Egyptian Ambassador Ahmed Fadel Yacoub said on Monday that Arabic is the language of the holy Quran also being taught in Pakistan as an important language. “Islam is more than a religion; it has a culture and civilisation and today’s conference will give participants a deeper knowledge of Arabic and will provide opportunities to strengthen the relation among brother Muslim states,” he said while addressing the inaugural session of the two-day international conference on Contemporary Arabic Literature – New Trends in Research & Criticism as a chief guest organised by the Arabic Department of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML). NUML Director General Brigadier Muhammad Ibrahim, NUML Languages Department Dean Dr Safeer Awan, directors, national and international scholars, heads of departments, faculty and a large number of students attended the inaugural session. The ambassador said that Egypt will cooperate with Pakistan as far as promoting Arabic language is concerned. He said that language plays an active role in bringing countries together and this conference will open new ways to understand Arabic literature. Earlier, NUML DG Brigadier Muhammad Ibrahim welcomed the honourable chief guest and said that every Muslim has a strong connection with Arabic as it is the language of the holy Quran and the Hadiths, that is why people of Pakistan have a special interest in this language. He said literature has no boundaries and so today’s conference will pave the way to open new horizons to understand this great language as best scholars from different countries will present their research papers in the conference. In the two-day conference, research scholars from Brunei Darul Salam, Jordon, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Pakistan will present their papers. Published in Daily Times, December 18th 2018.