Experience Islam Week, a programme of events to educate people in greater depth about the Islamic religion, took place between the 1st and 5th of March. This is particularly important as, in the words of the organiser of the week, Hassan Talal Maitla, “People in the West usually hear about Islam through media which in some cases gives a quite a distorted version. The purpose of EIW is to give a first-hand experience about Islam itself and an opportunity to ask any questions they may have.”

On Monday, a talk entitled ‘Credit Crunch, don’t blame the banker’ gave a deeper insight into the recent global financial meltdown and explored the possibility that Islamic banking could resolve some of the problems of Western banking. On Tuesday, Sheikh Rafat Najm examined questions of British Muslim identity in ‘Building Bridges.’ He looked at the similarities and differences between Islamic and Western culture, in terms of ethics, philosophy and politics. A cultural night to celebrate the vast plethora of Islamic culture took place on Wednesday, encompassing Muslim art and architecture from Morocco, India, China and Japan among other countries.

Concluding the week, Ismail Patel gave a speech on ‘Islamic and Western Political thoughts’ on Friday, in which he covered such diverse topics as Muslim identity, how the concept of nation states is different from an Islamic perspective, jihad and globalisation. He stated, “It has been great coming to Warwick and receiving such a warm welcome. I would have liked to see more non-Muslims attending the events. I hope that there will be more mixed talks in the future, between the Islamic and other societies.” Hassan Talal Maitla commented, “It went quite well and was a great challenge for my exec as we were elected just a week before the EIW. The audience at the talks was lively and interactive and the cultural night was particularly appreciated due to the exhibition.”