Jul 19, 2012 | Events
Date & Time: Wednesday 29 August 2012, 6.00pm for a 6.30 start – 8.00pm
Venue: St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & Peace
78 Bishopsgate London EC2N 4AG
www.stethelburgas.org/
Some UK contributors will read passages from this book including
Dr. Swee Chai Ang, Bruce Kent, Simon Keyes, Zoya Phan, Canon Patience Purchas, Christina Rees, Amjad Mohamed-Saleem (from The Cordoba Foundation) & Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg.
Editor Ros Bradley will share what inspired her to compile this book which offers a glimpse into the heart of other faiths, as well as some musings since the launch in Sydney.
RSVP by Thursday 23rd August 2012
Jun 29, 2012 | Events
Seventeen years ago this month, thousands of Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered in Europe. Some were killed opportunistically, but most were killed in a full-scale military operation: hands tied and blindfolded, they were lined up before freshly dug mass graves and shot in the back. In other cases, rather than bussing them to mass grave locations, their captors chose to murder them were they were detained – slaughtering them by the hundreds at a warehouse and theatre, by volleys of gunfire and rocket propelled grenades.
Later, earth-moving equipment would be used to remove the dead – and perhaps some living – and deposit them into other mass graves. It is estimated that over 8,000 Muslims were executed after the July 11, 1995, fall of Srebrenica, Bosnia, to the Bosnian Serbs. Like many of recent history’s slaughters, the international community was already present. A battalion of Dutch U.N. peacekeepers was responsible for protecting the first U.N.-declared “safe area” in Srebrenica. As the Bosnian Serb Army advanced on the city, U.N. offi cials declined to allow NATO warplanes to intervene until it was too late. The Serbs took Srebrenica without a fight and thousands of Bosnian Muslims fled to what they thought was the protection of the U.N. base in Potocari. Rather than offering a safe haven, the United Nations expelled fearful Muslims from their base and watched as another European genocide unfolded. In a scene evocative of Schindler’s List–a case of life imitating art, imitating life- -families were torn apart under the watchful eyes of the international community. Men and boys were separated from women and small children, never to be seen again.
Every year, international diplomats pause to remember the world’s most recent genocides. On 11th July, the world will mark the seventeenth anniversary of Srebrenica genocide. Join us to remember those who perished and the survivors. Meet British Muslims who visited Bosnia in the past, and a delegation visiting this July.
Date & Time – Tuesday 3rd July 2012 – 7pm
Venue: London Muslim Centre, Seminar Room, 4th Floor, 46 Whitechapel Road, London E1
Organised by London Muslim Centre, Islamic Forum of Europe, The Cordoba Foundation and Bosnia-Herzegovina Islamic Centre – London.
All welcome.
Jun 27, 2012 | Events
Do cosmopolitanism and religion stand in opposition with each other? To which extent are cosmopolitan ideas, practices and narratives meaningful to the religious experiences and affiliations of concrete individuals and groups? To which extent have religious communities made use of cosmopolitanism as a cultural resource that is channelled by institutional structures? Which media platforms are available to religious organizations and movements concerned with the promotion of cosmopolitan solidarity and ecumenical understanding at both local and transnational level?
Cosmopolitanism gains momentum both as a practice that is apparent in things that people do and say to positively engage with the ‘otherness of the other’, and as a moral ideal that emphasises both tolerance towards difference and the possibility of a more just world order. Religion is not often seen in connection to cosmopolitanism, a notion that is commonly equated to worldliness and secularism. In fact, some religious affiliations and practices are understood as bound to parochialism, tradition, and lack of tolerance. In the media, the debate on religion is often tied to public discourses about terrorism, security and freedom of expression and opinion in the public sphere. This is particularly significant when we consider the way in which Islam is publicly perceived in the western world as a highly institutionalized religion with a strong influence on the conduct of and collective identity of Muslim communities. The growing visibility of Muslim identity in the public sphere, through particular forms of attire, behaviour, and symbols, is seen as potentially fuelling xenophobia and ethnic conflict in collective imaginaries across the Western world. The continuing controversy over the public use of the headscarf in France, the 2005 affair over the publication of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and the 2009 Swiss vote to ban new mosque minarets, are only a few recent examples of how particular religious symbols and practices make the assertion of Muslim identity more visible in the public sphere. The fact that fundamentalist Islam is being increasingly tied to global terrorism in the mass media has played a key role on stirring the perception of fundamentalist Islam as a threat to individual freedoms and peace. While there is a growing interest in the meanings of religion and secularism in both media and scholarly debates, the linkages between cosmopolitanism and religion only very recently received the attention of sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists and religious scholars concerned with the role of religion in public life. This is in part because particularistic attachments to a community of faith sit uneasily with the ethical universalism and secular ideals of justice and equality that underpin cosmopolitan discourses and perspectives. Yet, while religions divide social groups and ethnic communities, religions can also offer influential forms of transnational, cosmopolitan solidarity and play a key role in conflict resolution both locally and globally. In pursuing particular forms of ecumenical understanding, religious organizations have, through history, always dealt with problems and challenges concerning the question of the ‘inclusion of the other’, which is at the heart of characterizations of cosmopolitanism as an ethico-political outlook.
By bringing together leading scholars from religious studies, sociology and anthropology, this conference seeks to investigate the connection between religion and cosmopolitanism and the role of religion in the public sphere through the lens of sociological, anthropological and theological perspectives.
