The reconciliation committee holds a preparatory meeting for the joint forum in Makkah. (AN photo)

MAKKAH: Reconciliation committees in the Kingdom will hold their first joint meeting in the holy city, the Makkah Reconciliation Committee announced Wednesday.

It did not give a date for the meeting but said preparations for the event were currently under way.

The reconciliation committees make voluntary efforts to save convicted murderers from execution by reconciling heirs of the victims and families of the murderers. They encourage victims’ heirs to accept blood money instead of insisting on execution by driving home the importance of forgiveness for the sake of Allah. They also make attempts to settle family and tribal disputes to ensure social harmony.

The committee announced that it was planning to set up an institute, to be named after the late King Abdul Aziz, to graduate specialists in reconciliation and forgiveness according to Islamic Shariah. It added that it was also planning to establish a university chair, under the name of King Faisal, to teach these subjects.

Assistant chairman of the executive board of the committee Ali Al-Hafashi said the committee was currently considering hundreds of cases, and that it had received 17 requests for reconciliation efforts from six government departments in one day alone.