Roundtable on Muslims, Trust and Cultural Dialogue: Politics and Society

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:00 in Discussion Forums

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Where: Dialogue Society, 402 Holloway Road, London N7 6PZ
Date: 28th February 2013
Time: 19:00

Speakers:

Lord Tariq Ahmad, House of Lords
Prof Jeffrey Haynes, Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion, Conflict and Cooperation, London Metropolitan University
Stuart Hoggan, Deputy Director, Integration in the Department for Communities and Local Government

Abstract

The Muslims, Trust and Cultural Dialogue is an international collaborative research project funded by the Research Councils UK that analyses the conditions of trust and mistrust in three overlapping areas of modern life: politics and society; business and finance; and art and culture. It aims to bring together an international multidisciplinary network of scholars, practitioners and stakeholders exploring questions of trust in the relationship between Muslim diaspora populations in the West and the societies around them. The project is committed to understanding how existing practices in these three arenas enact dialogue and negotiation between groups in ways that can be mutually informative, and which help us move beyond misunderstanding and negative stereotyping.

This roundtable is part of a series of events on how existing practices in a variety of cultural areas – business and finance, politics and society, culture and the arts -engage with the vexed question of trust between Muslims and other communities. At a time when multiculturalism has been fiercely criticised – not least for its assumed tolerance of the alleged self-segregation of certain sectors of the Muslim community in Britain – questions of what constitutes intercultural trust and how it may be fostered have a pressing urgency.

Biography of Lord Tariq Ahmad

Lord Tariq Ahmad Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon is Conservative Peer and joined the Government as a Whip and front bench spokesman covering 3 departments - International Development, Ministry of Justice and Communities & Local Government in September 2012. Introduced to the House of Lords on 19 January 2011, as The Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon recognising his services to business, community and politics. A business graduate and Associate of the Chartered Institute of Financial services, he brings to Parliament extensive experience of the financial services sector and the City spanning over 20 years. Joining NatWest in 1991, he spent almost 10 years with the Group in corporate banking and strategic roles before joining the US funds and investment house, Alliance Bernstein. He then served as Marketing and Strategy Director at a leading commodities firm, Sucden Financial as member of executive team between 2004-2012.

He has been a member of the Conservative Party for 20 years and has served in various roles at both a local and national level for the Party, as well as in an elected capacity as a councillor in Wimbledon between 2002-2012. He held Cabinet level positions in the London Borough of Merton and was Deputy Chairman of the London Councils influential Transport and Environment Committee (2006-2008) and he also was the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Croydon North in 2005. He was appointed Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party in 2008 with specific responsibility for Cities and Communities and served in this position until 2010. He has been extensively involved in international affairs since entering Parliament and served as Vice Chairman of several All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG). These included the APPG’s on Indonesia, The Commonwealth and Faith & Society. He is also Vice Chairman of Parliamentary Space Committee and the Parliamentary Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Pakistan. Lord Ahmad is married to Saddiqa and they have two children, Shaista aged 6 and Mansoor who is 9 months.

Biography of Prof Jeffrey Haynes

Prof Jeffrey Haynes is the Associate Dean of Faculty, Research and Postgraduate, and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion, Conflict and Cooperation. He is recognised as an international authority in five separate areas: religion and international relations; religion and politics; democracy and democratisation; development studies; and comparative politics and globalisation. He has written many books, journal articles and book chapters, totalling around 160 such publications since 1986. They include a 17,000-word discussion paper for the Geneva-based United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, ‘Religion, Fundamentalism and Identity: A Global Perspective’ (1995) and a 15,000-word study for the Commonwealth Secretariat, ‘Political Transformation in the Commonwealth’ (2009). Between 1993 and 2012, Jeff Haynes produced 30 books (14 single authored, 1 co-authored, 12 edited and 2 co-edited).

Biography of Stuart Hoggan

Stuart Hoggan is Deputy Director, Integration in the Department for Communities and Local Government. His responsibilities include promoting integration and race equality in local communities; leading for the government in engaging faith communities; addressing poor outcomes for traveller communities; and promoting equalities through the department's policies and investment programmes. He has held a variety of central government positions working on issues such as empowerment; water environment; sustainable waste management; housing and local government. He completed a three-year secondment at Southwark Council, where he was Head of Policy and Performance and worked in the area of health and social care.