Islamism

Who’s Who: Institutionalising the Muslim Brotherhood

If you’d like to know who all the major Muslim Brotherhood and MB-sympathetic players in politics today are, you couldn’t do much worse than have a look at the programme of a two day conference, to be held next month on London.

The conference has been organised by the Muslim Brotherhood front organisation, the British Muslim Initiative. Unsurprisingly, it has been put together with the help of the Conflicts Forum, which sees its mission as mainstreaming and institutionalising the Muslim Brotherhood. Depressingly, it has also been co-sponsored by Demos, the soft-and-fluffy ex-Eurocommunist outfit.

Saturday 12th July

Political Islam: historical and intellectual origins; major schools and trends

Dr. Basheer Nafi, Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Birkbeck College

Professor John O. Voll, Professor of Islamic History and Associate Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University

Egypt: between oppression and participation

Dr. Kamal El-Helbawy, Former spokesman of the International Organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West

Dr. Robert Leiken, Director of the Immigration and National Security Program, The Nixon Center

Dr. Barbara Zollner, Associate Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London

Pakistan: Islamists in opposition

Abdulghafur Aziz, Jama’at e islami Pakistan

Turkey: Islamists in power 

Prof. Ibrahim Kalin, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA

Dr. Basheer Nafi, Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Birkbeck College

Palestine: Islamists, political participation and resistance

Dr. Azzam “Kaboom” Tamimi, Director, Institute of Islamic Political Thought, London

Alistair Crooke, Founding Director of Conflicts Forum

Sunday 13th July

Islamism and Extremism: A Western Preoccupation (Sponsored by Demos)

Session Chair: Jamie Bartlett

Robert Lambert, Research Fellow, University of Exeter; co-founder and former head of the Metropolitan Police Muslim Contact Unit

Anas Altikriti, President, The Cordoba Foundation

Dr. Robert Leiken, Director of the Immigration and National Security Program, The Nixon Center

Dr. Tahir Abbas, Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture, University of Birmingham

Political Islam: Key Issues and Themes

Islamism and Democracy

Prof. John O. Voll, Professor of Islamic history, Georgetown University

Dr. Rafik Abdessalam, Researcher, Al Jazeera Centre for Studies

Islamism and Women

Dr. Merve Kavakci, Lecturer of International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

Soumaya Ghannoushi, Researcher, School of Oriental and African Studies

Islamism and human rights

Prof. Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Theology, Oxford University

Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Tunisian Harakat an-Nahdah (Renaissance Movement) 

Islamism and the west: conflict or dialogue?

Prof. John Esposito, Professor of Islamic Studies and Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University

Dr. Mounir Shafiq, General Coordinator, Islamic National Pan-Arab Conference

Roundtable discussion – The future of political Islam: where do we go from here?

Chair: Dr Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster

Prof. John Esposito

Dr. Basheer Nafi

Dr. Robert Leiken

Dr. Azzam “Kaboom” Tamimi

I can tell you what the message of this conference will be. It will be that the Muslim Brotherhood is a diverse organisation, that you shouldn’t take its anti-democratic and demogogic rhetoric at face value, that it is moving towards reform, that is represents the best alternative to Al Qaeda, that it is an idea whose time has come, that it represents a genuine expression of the political soul of the Muslim Ummah, that it is a people’s resistance movement, and – above all – partnering with it should be at the heart of sensible Governmental policy, both abroad, and at home.

This conference is likely to be attended by policy makers, academics and activists, who will be encouraged to put this message into practice.