The Cordoba Foundation will be presenting a paper here on its experiences and thoughts for Cosmopolitanism
For further information, please click here
Jun 27, 2012 | Events
Do cosmopolitanism and religion stand in opposition with each other? To which extent are cosmopolitan ideas, practices and narratives meaningful to the religious experiences and affiliations of concrete individuals and groups? To which extent have religious communities made use of cosmopolitanism as a cultural resource that is channelled by institutional structures? Which media platforms are available to religious organizations and movements concerned with the promotion of cosmopolitan solidarity and ecumenical understanding at both local and transnational level?
Cosmopolitanism gains momentum both as a practice that is apparent in things that people do and say to positively engage with the ‘otherness of the other’, and as a moral ideal that emphasises both tolerance towards difference and the possibility of a more just world order. Religion is not often seen in connection to cosmopolitanism, a notion that is commonly equated to worldliness and secularism. In fact, some religious affiliations and practices are understood as bound to parochialism, tradition, and lack of tolerance. In the media, the debate on religion is often tied to public discourses about terrorism, security and freedom of expression and opinion in the public sphere. This is particularly significant when we consider the way in which Islam is publicly perceived in the western world as a highly institutionalized religion with a strong influence on the conduct of and collective identity of Muslim communities. The growing visibility of Muslim identity in the public sphere, through particular forms of attire, behaviour, and symbols, is seen as potentially fuelling xenophobia and ethnic conflict in collective imaginaries across the Western world. The continuing controversy over the public use of the headscarf in France, the 2005 affair over the publication of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and the 2009 Swiss vote to ban new mosque minarets, are only a few recent examples of how particular religious symbols and practices make the assertion of Muslim identity more visible in the public sphere. The fact that fundamentalist Islam is being increasingly tied to global terrorism in the mass media has played a key role on stirring the perception of fundamentalist Islam as a threat to individual freedoms and peace. While there is a growing interest in the meanings of religion and secularism in both media and scholarly debates, the linkages between cosmopolitanism and religion only very recently received the attention of sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists and religious scholars concerned with the role of religion in public life. This is in part because particularistic attachments to a community of faith sit uneasily with the ethical universalism and secular ideals of justice and equality that underpin cosmopolitan discourses and perspectives. Yet, while religions divide social groups and ethnic communities, religions can also offer influential forms of transnational, cosmopolitan solidarity and play a key role in conflict resolution both locally and globally. In pursuing particular forms of ecumenical understanding, religious organizations have, through history, always dealt with problems and challenges concerning the question of the ‘inclusion of the other’, which is at the heart of characterizations of cosmopolitanism as an ethico-political outlook.
By bringing together leading scholars from religious studies, sociology and anthropology, this conference seeks to investigate the connection between religion and cosmopolitanism and the role of religion in the public sphere through the lens of sociological, anthropological and theological perspectives.
The Cordoba Foundation will be presenting a paper here on its experiences and thoughts for Cosmopolitanism
For further information, please click here
Jun 27, 2012 | Events
The Cordoba Foundation has been invited to a roundtable discussion with the Malaysian Prime Minister on ‘Modernity and Islam: The
Role of British Muslims in the Global Framework’
Venue: The Dorchester Hotel, London
For more information, please click here
Jun 27, 2012 | Events
With the drawdown of US combat troops from Afghanistan after July 2011 and the planned transition of security to Afghan command by the end of 2014, what are the key priorities for US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan?
The White House annual policy review last December said that: ‘The core goal of the US strategy in the Afghanistan and Pakistan theatre remains to disrupt, dismantle, and eventually defeat al-Qaeda in the region and to prevent its return.’ This built upon US President Barack Obama’s West Point speech a year before in which he said: ‘Our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the epicentre of violent extremism practiced by al-Qaeda.’
To achieve its goals, what form will US military and civilian engagement in Afghanistan take in the future? To what extent will the US support attempts at reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban leadership?
Prof Vali Nasr is Senior Advisor to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the US State Department. He is Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. From 2003-07 he was Professor and Chair of Research, Department of National Security Affairs at the US Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey and from 2007-09, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
He has authored six books on political Islam, including, most recently, Meccanomics: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What it will do for our World.
This event will be chaired by Adam Ward, Director of Studies, IISS.
This is a joint event between the IISS and The Cordoba Foundation
If you would like further information please contact Charlotte Laycock at events@iiss.org
Jun 27, 2012 | Events
The Cordoba Foundation will take part in a three day consulation meeting organised by Notre Dame University (USA) on the theme of Contending Modernities, which is a major multi-year, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary research initiative focused on generating new knowledge and greater understanding of the ways in which religious and secular forces interact for good and for ill in the modern world. By examining these interactions, the study hopes to identify ways for religious and non-religious people and institutions to work together in addressing the world’s most pressing problems.
Venue: Notre Dame Centre, London
For more information about the project, please click here
Jun 27, 2012 | Events
The Australian Islamic Mission (AIM) in Sydney will be hosting several community events which involves a series of talks / workshops by Anas Altikriti the CEO of The Cordoba Foundation
For more information, please click here
The Federation of Australian Muslim Students and Youth will also be hosting Anas Altikriti for a series of lectures and seminars in Melbourne.
For more details please contact
admin@vic.famsy.org.au
Jun 27, 2012 | Events
A live radio debate, to be aired on the Muslim Community Radio (MCR 87.8fm) and mcrlive.net on 3rd October 2007.
Speakers include: Moazzam Begg, – Cage Prisoners
Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra – Leicester Imam
Jamal Harwood – Hizb ut-Tahrir
Dr Daud Abdullah – MCB | Abdur-Rehman Malik – Q-News
Shaykh Haytham Al-Haddad – Al-Muntada Al-Islami
Azad Ali – Islamic Forum of Europe.
Listen to the debate here (mp3)
