Dubai: The concluded Annual Ramadan Forum held at the Dubai World Trade Centre saw 39 participants embrace Islam during the course of two weeks of lectures.

Ramadan Forum was organised by the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) under the patronage of the Chairman of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The DTCM stated that there was a 30 per cent increase in lecture attendance this year – approaching nearly 27,400 participants, compared to the last year’s record of 24,006 participants.

“A total of 39 participants embraced Islam throughout the forum, including 31 women and 8 men,” according to the Executive Director of Business Tourism for DTCM and General Coordinator for the 13th Ramadan Forum, Hamad Bin Mejren.

“The success of the forum is a result of the hard work and countless efforts of all those who have stood behind it over the years. Today, it stands as one of the major annual events held during the Holy Month in Dubai.”

Supported by a number of organisations and manned by dozens of volunteers, the forum “was able to attract all segments and classes of society including men, women and children of diverse nationalities.”

“The volunteers of the forum distributed 11,000 gifts, 25,000 pocket notebooks covering a schedule of all the lectures and events of the forum, 7,000 promotional bags for non-Muslims containing brochures in five languages including English, Urdu, Malayalam, Tagalog and Bengali.

“They also gave out 30,000 promotional booklets on Islam along with a CD in the same language and an introductory booklet on ‘Ramadan in Dubai’ in English – to the public at the various government offices, hospitals and other public spots in every nook and corner of the emirate,” said Hamad.

The sponsors included Al Maktab for Culture and Media, Dewa, The Saeed and Mohammed Al Naboodah Group, Dubai Islamic Bank and twofour54, the key sponsors Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI) and iPhoneIslam and also Tamani Marina Hotel and Hotel Apartments.

Over 3,869 participants registered on Ramadan Forum’s official website: www.almultaqa.ae.

“This year, the number of Facebook followers (https://www.facebook.com/almultaqa.ae) grew to more than 19,700 – a significant increase from last year, with 15,000 new followers this edition.

“The account, which serves as an online library of the most popular lectures held during the current and previous editions of the Ramadan Forum, has recorded more 467,910 views. The mobile applications for the forum for Apple and Android operating systems were downloaded more than 20,731 times for each of the two operating systems this year.”

Source: The Gulf Today