“Experience Islam Week” raises awareness

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.”