Current and former executives from YouTube and Microsoft AI are running live workshops at a free hackathon against online anti-Muslim hate — and you can be in the room.
The Harvest Anti-Muslim Hate Hackathon Aug 22–25 · fully online · open worldwide · $10,000 USD in prizes
You’ve seen it. The meme that isn’t really a joke. The comment section that turns the second a Muslim name shows up. The dog-whistle you clocked but couldn’t explain to anyone else.
Almost none of it ever gets flagged, countered or recorded — not because people don’t care, but because nobody’s organised to do it. The hate follows a playbook and crosses borders in hours. The response is one deleted comment and a screenshot that goes nowhere.
Four days to change that.
What happens
Sat 22 Aug, 9am–12pm PT — three hours of live workshops from current and former YouTube and Microsoft AI executives, plus online-safety experts. These are the people who built and ran the enforcement systems this hate travels through, telling you how it actually works from the inside. That access alone is worth the weekend. All sessions recorded.
Sat to Mon — you build. An app, a browser extension, a detection model, a dataset, a reporting tool, a campaign, a curriculum. Projects due Monday 24 Aug at 12pm PT.
Tue 25 Aug — the top ten pitch live to judges from the platforms their work is aimed at. $10,000 USD to the top three: $5,000 / $3,000 / $2,000.
You don’t need to code. With today’s AI tools, if you can describe the idea clearly you can build a working prototype. Plenty of the strongest entries won’t be software at all — research, curriculum, campaigns all
The Cordoba Foundation mourns the passing of Professor John L. Esposito, who died on July 15, 2026, at the age of 86, following complications from heart surgery. With his passing, the world has lost one of the most consequential scholars of Islam of the past century, and we have lost a cherished friend.
John Esposito’s relationship with The Cordoba Foundation went back to our earliest days. From day one, he was not only a friend and a supporter but an intellectual giant who had the humility and grace to seldom, if ever, turn down an invitation to contribute in any way asked of him. Whether it was a lecture, a foreword, a quiet word of encouragement, or simply lending his name and his considerable moral authority to a cause he believed in, John gave generously of his time and his standing. That he did so without pretension, and often without needing to be asked twice, said as much about his character as his scholarship did about his mind.
Born in Brooklyn in 1940 and originally on a path toward the Catholic priesthood, Esposito instead built a career that would see him become university Professor of Religion, International Affairs, and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, where in 1993 he founded the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.
Over more than five decades, he authored, co-authored, or edited upwards of fifty-five books, many published by Oxford University Press and translated into dozens of languages, becoming standard references on Islam in universities around the world.
He served as president of both the Middle East Studies Association of North America and the American Academy of Religion, and was honored with the Academy’s Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion as well as Pakistan’s Quaid-e-Azam Award for Outstanding Contributions to Islamic Studies.
But numbers and titles only tell part of the story. What set John apart was the moment in which he chose to do his most vital work. At a time when Muslims around the world, but particularly in the West, were under immense pressure in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, John debunked the accusations, falsehoods, myths, and lies in language that few could better. He argued calmly and often humourously, but always with irrefutable evidence, with decades of scholarship, and with a clarity that cut through the noise of fear and suspicion that had come to define so much of the public conversation about Islam. He understood that the battle against Islamophobia would not be won with slogans, and so he built institutions instead: the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and later the Bridge Initiative, a research project dedicated to tracking and challenging Islamophobia with the same rigour he brought to everything else.
This was, in many ways, the defining feature of John’s life’s work: he refused to let Islam be turned into an enemy, even and especially when it was politically convenient to do so. He built bridges between Muslims and the societies around them at a time when so many were intent on building walls. He did this as a non-Muslim scholar whose credibility rested precisely on the fact that his conclusions were rooted in serious study rather than advocacy, which is what made his voice so difficult to dismiss and so essential to have on our side.
