Journey into Europe

Ambassador Ahmed addresses the audience prior to the Journey into Europe screening.

On May 21, Ambassador Ahmed spoke at a screening of Journey into Europe held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London to a packed hall. The event was hosted by two key partners and patrons of the Journey into Europe project, Professors Amina Yaqin of SOAS and Peter Morey of the University of East London. Attending the screening were distinguished guests including His Excellency Syed Ibne Abbas, the Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK, as well as prominent figures who appear in the film including Sir Nicholas Barrington, the former British High Commissioner to Pakistan, the author and activist Kristiane Backer, and Mohsin Akhtar, the owner of Heydon Grange golf course and farm outside of Cambridge. The film received a very enthusiastic response from the audience. Frankie Martin, who is leading the research team for the project and is the associate producer and assistant editor of the film, joined the panel discussion for the question and answer session following the screening and shared his experiences and ideas working on the project.

The occasion had added significance for Ambassador Ahmed because he received his PhD at SOAS, in 1978. Ambassador Ahmed’s PhD tutor, Adrian Mayer, was in the audience for the film. The previous evening, May 20, Ambassador Ahmed gave the Annual Lecture, “ISIS, Paris, Pakistan and the search for peace: conversations with an Islamic scholar,” also to a packed hall, which was moderated by the prominent political theorist Lord Bhikhu Parekh. Among the audience attending the event, which was also received very enthusiastically, were many SOAS alumni. Prominent guests included Sir Nicholas Barrington, Justice Khurshid Drabu, the first secretary and the defense attache at the Pakistan embassy, Jonathan Benthall, the former Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and many others.

Ambassador Ahmed poses next to his portrait on the SOAS “hall of fame” for distinguished alumni.

Ambassador Ahmed presents the Journey into Europe film to DCM Elizabeth Dibble

On May 19, Ambassador Ahmed visited the US Embassy in London and called on the US Deputy Chief of Mission, Elizabeth Dibble, in order to discuss the Journey into Europe project and present a copy of the film. Ambassador Ahmed had previously met Ms. Dibble last year at an important conference on Islam hosted by the Ditchley Foundation outside of Oxford. Ms. Dibble appreciated the project and its aims and was delighted to receive the film. Also attending the meeting was Mohsin Akhtar, the owner of Heydon Grange golf course and farm outside of Cambridge, Frankie Martin, a member of the Journey into Europe team, and Anneliese Reinemeyer, the Cultural Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in London, who will also attend the screening of Journey into Europe at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London on May 21.

From Left to Right: Mohsin Akhtar, Ambassador Ahmed, DCM Elizabeth Dibble, and Frankie Martin

Join us on June 1 at 5p in Berlin for the European film premiere of Journey into Europe at hackesche höfe kino, sponsored by Stiftung Mercator, in conjunction with the Aspen Institute Germany and the British Council.

For more details, please see the following letter from Michael Schwartz, the Executive Director of Stiftung Mercator.

Please be sure to RSVP by May 27 to journey.europe@stiftung-mercator.de.

Synopsis

Journey into Europe, by world-renowned scholar Akbar Ahmed, was filmed across the European continent and explores Islam in Europe and the place of Islam in European history and civilization. Along the way, we hear from some of Europe’s most prominent figures – presidents and prime ministers, archbishops, chief rabbis, grand muftis, heads of right-wing parties, and everyday people from a variety of backgrounds. Startling, challenging, and emotionally powerful, the film’s themes of identity and acceptance are critically relevant to our world today.

Reviews:
‘A journey through hearts and minds‘ – Tariq A. Al-Maeena
‘Taking the Temperature of Trump’s America: The Power of Pluralist Dialogue Perseveres‘ – Patrick Burnett

Panellists

• Professor Akbar Ahmed
• Professor Peter Morey
• Chair: Dr Amina Yaqin

Registration

This event is free to attend and open to the public. Online registration is required: online registration form.

Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, a world-renowned anthropologist, Islamic scholar, and filmmaker, explores Islam in Europe and the place of Islam in European history and civilization in this unprecedented study. In the film shot across the continent in countries such as Germany,the U.K., France, Spain, and Bosnia, we hear from some of Europe’s most prominent figures, including presidents and prime ministers, archbishops, chief rabbis, grand muftis, heads of right-wing parties, and every-day Europeans from a variety of backgrounds.

The film showing will take place on Wednesday, May 11 from 3:00 pm-5:00 pm and is co-sponsored by the Asia Program, the Middle East Program, and the Global Europe Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Europe today confronts complicated and controversial issues surrounding its Muslim population, including Sharia law, terrorism, the building of mosques, and the pressures of immigration and multiculturalism. With the recent attacks by ISIS in Brussels, these issues are increasingly pressing for Europeans. On Wednesday, May 4 at 7:00 pm at Temple, Ambassador Akbar Ahmed joins us for a Congregational Conversations Keynote to reflect on the challenges of interfaith conflict presented in Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ book, Not in God’s Name, and to screen his documentary, Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity.

In Journey into Europe, Ambassador Ahmed, a world-renowned Muslim anthropologist, provides an in-depth look at Muslim life across Europe and the attitudes and perceptions of Europeans regarding their Muslim neighbors. Filmed as they traveled across the continent in winter and summer 2014, Ambassador Ahmed and his team shined a light on the Muslim experience in Europe.

Ambassador Ahmed is the former Pakistani High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland. Currently, he is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has taught at Princeton, Harvard, and Cambridge Universities and is regularly interviewed on Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, and NBC.

For more information, be sure to visit the Washington Hebrew Congregation’s Congregational Conversations page here.

To register, please click here.

Two Belgian-born brothers have been identified as suicide bombers in this week’s deadly attacks in Brussels. As Belgium mourns the loss of 31 people, investigators continue the manhunt for other suspects. This is the third major ISIS attack in the heart of Europe in little more than a year, prompting questions about Europe’s ability to get ahead of such assaults. Fluid borders and what some call a broken security apparatus across multiple countries are under renewed scrutiny. Belgium faces a uniquely difficult situation: it sends more western fighters to Syria than anywhere else, with many returning to Belgium. Understanding what’s behind security challenges in Belgium and across Europe, and what these recent attacks mean for threats to Europe and beyond.

To hear the show, please visit the Diane Rehm Show‘s webpage here.

Wars and oppression-from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan and parts of Africa-last year pushed more than a million people to seek safety and opportunity in Europe. This tide of migrating humanity has heightened Europe’s tensions around its growing Muslim community. Conflict is growing around terrorism, the status of sharia law, the construction of mosques, and the possibility and desirability of multicultural societies. American University anthropologist Akbar Ahmed will screen his 2015 film exploring these tensions in Europe, and discuss their implications, including those for relations between the Islamic world and the West.

Europe’s recent history with the Islamic world includes decades of immigration by Muslims, often as “guest workers” or from the colonies of European empires. But Europe has struggled over how, or even whether, to assimilate its Muslim peoples. Problems surrounding Muslim identity in Europe have moved to the fore of policy debates since the 9/11 attacks, and especially following last year’s terrorist violence that killed more than 140 people in Paris.

These tensions are addressed in Journey into Europe, a film based on Professor Ahmed’s travel with a team of researchers through nine European countries. They interviewed prime ministers and street protesters, archbishops, rabbis, muftis and a range of other Europeans. Ahmed is writing an accompanying book, the last of four volumes exploring relations between the West and Islamic world after 9/11. This screening and discussion are part of a long USIP history of engaging with people and institutions working through religion to build peace in areas of conflict.
Ambassador Akbar Ahmed
Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University

Rev. Susan Hayward, Moderator
Director, Religion & Inclusive Societies, USIP

Please register in advance here. All guests must be registered online in advance to attend public events at USIP.