Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities, U.S. Department of State
Panelists: Maria Ebrahimji, Journalist & Co-Founder, I Speak for Myself, Inc. Azeem Ibrahim, CEO, Ibrahim Associates Diane L. Moore, Director, Religious Literacy Project, and Senior Lecturer, Religious Studies and Education, Harvard Divinity School
Roland Schatz, Founder and CEO, Media Tenor International Suhaib Webb, Imam, Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center
The Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program at Harvard, in collaboration with the Middle East Initiative and the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, The Religious Literacy Project at the Harvard Divinity School and the British Council, will host a public forum entitled Perceptions of Muslims in the West: Discourses after the Boston Bombings and the Woolwich Murder, featuring distinguished speakers from government and public policy circles, journalism, and academia. Media professionals, public policy practitioners and scholars convene to interrogate prevailing perceptions of Islam and Muslim communities in the US and UK/Europe and offer strategies to overcome the simplistic “Islam-West” dichotomy that has overshadowed the first ten years of our century.
These three knowledge communities (scholars, media professionals, and policymakers) will explore how they can build on and leverage each other’s expertise to promote a more informed, nuanced understanding of Islam and Muslim communities in Western contexts. Discussions will help academics gain a better understanding of the priorities that shape the outlook of policymakers and journalists whose work focuses on relations with Muslim communities. In turn, the event will provide media professionals and policymakers with accurate and balanced analyses developed by scholars of Muslim cultures and societies.