Those of us who worked alongside him remember not just the eminent professor but the man: warm, approachable, endlessly patient with young researchers and community organisers alike, and possessed of a generosity of spirit that never seemed to run out. He treated an invitation from a small foundation with the same seriousness he brought to an audience with heads of state. That, perhaps, is the rarest kind of greatness.
John is survived by his wife, Jean, and by a legacy carried forward in the shelves of scholarship he leaves behind, in the students he trained, and in the countless people, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, whose understanding of one another he helped shape for the better.
The Cordoba Foundation extends its deepest condolences to his family, his colleagues at Georgetown, and the many communities around the world who considered him a friend. We were fortunate to count ourselves among them.
Hundreds mark 31 years since Srebrenica at London launch of Alija Izetbegović’s Islam: Between East and West
The newly revised English translation of Islam: Between East and West — the philosophical work of Alija Izetbegović, the philosopher, statesman, and Founding President of Bosnia-Herzegovina — was launched on Friday, 10 July 2026, at the London Muslim Centre, during an evening that also commemorated the 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide.
Hosted by The Cordoba Foundation and the Alija Izetbegović Foundation, alongside several supporting organisations (including the book’s publisher, Ketebe), the launch drew over 400 guests from across the country. Attendees included many youth as well as a Turkish delegation. Streamed live on The Cordoba Foundation’s YouTube and Facebook channels, the event proved highly successful, with nearly 300 copies of the book sold at the beginning of the evening.
Moderated by Dr Abdullah Faliq, Managing Director at The Cordoba Foundation —who brings 25 years of advocacy for the victims of Srebrenica — the event commenced as he welcomed the panel of speakers and guests. He described Izetbegović’s magnum opus as “a major contribution to understanding the human condition, consciousness, and the metaphysical foundations of ethics.”
Elaborating further, he said: “Many of us grew up reading this text, which positions Islam not just as a religion, but as an integrative worldview capable of harmonising humanity’s spiritual and material needs. The book has striking relevance for us today as we try to navigate conflicts, tensions, and the rise of right-wing populism across the globe.”
Imam Sedin Sahman, Chief Imam of the Islamic Bosnian community in Britain and a survivor of the Bosnian War, recited verses from the Qur’an. This was followed by opening remarks from H.E. Osman Topčagić, Bosnian Ambassador to the UK, who recalled working alongside President Izetbegović throughout the war years and the Dayton peace negotiations. “In all those situations, I had in front of me a statesman, but also a man who cared deeply for human beings: care for the people, care for others, and not just for one ethnic or religious group, trying to find a formula to enable life together,” he said. “Bosnia and Herzegovina remembers the work and life of Mr Izetbegović. What we have today is very much because of his actions and his deeds.”
The highlight of the evening was a keynote address by Sabina Berberović, daughter of President Izetbegović and a founding member of the Alija Izetbegović Foundation. Speaking on the eve of the Srebrenica Genocide anniversary, she stated: “Thirty-one years on, we remember the victims of the genocide, and we stand with their families: thousands of women and children who lost their fathers, their brothers, their husbands. It takes immense courage to continue living after such a terrible experience,” she said. “They are enduring the unendurable and accepting the unacceptable. The women of Srebrenica rose from being victims to become our heroes, and they raised their children with pride and dignity.”
She shared the story behind her father’s book, which Izetbegović began writing as a high school student during the Second World War. The manuscript was hidden by his sister under a flower chest in the family kitchen when police searched their home in 1946, and it was completed three decades later. By the time State Security agents targeted him again in the 1980s, the finished manuscript was safely in the possession of a friend in Canada. “As they were leaving, I asked my father what we were to do, and he just replied: ‘Have the book published,’” she recalled.
The book was published in 1984 while Izetbegović served a prison sentence. Sabina’s brother and husband later drove the first copies from Belgrade to Sarajevo in the boot of a car, taking rural backroads to avoid being stopped and searched. “I hope that the book Islam: Between East and West will only bring good wherever and whenever it is read,” she said.
