Join Ambassador Akbar Ahmed as he discusses his new book, Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity. The fourth in a quartet of studies examining relations between the West and the Muslim world, Journey into Europe explores Islam in Europe and the place of Islam in European history and civilization on the basis of fieldwork spanning the length and breadth of the continent. Ambassador Ahmed will be joined by Lord Bhiku Parekh and the event will be chaired by SOAS Pro-Director Professor Stephen Hopgood.
Ambassador Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies in the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C. He belonged to the senior Civil Service of Pakistan and was the Pakistan High Commissioner to the U.K. and Ireland. He has also taught at Harvard and Princeton Universities and holds a PhD in Anthropology from SOAS.
Lord Bhikhu Parekh is Emeritus professor at the Universities of Hull and Westminster. He is the author of several widely acclaimed books including A New Politics of Identity (2008) Rethinking Multiculturalism (2000) and recently Debating India: Essays on Indian Political Discourse, published by Oxford University Press, India. He is the recipient of the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Philosophy, BBC’s Special Lifetime Achievement Award, and Padma Bhushan from the President of India. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, past President of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Member of the House of Lords.
Registration: Free but registration required. To register, please click here.
Amb. Akbar Ahmed
Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, Wash., D.C.
Wednesday April 11, 2018
6:30 p.m. Doors Open
7:00 p.m. Program Begins
Temple Emanuel
385 Ward St., Newton, MA 02459
Amb. Ahmed is a former Pakistani diplomat and widely published author who now serves as the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. He is on the Board of Advisors for the Institute for Global Engagement, and has served as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution with the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World. He was also the First Distinguished Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Amb. Ahmed has been called “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam” by the BBC. After journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan, Amb. Ahmed collaborated with his father, Judea Pearl, on a series of dialogues exploring Muslim-Jewish relations.
Amb. Ahmed will be available to sign his new book, Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity, after the event. A limited quantity of books will be available for purchase by cash or check.
Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity
A Conversation with Akbar Ahmed
Since 9/11, repeated episodes of terrorism, together with the refugee crisis, have dramatically increased the divide between the Muslim communities and the majority non-Muslim populations in Europe. Meanwhile, the parallel rise of right-wing, nationalist political parties throughout the continent—often espousing anti-Muslim rhetoric—has shaken the foundation of the European Union to its very core.
Akbar Ahmed and his team of researchers traveled across Europe for three years and interviewed Muslims and non-Muslims from all walks of life to investigate questions of Islam, immigration, and identity. Their findings reveal a complex story of the place of Islam in European history and civilization and expose both the misunderstandings and the opportunities for European countries and populations to improve their relationship with minority Muslim communities. Along with an analysis of what has gone wrong and why, Ahmed will offer recommendations for promoting integration and pluralism in the twenty-first century.
The Woolf Institute is delighted to host the launch of Professor Akbar Ahmed’s book, Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration and Identity on Thursday 17 May 2018 between 5.00pm and 7.00pm.
Ambassador Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. and the former Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland. He has been called “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam” by the BBC. Ahmed has authored more than a dozen award-winning books and has produced a number of noteworthy films. His most recent book, Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity (2018), completes an unprecedented quartet of studies examining relations between the West and the Muslim world. He is also a published poet and playwright.
Since the Cambridge launch of Journey into Europe takes place over Ramadan, the Woolf Institute will host the launch as part of an Iftar to ensure that Muslim attendees can also eat after evening falls. The Iftar will start around 8.30-8.45 and the Institute’s ‘Quiet Space’ will be made available for prayers.
According to Dr Ed Kessler, “The 17th May event with Prof Akbar Ahmed will be an auspicious occasion as it combines the launch of an important book on Muslims in Europe and is the Woolf Institute’s first Iftar. We hope it will prove to be an attractive occasion for Muslims and non-Muslims alike”.
Please join Ambassador Akbar Ahmed as he discusses his new book, Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity. The fourth in a quartet of studies examining relations between the West and the Muslim world, Journey into Europe explores Islam in Europe and the place of Islam in European history and civilization on the basis of fieldwork spanning the length and breadth of the continent.
In reflecting on the book, Professor Lawrence Rosen of Princeton University writes, “Ahmed’s splendid blend of scholarship and reportage is unmatched in the literature.” Professor Todd Green of Luther College, writing for the American Academy of Religion, calls the book “a masterpiece … magisterial … a tremendous and timely contribution.”
Moderated by: Professor Tamara Sonn, Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of the History of Islam, Georgetown University
How best to deal with Islamophobia in the US today?
I glimpsed the answer on February 7, 2018, when I accompanied Ambassador
Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, to
Knoxville, Tennessee, where he became the first Muslim to deliver the prestigious Ashe Lecture at the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee. The center is named after Howard Baker, who served as a US Senator from Tennessee, President Ronald Reagan’s Chief of Staff, and US Ambassador to Japan. The talk was arranged by my good friend Harrison Akins, a doctoral student and researcher at the Baker Center who previously worked with Ahmed. Understanding the current negative climate concerning Muslims, the widespread common misperceptions of Islam and Muslims, and the fear evident in the Muslim community with rising incidents of violence and intimidation, I was curious how an East Tennessee audience would react to a Muslim scholar.
“I hope that Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity, by Akbar Ahmed, will come to be recognized as not only a superb piece of reportage and analysis, but also an authentic application of the ethnographic method to a much larger canvas than anthropologists normally feel comfortable with. Ahmed makes the case so well that all people involved in the present crisis of Europe, especially those in leadership positions, have a share of responsibility in helping to make a better world.”
– Jonathan Benthall, Former Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute and Founder Editor of Anthropology Today
Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity
Europe today confronts complicated and controversial issues surrounding its Muslim population including Sharia law, terrorism, the building of mosques, female dress, and the pressures of immigration and multiculturalism.
Akbar Ahmed, the world renowned Muslim anthropologist, is now embarking on a new study of Islam in Europe which will take him and his international team across the continent.
Journey into Europe is the fourth part of an unprecedented quartet of award-winning books exploring relations between the West and the world of Islam after 9/11.
For media interviews or other enquiries, please contact Patrick Burnett at patrickb@american.edu.
Graphic courtesy of Abbas Maysam Zahedi (abbzah.com)
Professor Akbar Ahmed’s Journey into Europe research project, studying Muslim life in Europe, is supported and funded by the Stiftung Mercator Foundation.
Journey into Europe 