religion
Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World
From fashion magazines to social networking, the ‘Mipsterz’ to the ‘Haloodies’, halal internet dating to Muslim boy bands, ‘Generation M’ are making their mark. Shelina Janmohamed, award-winning author and leading voice on Muslim youth, investigates this growing cultural phenomenon at a time when understanding the mindset of young Muslims is critical. While responses to terrorism and Islamic extremism lead to discourse countering Islam and the West, these young leaders are countering stereotypical representations and flexing their economic muscles.
Holy Lands: Sectarianism in the Middle East
Sectarian divides increasingly fuel conflict across the diverse countries of the Middle East, spilling over borders and contributing to ongoing violence in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere. Yet in the nineteenth century the region was considerably more tolerant than Western Europe at the time; a high degree of religious pluralism and self-determination were permitted across the Ottoman Empire’s wide-reaching territories. We will be joined by The Economist‘s Jerusalem correspondent Nicolas Pelham and others to discuss the roots of sectarian violence – as well as hopes for recovery from conflict and a return to plurality.
#NotACrime Campaign – Film Screening + Discussion
To Light A Candle is a film by journalist Maziar Bahari, focusing on the Baha’is of Iran and their peaceful response to decades of state-sponsored persecution. The Baha’is are Iran’s largest religious minority. Persecuted because of their faith, they are barred from teaching and studying at University. #NotACrime is an international campaign working to stop the human rights abuse of Iranian Baha’is and encourage universities around the world to admit Iranian Baha’i students.
Screening: Among the Believers + Q&A
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Mohammed Naqvi and producer Jonathan Goodman Levitt.
Charismatic cleric Abdul Aziz Ghazi, an ISIS supporter and Taliban ally, is waging jihad against the Pakistani state. His dream is to impose a strict version of Sharia law throughout the country, as a model for the world. With unprecedented access, Among the Believers follows Aziz on his very personal quest to create an Islamic utopia, during the bloodiest period in Pakistan’s modern history.
Abbas – Documenting Iran from 1970
By Charlotte Beale Legendary Iranian photographer Abbas joined journalist and filmmaker Maziar Bahari in a conversation at the Frontline Club on 3 February 2016, chaired by CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer. Bahari and Abbas have collaborated to launch abbas.site, a platform showcasing Abbas’s photographic body of work on Iran since 1970, including his coverage of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Nawal El Saadawi: Religion, Feminism and Egyptian Politics
By Ayman Al-Juzi On Monday 26 October, renowned Egyptian writer, feminist and activist Nawal El Saadawi joined journalist Wendell Steavenson and a packed audience at the Frontline Club for a discussion that spanned the topics of linguistic philosophy, feminism and globalisation – all of which were explored in the context of El Saadawi‘s own life […]
Gerard Russell on the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East
By Francis Churchill “It’s just useful when we see today the narrative of conflict to remember that it was actually possible for faiths to coexist quite remarkably,” said Gerard Russell, referring to Baghdad in c. 800 C.E. On Tuesday 13 February, the former United Nations and British diplomat joined an audience at the Frontline Club […]
Insight with Gerard Russell: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East
The Middle East has long been home to many varied and distinctive faiths that have learned to survive the perils of attacks and assimilation, but today with the region in turmoil they face greater threats than ever before. In conversation with The Guardian‘s Middle East editor, Ian Black, former diplomat and author of Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, Gerard Russell, will be taking us on a journey across the past and present of the Middle East, into the religious communities that have survived for centuries and talking about what needs to be done to ensure their future.
BBC Arabic Screening: The Battle for Bizerte
With Tunisia in turmoil over the banning of the Salafist group Ansar Al-Sharia, this BBC Arabic documentary reveals the extraordinary inner workings of a group of Jihadi Salafists closely associated with them in Bizerte, a city north of the Tunisian capital.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Zuhair Latif, the BBC Arabic reporter on The Battle for Bizerte. Moderated by BBC Arabic TV presenter, Makki Helal.
FULLY BOOKED THIRD PARTY EVENT: Who are the Tablighi Jamaat?
Organised by Lapido Media with photography by Jeremy Hunter. The ‘ante-chamber of terror’ as the French security service is said to have dubbed the Tablighi Jamaat, or an other-worldly group of Muslims dedicated to piety and preaching? A movement of separatist, supremacist misogynists bent on the Islamisation of Europe, or a misunderstood part of Britain’s […]
The Tenth Parallel: Africa’s fault line between Christianity and Islam
Download this episode View in iTunes By Nicky Armstrong Solomon Mugera, the BBC’s Africa editor began by describing the balance where Islam and Christianity collide as ‘a delicate pendulum’. For the past seven years award-winning journalist and poet Eliza Griswold has travelled 9,000 miles along this line of collision known as the Tenth Parallel, meeting […]
BBC Screening:The Ayatollah’s Seal
by Rosie Scammell In the wake of intimidation of BBC Persian journalists by the Iranian authorities, last night saw the screening of ‘The Ayatollah’s Seal’ – the first documentary to be made about the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Refused access to Iran by the Ministry of Culture (there were more important topics for the […]
American Muslim: Freedom, Faith and Fear
By Alan Selby A lot has changed in the years since 9/11. The date itself has become emblematic of a change in attitudes towards Islam, perhaps most notably in the country which bore witness to the infamous attacks that day. Popular opinion has shifted, and the land of the free has become an increasingly […]
THIRD PARTY SCREENING: American Muslim: Freedom, Faith and Fear
ORGANISED BY BBC PERSIAN
THIS EVENT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Ten years after 9/11 and a year before what are likely to prove deeply divisive Presidential elections, BBC Global News sent a combined team from BBC Persian and BBC Arabic TV on an epic road trip across the USA to find out what it is like to be a Muslim in America today. America’s complicated relationship with Islam is examined through the eyes of two reporters – Karen Zarindast who grew up in Iran and Samir Farah who grew up in Lebanon.
Mr Blair: Was Jesus Wrong? If So, You Must Be Right by Peter Stanford
Illustration by Chris Riddell Tony Blair is busy outing himself as a man of God. Which is immediately ironic after all that time during which Blair refused to “do God” – as his media manager Alastair Campbell informed us. Since leaving Downing Street, Blair has used the G-word with a mixture of the fervour and […]
From Baku to Strasbourg: 40,000-euro-worth idiosyncrasies
According to Azeri Press Agency, Heydar Aliyev Foundation, named after a former KGB strongman and communist party chief turned president, and which operates in and from the Republic of Azerbaijan, a secular Shia state, has donated €40,000 to Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg. The foundation is headed by the First Lady of Azerbaijan who […]