Ömer Faruk Yeni, an arts and cultural heritage consultant and the London and Istanbul-based director of Ketebe publishing, provided an overview of the book. “This is not a book about East or West, nor is it a defence of one civilisation against another. It is a profound reflection on what it means to be human. More than forty years have passed since the book first appeared, yet its questions have only become more relevant. Increasingly, Izetbegović is recognised not only as the founding President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but as one of the most original Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century.”
In a recorded address, Dr Admir Mulaosmanović, CEO of the Aurora Foundation in Sarajevo and a wounded veteran of the Bosnian War, framed the book within the context of the present day. “The question Izetbegović posed rings even more powerfully today than when it was first written down,” he said. “This is not a theological text. It is an attempt to translate Islam into a language spoken and understood by today’s generation, and a call for both individual intellectual sharpening and collective social action.” (Note: Mulaosmanović’s full written speech is available here)
Shaykh Prof Abdal Hakim Murad, Dean of the Cambridge Muslim College, recounted travelling to Sarajevo in the 1980s to write a report for Amnesty International on the trial of Izetbegović and his co-defendants. Europe’s response to Bosnia, he argued, exposed a lasting blind spot. “The Bosnian struggle was not just a military struggle. It was against a European determination to defend a cultural truth rather than a factual truth,” he said. “We see this today in Gaza: so many hand-wringing politicians who have read the reports and know what is going on, but it is not their cultural truth, and so they are paralysed.”
Murad warned that “Muslim communities across Europe are witnessing the storm clouds gathering on the horizon”, adding that Bosnia holds a vital lesson: “Bosnians can teach us what that is like, and how to avert it. We need to challenge cultural truths with factual truths. We need to go to Bosnia, we need to read this great literature, and we need to make that history part of our history.”
Shaykh Dr Yasir Qadhi, a prominent American theologian who sent a video message while travelling, described first reading the book as a teenager in 1990. “This book is one of the few genuinely unique philosophical contributions of the Muslim Ummah in this century, in a similar vein to Iqbal’s Reconstruction of Religious Thought. What makes it especially important is not just the message, but that it comes from somebody who paid a personal price for what he wrote. Izetbegović was not a mere armchair critic. He lived the life of a bona fide leader who had to navigate his nation through a war,” he said.
“This book should be mandatory reading for all who want to traverse the path of intellectual scholarship, especially in the Western world, because it answers the question: what vision of the human person makes Islam intelligible?”
Sarah Joseph OBE, a writer, broadcaster, and founding editor of Emel magazine, focused on the book’s chapter on progress. “Izetbegović asks whether life will be five times fuller, happier, or more humane, and his answer is decidedly negative. Another forty years on, have we quintupled in our happiness? Again, the answer is decidedly no,” she said.
Addressing the rise of the far-right in Europe, she rejected fear: “This book is calling us towards civilisation. It is calling us to say: we are not victims. We are people inspired by ideas, and we have a vision for the future. The Prophet Muhammad did not come for the Muslims; he came as a mercy to mankind. That is a civilisational message, and that is what this book tells us.”
Dr Mohammed Wajid Akhter, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, remembered discovering the book as a child in Saudi Arabia during the genocide, noting it was one of only two English titles in his mosque. “The imam came to me one day and said: ‘This is why the Bosnians will win. You can kill a people, but you cannot kill an idea,’” he shared. Izetbegović, Akhter argued, possessed the rare vision, courage, and pragmatism that eventually guided his nation to survival and left a timeless intellectual blueprint for future generations.
Izetbegović, Akhter argued, possessed the vision, courage, and pragmatism every leader needs, alongside something far rarer. “He did something very few Muslim leaders do: he voluntarily stepped down,” Akhter noted. “Throughout 1,400 years of Muslim history, leaders have traditionally left office only for the graveyard. Izetbegović chose to leave before then, showing the true measure of the man.”
