1605, 2016

Ideas Hub: THE WORLD OF ISLAM FESTIVAL 40TH ANNIVERSARY, by Dr Ahmed Keeler

By Myriam Francois|May 16, 2016|Ideas Hub|1 comments

THE WORLD OF ISLAM FESTIVAL 40TH ANNIVERSARY by Dr Paul Ahmed Keeler The World of Islam Festival was unprecedented in scale and participation; a dozen major exhibitions, held in the most prestigious venues including the British Museum, the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Hayward Gallery, assembled 6,000 manuscripts and objects from 250 public and private collections in 32 countries; a Quran recital held

0905, 2016

Ideas Hub: The Problem with the Marrakesh Declaration, By Michael Mumisa (Shaykh)

By Myriam Francois|May 9, 2016|Ideas Hub|1 comments

The Problem with the Marrakesh Declaration By Michael Mumisa (Shaykh), Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge In January this year (2016), the “Marrakesh Declaration on the Rights of Religious Minorities in Predominantly Muslim Majority Communities” was launched in Morocco amid much fanfare. It was described as a response to the persecution of religious minorities by ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Key among the declaration’s proposals, and as a solution,

1804, 2016

Ideas hub: Unknown and Untold: The significance of Britains WW1 Muslim Soldiers, by Avaes Mohammad

By Myriam Francois|April 18, 2016|Ideas Hub|1 comments

Unknown and Untold: The significance of Britains WW1 Muslim Soldiers. By Avaes Mohammad “I think it began when Archie Duke shot an Ostrich because he was Hungry” Private Baldrick (Blackadder Goes Forth) Half way into the centenary commemorations Britain’s desire to honour the events and combatants of WW1 remain increasingly committed. Each notable battle and treaty, act of valour and figure of heroism is visited in fresh light to ensure a

0903, 2016

Idea’s Hub: Prof Jonathan AC Brown on “How Much Does Islamic Law Change When Customs Change?”

By Myriam Francois|March 9, 2016|Ideas Hub|4 comments

How Much Does Islamic Law Change When Customs Change? By Prof Jonathan Brown Not long ago one of my students approached me asking my opinion on a small text that had been circulating on social media, particularly amongst advocates of Progressive Islam. The snippet of text was fascinating, since it touched on a major question of Islamic law and legal reform, namely the competing authority of the original proof texts

0703, 2016

Ideas Hub: British Muslim Comedian Sadia Azmat on not being Malala, Prevent and Radical thinking

By Myriam Francois|March 7, 2016|Ideas Hub|0 comments

British Muslim Comedian Sadia Azmat on not being Malala, Prevent and Radical thinking I discovered stand up comedy at a very early age watching late night comedy specials like Chris Rock Bring The Pain. What I loved was how raw and honest the routines were. Legends like Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle are all a great inspiration. My own style is observational humour and I call it as I

2402, 2016

Ideas Hub: A Historic Perspective on Contemporary British Muslim Fiction, by Hannah Kershaw

By Myriam Francois|February 24, 2016|Ideas Hub|0 comments

A Historic Perspective on Contemporary British Muslim Fiction by Hannah Kershaw Today’s British media outlets, particularly the tabloids, are saturated with claims that Muslims living in Britain have had a negative influence on society. Immigrant communities from traditionally Muslim regions in Asia and the Middle East has been targeted as potential enemies of ‘the West’, framed in popular discourse as a threat to supposedly intrinsic British values, such as

2901, 2016

Ideas Hub: Muslims, foreignness and the ‘integration’ debate – by Dr Sarah Hackett

By Myriam Francois|January 29, 2016|Ideas Hub|0 comments

Muslims, foreignness and the ‘integration’ debate by Dr Sarah Hackett Muslim minority communities have secured a firm position at the centre of political and public discourse in Britain in recent years. These ever-heated deliberations have centred upon, amongst other things, integration, multiculturalism, segregation, exclusion, identity, belonging, discrimination and extremism. Far too often, these debates have been driven by sensationalist and attention-grabbing agendas and headlines. Recently, these have included the

0712, 2015

Ideas Hubs: The Sun and the dangers of made-up statistics – Dr Khadijah Elshayyal

By Myriam Francois|December 7, 2015|Ideas Hub|0 comments

Above: Dr Khadijah Elshayyal Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Muslims in Britain) The Alwaleed Centre University of Edinburgh Exclusive: shock poll – ‘1 in 5 Brit Muslims’ sympathy for jihadis’ – screamed the recent front page of The Sun newspaper. It seemed that the tabloid notorious for giving us inflammatory ‘Muslim stories’ in the past[1] had hit a new low. Over the past week, criticism for the headline, the poll, and indeed

0112, 2015

Ideas Hub: Emad Mostaque on “Daesh and the “Islamicisation” of Supremacism”

By Myriam Francois|December 1, 2015|Ideas Hub|2 comments

Emad Mostaque is the CEO of Ananas, an organisation working on using technology to eliminate extremism and build stronger communities. He is also an investment strategist focusing on geopolitics at Ecstrat. He tweets @EMostaque After the spate of recent terror attacks by Daesh, the Arabic acronym for the so-called “Islamic State”, the question of why they carry out these heinous acts and how we can stop them has resurfaced. While there are

2110, 2015

Idea’s Hub: Challenging Islamophobia: The video that went viral with a Message of Hate

By Myriam Francois|October 21, 2015|Ideas Hub|0 comments

Dr Imran Awan and Dr Irene Zempi (above) Now that hate crime awareness week has gone, it’s time for deep reflection and also action in how best we tackle intolerance, bigotry, prejudice and discrimination. Crucially, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron announced that the Government will now make it a legal requirement for all UK police forces to record Islamophobia as a separate category of crime. This means that