Islam in Dialogue – Dialogue in Islam: Our Collective Responsibility

Dr Ozcan Keles

Chairperson of the Dialogue Society

Ozcan is a non-practising Barrister and member of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn. He is the Chairperson of the Dialogue Society since 2008; was the Executive Chairperson of the same organisation between 2008 and 2014; the Executive Editor of the peer-reviewed biannual academic Journal of Dialogue Studies since 2014 and a full-time PhD candidate in the sociology of human rights at the University of Sussex. Between 2006 and 2009 he was a research student with Prof Kevin Boyle at the Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex, where he held the Scholarship Award of 2006. Ozcan was called to the Bar in 2005 after successfully completing the Bar course at the Inns of Court School of Law. He obtained his LLM in Human Rights Law from SOAS, University of London, in 2002.

Ozcan Keles, Director of the Dialogue Society, addressed an audience of Muslim converts at the Markfield Conference Centre organised by the New Muslim Project. The purpose of the speech was to emphasise the importance of compassion, understanding, proactive citizenship, dialogue and love in the teachings of the Qur’an and life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The speech sought to clarify and underline the nature and objective of dialogue, its scriptural foundation in Islam and the collective responsibility upon Muslims in Britain to bridge the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims. The point that dialogue is not an exercise of converting one person to another faith was made. The second half of the speech concentrated on giving practical tips as to how such dialogue could be initiated and sustained through simple efforts.