Former BBC war reporter Martin Bell, who was wounded during the siege of Sarajevo, sent his apologies as ill health prevented his attendance.
Dr Abdullah Faliq asked for prayers and reflection for ten genocide victims whose remains were identified this year, ahead of their burial at Srebrenica on 11 July. He also highlighted the Bosnian Grand Mufti’s Friday Sermon delivered earlier that day in Sarajevo, noting its timely messages of steadfastness and enduring faith.
Faliq urged the youth to study the history of Srebrenica, recommending a special publication, Srebrenica Genocide: 30 Years Later: Understanding, Remembering, Acting by Dr Emir Hadžikadunić. The publication features insights from Bosnia’s Grand Mufti, the Bosnian Ambassador, and ICMP Director Kathryne Bomberger.
Sarah Joseph urged the audience to visit the country: “Go, support the economy, support the people, and know that their stories will never die.”
Closing the evening, Faliq reflected on the ongoing pain of families still recovering the remains of loved ones 31 years later. “Let us not do this once a year only,” he pleaded. “We must keep the flame of Srebrenica alive and tell these stories all year round.”
[Ends]
Notes to editors:
Event Recording: Streaming on The Cordoba Foundation’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
The Book:Islam: Between East and West (Revised English translation, May 2026) is published by Ketebe and available online.
The Alija Izetbegović Foundation: A Sarajevo-based non-profit established in 2020 to preserve the legacy of the first President of Bosnia and Herzegovina. www.alijaizetbegovic.org
Though decades have passed, the deep pain of their absence remains as we finally lay these stolen lives to rest, remembering the unfathomable brutality with which they were hunted down, summarily executed, and buried in hidden mass graves.
Prof Admir Mulaosmanovic CEO, Aurora Foundation, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Official book launch, Islam: Between East and West by Alija Izetbegovic The Cordoba Foundation & Alija Izetbegovic Foundation 10 July 2026, London Muslim Centre
“The contemporary world is marked by a sharp ideological conflict that has been going on for years and whose end is not in sight. We are all involved in this conflict in one way or another, either as its participants or as its victims. What is the place of Islam in this gigantic confrontation? Does it have any role in shaping today’s world? This book attempts to answer that question, at least partially.”
I begin this short address with a sentence from the introduction to the book, Islam: Between East and West, which, both then and now, poses one of the key questions for Muslim thinkers and all those who take Islam as a guide in life. The thought expressed — the question that Alija Izetbegović posed—rings even more powerfully today than when it was first written down. The bipolar order that shaped his approach has ceased to exist, but the multipolar one is slowly becoming a reality that must be reckoned with, which emphasizes the need to define the role of Islam in it.
Due to this multifaceted confrontation, relations have become more complex and subtle, and the world taking shape before our eyes is both troublesome and worrying. The role of Islam in a bipolarly divided world and the Cold War environment was great, but in the most significant aspect, it remained unrealised. Today, as in the near future, this role is becoming — and will become — even more pronounced, but the possibility that it will be neglected, as it was during the twentieth century, remains a realistic scenario.
However, a repetition of the twentieth-century lethargy of Islamic thought would be worse than humiliating. The Islamic idea has become crucial not only for defining one’s own position, but also for the survival of a world in which humanity does not become a mere statistical entry or “quantified energy that produces guaranteed profit.” Instead, it offers a vision of a being imbued with meaning in the fullness of his action and existence — “a being of call and response” whose essence is fulfilled in the drama of existence. Therefore, within the dehumanising rush of the Anthropocene era that humanity has built against itself, Islam provides both a teaching and an order capable of restoring the lost meaning of anthropos by re-establishing humanity as a unique presence within theocentric discourse. Yet, in this immense new confrontation, this role must first be accepted, and then actively performed.
