Panel Discussion on Muslims, Trust and Cultural Dialogue: Culture and Communities

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:30 in Discussion Forums

Where: Room G51, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Square, London WC1H OXG
Date: 21st March 2013
Time: 18:30

Speakers:

Abbey, Semitic Art London
Anwar Akhtar, Director, Samosa
Kristiane Backer, Writer and Television Presenter
Commander Mak Chishty, Commander West London, London Metropolitan Police

Poster

Panel Discussion on Muslims, Trust and Cultural Dialogue: Culture and Communities Poster
Click for full-size poster

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 panel discussion is part of a series of events on how existing practices in a variety of cultural areas – business and finance, politics and society, culture, the arts and communities -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.