Category Archives: Articles

Check out the latest review of Journey Into Europe, by ISNA audience member and reporter Sarah Khasawinah, here.

The World Post – The Huffington Post

By Akbar Ahmed

Photo: Sean Gallup via Getty Images

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she would take up to800,000 asylum seekers this year, many wondered whether the lady had slipped in the tub and banged her head or was high on weed. Almost single-handedly she helped to change the mood towards refugees. Ordinary citizens were holding up signs with “welcome refugees” and policemen in uniform were handing out sweets and toys to the arriving children. Parents seeking asylum in Germany were naming their children “Angela Merkel” and Syrians stranded in Hungary chanted “Germany, Germany, Germany.” While many in her country supported her, others, and not only members of Pegida, objected.

The pope had already boldly reached out to the desperate refugees emerging out of the deadly waters of the Mediterranean and was seen by them as Francis the Fearless. The German chancellor now basked in a new glow as Merkel the Magnificent. In contrast, other European leaders appeared shrunken and reduced. The British prime minister with his miserly intake was seen as Cameron the Curmudgeon and the Hungarian prime minister with his aggressive rejection of compassion as Orban the Odoriferous.

The scale of Germany’s generosity is blurred because when the world looks at anything German its gaze invariably shifts to the horrors of the last century. Commentators thus suggested that Germany was compensating for the death and destruction it inflicted on the world during the Nazi era. Others looked elsewhere for explanations, with some arguing that Germany needed a young able-bodied and trained workforce to fill the vacuum in its aging and declining population.

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By Patrick Burnett

Just recently, we Americans witnessed a young Muslim boy in Texas arrested over the clock he invented and simply wanted to show his teachers. Just recently, we witnessed Donald Trump fail to counter a questioner at a New Hampshire rally who essentially called for Muslim ethnic cleansing.

As a Catholic raised in Northeast Ohio, I have seen this wide gap between Muslims and non-Muslims persist throughout the region and America. Sometimes, though, all it takes is spending time with the “other” to realize that we are not all that different from one another.

On Sept. 5, at the Islamic Society of North America Convention in Rosemont, Illinois, I had the opportunity to speak alongside Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic Studies at American University and former Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom; Dr. Amineh Hoti, director of Pakistan’s Center for Dialogue and Action; and Michael Wolfe of the Unity Productions Foundation, on a panel representing the launch of the new film “Journey Into Europe.”

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By Patrick Burnett

Amb. Ahmed (center), Patrick Burnett (second from right), and Ahmed family at ISNA Convention 2015 in Rosemont, IL

As a Catholic who grew up in Northern Ohio, I never thought I would be speaking on a panel at the Islamic Society of North America’s (ISNA) annual Convention and Film Festival a mere four months after receiving my bachelors degree.

Yet on Sept. 5, I had the opportunity to speak alongside Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, Chair of Islamic Studies at American University and former Pakistani High Commissioner to the U.K., Dr. Amineh Hoti, Director of Pakistan’s Center for Dialogue and Action—speaking a mere 36 hours after arriving in the U.S. from Islamabad—and Michael Wolfe, renowned author and director, of the Unity Productions Foundation, on a panel at the ISNA Convention in Chicago to discuss Muslims in the media.

But more importantly, I represented the new film Journey Into Europe, one of the most important films to date on dialogue between the West and Islam, at its launch, acting as an interfaith ambassador working to promote understanding and goodwill on behalf of my country and culture.

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Washington-based correspondent Ali Imran has published a review of Journey Into Europe in Pakistan Today. Check out the piece here.

Journalist Raza Rumi has written a review of the Journey Into Europe film in the Huffington Post. Check it out here.

Raif Karerat of The American Bazaar has given advanced praise to the forthcoming Journey Into Europe project. Check out his article to learn more about our exciting documentary!

The World Post – The Huffington Post

This article also appears in the August-September 2015 issue of All China Review.

By Akbar Ahmed

Photo: Kevin Frayer via Getty Images

BEIJING — “When China wakes, she will shake the world.” Napoleon’s famous comment on China has had China-watchers scratching their heads for two centuries as to what exactly he meant. Was it a warning to Europe of a potential threat from the East? Or was he reflecting upon the fascination of his time with Chinese culture and its silks and ceramics?

We may know the answer soon. China is awake and stirring. News of building projects and economic initiatives across the globe, including in its remote areas, are a testimony. So are some of the statistics. Take these at random: a Chinese billionaire is said to be created every week; China’s space program is aiming for Mars; China has over 20 million students in higher education and some quarter of a million students in the United States. It can even boast the ultimate sign of wasteful conspicuous consumption — Chinese students in the U.S., children of the elite, driving luxury cars.

Chinese films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000, established the fact that the new China could produce technologically and artistically sophisticated films that could win awards in the West and yet still proudly celebrate its own cultural traditions.

The scale of China’s dramatic success has settled one great contemporary philosophic debate — the superiority of Capitalism over Marxism, which the Chinese say in private is now as dead as a dodo — while opening another. Which is better, an open democratic system, however noisy and unpredictable, or a highly centralized and controlled one? The U.S. and other democracies argue for the former; China is the living example of the latter.
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Akbar Ahmed introduces core Muslim tradition to DC audience.

By Patrick Burnett

The University Club of Washington, DC’s International Committee graciously hosted a wonderful talk by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed and a delicious Iftar dinner of the customary dates, Moroccan Hariri soup, Lamb Tagine, and baklava, on June 24, attracting distinguished guests from the prominent private Washington club, including key officials from the Pentagon and the German Embassy.

Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University and the former Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK, took the opportunity to introduce and tie together his Sufi-influenced poetry with the roles of love and ‘ilm’ in Islam for this prominent audience. Ahmed also explained the significance of Ramadan and the month’s beautiful and selfless traditions to this mostly non-Muslim audience, while also emphasizing how fasting unites all of us within the world’s faiths. Fasting as a means to deeper spirituality is not exclusive to Islam, but all the world’s great religions — whether the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, or Buddhism…

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The World Post – The Huffington Post

By Akbar Ahmed

One of the right-wing tropes about Islam in Europe, which is making alarming inroads into the mainstream, is that it represents a “culture of backwardness, of retardedness, of barbarism” and has made no contribution to Western civilization. Islam provides an easy target considering that some 3,000 or more Europeans are estimated to have left for the Middle East in order to fight alongside the Islamic State. The savage beheadings and disgusting treatment of women and minorities confirm in the minds of many that Islam is incompatible with Western civilization. This has become a widely known, and even unthinkingly accepted, proposition. But is it correct?

Let us look at European history for answers. At least 10 things will surprise you…