In this work, Izetbegović reveals the return of reality’s missing inner dimension of reality — a dimension linked to the drama of existence and the testimony of humanity’s arrival from the Unknown — by contrasting Michelangelo with Darwin. In doing so, he sharply contrasts art with science. He argues that, at its most authentic, art is the history of human alienation. This is precisely why science and art are in complete, irrevocable conflict regarding the origin and nature of humanity. Izetbegović claims that a science of humanity is possible only if man is viewed as a part or product of the external world, whereas art is possible only if man is distinct from nature — a stranger within it.
For Izetbegović, however, being a stranger means being a true individual — that is, achieving and realising the full capacity of a person. He emphasises this sense of foreignness, viewing this inner dimension of reality as the conscious meaning of existence.
For Izetbegović, therefore, this meaning is thoroughly reflected in the ultimate humanisation of the individual. Through countless examples — often defying worldly logic — he shows how this state is achieved. “Fighting for other people, or for truth, justice, and goodness, is always a negation of the narrowness and finitude of life. The sacrifices of those who lose their lives, freedom, and peace because they remain faithful to moral laws represent the most profound revelation of the infinity of life and its higher, secondary meaning. These are sparks of light that, like a flash of lightning in a dark night, instantly illuminate distant horizons for us.” This is one of the core convictions he expresses in his elaboration on what it means to become fully human.
Reading Islam: Between East and West leads to the conclusion that Izetbegović’s thought is provocative, yet primarily avant-garde. Unburdened by the traditional framework defined by the Ottoman and post-Ottoman systems of Islamic scholarship, his thought transcends these limits, ascending to higher levels of theoretical reflection on Islam and its position in a divided world. He engages in dialogue with intellectual giants, seamlessly incorporating their thoughts and ideas into an explanatory framework that establishes his own argument.
Izetbegović approached society, politics, culture, and all other topics from the position of an advocate building a system based on the Islamic worldview. This is why Islam: Between East and West is not a theological text. Izetbegović himself describes the book as “not theology, nor is its author a theologian; rather, it is an attempt to ‘translate’ Islam into a language spoken and understood by today’s generation.” This text is, therefore, a call for both individual intellectual sharpening and collective social action.
The thought of Alija Izetbegović in general, and this book in particular, should serve as a guide for Muslim intellectuals navigating “post-normal times,” precisely because it validates the necessity of establishing an Islamic worldview. Izetbegović brilliantly anchors his arguments by placing humanity at the center of the world’s drama. Across all the themes he explores—from the problem of justice and retribution to art as a spiritual flash within the human soul—the human being remains a unique phenomenon whose actions strive toward the pure meaning of existence.
Structurally, the book consists of two parts. It comprehensively analyses the problem of religion on the one hand, and the question of Islam from the perspective of bipolarity on the other. Yet, the human being remains the core, defining theme of the work. Izetbegović clearly demonstrates how materialists view man as a mere “biological machine,” arguing that the difference between humans and animals is only a matter of degree rather than quality, thereby denying the existence of a distinct human essence
To illustrate this point, he quotes György Lukács’s Existentialism or Marxism, claiming that there is only a “concrete, historical, and social concept of man” and that “economic and social history is the only one that is concrete and that really exists.” He similarly highlights Ivan Pavlov, who believed that man, like all other natural systems, is subject to the inevitable and general laws of nature. Though these positions may seem self-evident to some, Izetbegović views them as a total negation of humanity because they entirely dismiss the inner dimension of human reality.
Finally, by drawing on the philosophical insights of Jacques Derrida — who posited that there is no “view from nowhere” and, consequently, no entirely objective, unmediated knowledge — we can fully flesh out Izetbegović’s overarching thesis. Objectivity does not emerge from a vacuum of perspective, nor is it possible to remain neutral when evaluating contrasting discourses. For Izetbegović, the Islamic worldview is an ontological reality; a conviction in its truth cannot be fulfilled by theoretical formulation alone. It is an operational force meant to subdue and guide the world in the name of God and for the ultimate good of humanity. Achieving this requires immense perseverance and devotion. As Izetbegović powerfully concludes in the final sentence of his book: “O submission, your name is Islam!”
