and community service. Sheikh Thabit noted that the Bohra community, under the leadership of His Holiness Sultan Mufaddal Saifuddin, presents a unique model of “productive citizenship.” This model, he explained, transforms devotion into a catalyst for labor and development, as evidenced by their investments and projects that serve local environments.
Furthermore, he reviewed the community’s global initiatives in education, hunger relief, and volunteerism, which reflect their ethical commitment to humanity. Sheikh Thabit praised the role of the Masarat Foundation and its General Coordinator in “deciphering the codes of diversity” in the region and introducing the community as an authentic part of the social and spatial fabric of the Holy Cities.
For his part, Dr. Saad Salloum, the General Coordinator of the Masarat Foundation, reflected on the foundation’s journey spanning over twenty years. He detailed Masarat’s strategy of transitioning from “numerical pluralism” to a “pluralism of rights and duties” by promoting religious and denominational components in Iraq and the region as a source of national strength and wealth.
Members of the foundation also presented Masarat’s mechanisms for establishing positive citizenship. This includes supporting social models that uphold human dignity and combating hate speech through the Center for Monitoring and Countering Hate Speech, which works to dismantle stereotypes.
The meeting was attended by public relations officials and several members of the Faiz Husayni Association, most notably: Sheikh Murtaza Morbi, Sheikh Hamza Al-Jabal, Sheikh Hussein Shaker, Taizun Haidari, Mustafa Maimoon, Mohammed Icecream, Mohammed Qadi, Mustafa Jarm, and Murtaza Luster.
Representing Masarat were the members of its Board of Directors, marking their first official activity following the general elections held by the foundation in mid-January.
The meeting concluded by emphasizing that the approach of “serving humanity” in Karbala and Najaf serves as a global message regarding the capacity of Holy Cities to embrace all people. Both parties stressed the importance of continued cooperation between Masarat and the Bohra community to develop documentary and cultural projects that enshrine the values of tolerance and active citizenship.