BY Husein ef. Kavazović, GRAND MUFTI AND Reis-ul-ulema OF BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
COMMEMORATING THE 31st ANNIVERSARY OF THE SREBRENICA GENOCIDE
Gazi Husrev Bay Mosque, Sarajevo, 10 July 2026
All praise is due to Allah, the Sustainer of the worlds, the Deliverer of the oppressed, the Helper of the believers, and the Protector of the faithful. He is the One in whose Name all things begin and all things end. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, the One, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is His Messenger. O Allah, bestow Your mercy and blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), his noble family, and his companions.
Dear brothers and sisters in Islam, respected members of our congregations,
We find ourselves in days that, both in our collective consciousness and in the history of all humankind, carry the heaviest burden of grief, sorrow, and remembrance. Every year, the middle of July unfailingly brings us back to the valley of the river Drina, to our Srebrenica. It returns us to the martyrs’ cemetery in Potočari, where the white gravestones stand in solemn silence, yet bear powerful witness to a crime that shook the conscience of humanity – the Genocide committed against the Bosniak people within the United Nations designated Safe Area.
Inscribed within those white gravestones are our love and our grief for those dearest to us. They bear witness not only to the cruelty of the aggressor, but also to the indifference of the world. Today’s khutba is not merely a remembrance of historical dates; it is a call to perpetual vigilance, to remembrance and collective memory. For in Islam, remembering is an act of worship (ibadah), while forgetting is a danger that paves the way for the repetition of evil.
The pain and grief that we carry within us will remain with us forever, for it has rightly been said that suffering once endured can never truly be forgotten. Yet it is our duty to rise above its overwhelming weight and never allow it to break our spirit. Our faith teaches us and instils within us the strength to endure every trial with patience, even the most difficult ones. By the grace of Allah, throughout all these years we have neither lost heart nor bowed our heads before evil. We have offered a steadfast resistance that has earned the admiration of the world. We have learned how to bear the burden of the pain that was inflicted upon us. With patience and unwavering determination, we shall continue our struggle against forgetfulness, but also against hatred, ensuring that it never poisons our hearts or our souls.
Dear brothers and sisters, in the Qur’an, the Almighty Allah commands us never to conceal the truth and reminds us to bear witness against injustice. In Surat al-Mā’idah, He says:
“O you who believe! Be ever steadfast in your devotion to Allah, bearing witness with justice; and never let hatred of anyone lead you into the sin of deviating from justice. Be just; this is closest to righteousness.” (Qur’an, Surat al-Mā’idah, 5:8)
From this noble verse we learn a fundamental moral lesson: preserving the memory of the victims of the Genocide is an act of the highest justice and righteousness. It is the fulfilment of Allah’s explicit command to bear truthful and just witness. We remember Srebrenica in order avoid nurturing hatred, but to ensure that truth prevails over falsehood and that such evil never again happens to anyone, anywhere.
We, the Bosnian Muslims, have learned, perhaps more than any other people in the world, that the paths of hatred lead only to death, despair, and the corruption of the human soul. Upon the mythology of blood and soil, nothing can be built except misery and crime. Those who forget that the Earth and all that it contains belong to God, and that all of His creation is equal in dignity, stand only one step away from committing atrocities.
Srebrenica teaches us that evil never rests. We live in a time marked by the growing and institutionalised denial of the crime of Genocide. The proponents of evil make enormous efforts to minimise the crime they committed and to erase the distinction between the perpetrator and the victim. They believe that lies can cast doubt upon established historical facts. They deliberately count on our weariness, hoping that we will eventually yield to their brazen lies.
For this reason, the culture of remembrance and memory must never be confined to a single day of the year or reduced to a mere expression of mourning. It must become an integral part of our daily identity, our educational system, and the upbringing of our families. It is our moral duty to pass the truth on to our children, not to burden them with hatred, but to equip them with vigilance and the awareness that evil never rests.
It is for this reason that the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), teaches us in the well-known hadith narrated by Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him):
“A believer must not allow himself to be stung from the same hole twice.” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)
This hadith constitutes the religious foundation of our culture of remembrance, as well as our direct obligation to prevent Genocide. The prevention of Genocide is not merely a political or legal issue; it is, above all, a profound religious and moral obligation. We have no right to be naïve. Prevention means recognizing the early signs of evil, dehumanisation, and denial before it is too late.
In this context, the adoption of the United Nations Resolution on the Srebrenica Genocide represents on the global scale an important civilizational milestone. This Resolution is a clear indication that the international community, despite its delayed response, has established both a legal and a moral barrier against falsehood and denial. Yet international resolutions provide only a framework; genuine prevention begins within our homes, our congregations, and our institutions.
Our daily commitment to education, vigilance, and the preservation of truth within our local communities and congregations constitutes the essential first line of defence against the repetition of the past.
If we surrender to complacency and the comfort of forgetting, we risk experiencing again the horrors endured by our fathers, our grandfathers, and our sons. Our history in this land reminds us that every act of historical forgetfulness has served as a prelude and invitation to new crimes against us. Negligence and indifference are luxuries we can never again afford. Remembering Srebrenica, and actively working to prevent the recurrence of evil, are the very pillars of our survival and our continued existence in our ancestral homeland.
The Genocide committed in Srebrenica obliges us to think vigilantly and responsibly about the future of our people and of our Srebrenica. Almighty Allah says:
“Allah has promised those among you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will surely cause them to accede to power on earth …” (Qur’an, Surat En-Nur, 24:55)
We believe with certainty that God‘s promise is true. At the same time, we are equally convinced that much depends on us today. It is our duty to care for Srebrenica, for it is the birthplace of our collective suffering. Nothing in this Bosnian country can be compared to it. We prevent genocide by strengthening our institutions, by striving for excellence in education, scholarship, and economic development. Our strength, together with our readiness to defend ourselves and safeguard our right to life, is the greatest deterrent against any future evil. It is our responsibility to persevere, to invest in knowledge, and to secure a dignified and safe life for all the people of Srebrenica and its surrounding region. Those who take God as their Protector and remain steadfast in faith and endeavour will attain what they seek.
Islam is a religion of honour, dignity, and steadfastness; a religion of truth and justice. Therefore, let not grief cast us into despair, nor compassion into weakness. Allah tests us in good times and in bad times, in abundance and in hardship, and our steadfastness is measured by our unity.
The Qur’an tells us that Allah loves those who strive in His cause, standing together in ranks as solid as a fortified structure. Let us therefore stand together as one soul and one body. Let Srebrenica remain for us an everlasting lesson that the weak, the divided, and the unprepared cannot expect mercy. And let it be our solemn pledge that, by strengthening our unity and our collective resilience, we will ensure that such suffering is never inflicted upon us again. Raise your hands in supplication morning and evening – and call upon your Lord.
O Lord, to You we raise our hands. You are the One who knows the whisper of every heart and the only true remedy in the midst of despair. Help us heal our wounded souls and grant us everlasting peace in Your presence.
O Lord, bestow Your blessings upon the people of Srebrenica and upon their descendants for all generations to come.
O Lord, grant us the wisdom, the strength, and the unity to recognise and prevent every evil that may threaten us. Preserve the memory of Srebrenica in our hearts for all eternity. May Srebrenica forever remain the pledge of our freedom, our unity, and our life in peace. By Your Majesty and Your Infinite Mercy.
Launch of landmark Islam: Between East and West by Alija Izetbegović, marking 31 years since Srebrenica
The Cordoba Foundation, with the Alija Izetbegović Foundation, will host the official launch of the revised English translation (May 2026) of Islam: Between East and West — the seminal work of Alija Izetbegović, the philosopher, statesman and Founding President of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The launch will take place on Friday 10 July 2026 at the London Muslim Centre (7:15pm–9pm), with hundreds of guests expected.
Islam: Between East and West is a profound meditation on faith, civilisation and the human condition. Its first English edition was published in 1984, while its author, Izetbegovic, was a political prisoner, and it was followed by four further editions. The book argues that Islam offers a path between the materialism of the West and the abstraction of the East — a vision of the human being as both body and spirit. Over three decades after it first reached English readers, its questions about identity, belonging and coexistence remain strikingly current.
The book launch also marks the 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide, in which more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were murdered on European soil. The launch stands as both a commemoration of those lost and a reflection on what the world has, and has not, learned since. A special exhibition on the genocide will be on display during the event.
“Alija Izetbegović’s life and thought remind us that dialogue and dignity are not luxuries, but necessities,” said Dr Abdullah Faliq, Managing Director of The Cordoba Foundation and a longtime advocate for Srebrenica. “To revisit his work in the shadow of Srebrenica is to ask ourselves what kind of future we are building, and whether we have the courage to remember.”
Sabina Berberović, daughter of Izetbegović who is traveling from Bosnia to speak at the book launch, said: “During the Second World War my father was a high school student. He read a great deal, mainly philosophical and political books, and felt conflicted between communist ideas and religious beliefs. Eventually it was in his faith — Islam — that he found all the core values he was searching for; a universe without God seemed to him a universe without meaning.”
Berberović added, @Inspired by this personal journey of thought, he, just a teenager, began writing a book. He put on paper the basic structure, ideas and thoughts, and the title: Islam between East and West.”
The book launch event brings together a distinguished panel of speakers, including Izetbegović’s daughter (a founding member of the Alija Izetbegović Foundation); H.E. Osman Topčagić, Bosnian Ambassador to the UK; Shaykh Prof Abdal Hakim Murad, Dean of the Cambridge Muslim College; Dr Admir Mulaosmanović, professor and Bosnian War veteran; Shaykh Dr Yasir Qadhi (joining online); Martin Bell, the former BBC war reporter who covered the siege of Sarajevo; Sarah Joseph OBE, writer and broadcaster; and Dr Wajid Akhter, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.
[Ends]
Notes to editors:
The Cordoba Foundation is an independent research and policy institution established in 2005 to promote intercultural dialogue and positive coexistence among civilisations, cultures and people. Its work spans research and publications, conferences, executive education and public engagement, guided by its slogan, “Cultures in Dialogue.”
The Alija Izetbegović Foundation is a non-profit organisation in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Established in 2020, it preserves the intellectual legacy and personal memorabilia of Alija Izetbegović, the first President of the independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.www.alijaizetbegovic.org
Signed copies of the book will be available to purchase at a special event price of £10.
A Reflection on Civilisation, Consciousness, and the Human Future
In a world fractured by rigid religious dogma and materialist reductionism, Alija Izetbegović’s seminal work transcends binary thinking to offer a profound roadmap for modern civilisation and consciousness.
Moderator
Dr Abdullah Faliq Cordoba Foundation
Speakers
Sabina Berberović Daughter of President Alija Izetbegović and founding member of the Alija Izetbegović Foundation.
Prof Tim Winter (Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad) Islamic scholar, theologian, and Dean of the Cambridge Muslim College.
Dr Admir Mulaosmanović Balikesir University professor, author, and wounded veteran of the Bosnian War’s 4 Knights Brigade.
Shaykh Dr Yasir Qadhi (video/online) Prominent American Muslim theologian, scholar, and author.
Martin Bell Former BBC war reporter and UNICEF ambassador seriously wounded during the 1992 siege of Sarajevo.
Sarah Joseph OBE Writer, broadcaster, and creator and former editor-in-chief of Emel magazine.
Dr Wajid Akhter Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain with expertise in modern European Muslim thinkers like Alija Izetbegović.
