A call for cultural engagement in the Muslim World [Archives:2008/1146/Culture]

archive
April 14 2008
Prof. Abd al-Fattah El-Awaisi
Prof. Abd al-Fattah El-Awaisi
Intercultural Leadership Initiative is to help ease racial tensions at Lakeland Union High School, USA.
Intercultural Leadership Initiative is to help ease racial tensions at Lakeland Union High School, USA.
Professor Dr. Abd al-Fattah El-Awaisi
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society – UK

While Muslim and western cultures and faiths are turning against each other, the need to establish an entity to promote cultural engagement in the real sense has never been more urgent. Humanitarian and social sciences international expert Prof. Abd al-Fattah El-Awaisi narrates what should be done to achieve this dream.

The Study of Islam and Muslims has always been the focal point of my work and a field which I have enjoyed immensely. As a British Arab, I lived in both the Arab Muslim countries and the West, in particular the UK, and have a thorough knowledge of their history, politics, cultures, societies, and religions. I have not only studied Islam in depth, but have lived under conditions where different ideas and viewpoints were expressed and debated at length. I had the privilege of meeting leading figures from many Arab, Muslim and Western countries, representing the whole spectrum of Arabic, Muslim and Western thought and various schools. This experience enabled me to form a much broader approach and understanding to the field and compare the differing views of Arab, Muslim and Western schools. This is a very clear indication of an ability to build strong research links between the Study of Islam and Muslims in the widest sense. It also helped me to play a key and wider role in cultural engagement.

For me, the Study of Islam and Muslims is a field which should include a number of disciplines and approaches, looking both at the religion of Islam and also Muslims in particular social and historical contexts within a number of different methodologies, e.g. political sciences, history, geography, anthropology, and Islamic Studies. The aim is to gain understanding of a broad range of issues relating to the study of Islam and Muslims, looking at the field in many different ways, and in many global contexts, spanning a variety of disciplines and methodologies; and distinct from traditional approaches where the focus has been to study Islam and Muslims from just one limited perspective. My philosophy is to offer interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary training in the Study of Islam and Muslims within a number of different methodologies, eg., history, political sciences, geography, as well as traditional areas in Islamic Studies.



The Vision

In the last seven years (2000 – 2007), my main focus has been to set the new agenda for cultural engagement to generate an atmosphere in which a constructive dialogue can take place rather than a clash. I firmly believe that through education as the key means to undermine and defeat religious and secular fundamentalism, extremism and radicalism, we will contribute to achieve a common ground and space, mutual understanding and respect, and peaceful co-existence between and within people, nations, religions, and cultures.

I recognise that not everyone will agree with this vision, and I do not pretend to have all the answers, but at least I am putting forward some ideas on how to improve understanding between people of different religions and cultures. For my part, I have been doing all I can to promote cultural engagements that will see people acknowledging and respecting their differences BUT willing to share a common ground and space, living and working together in a peaceful co-existence.



The First Phase: An Institute in the West – UK

One of my central aims has been to promote a greater understanding of different religions, and cultures in a multicultural context, for the benefit of the wider community, and to build bridges between the Muslim and Western worlds of learning at this crucial time. My first step focused on establishing Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Dundee. In the last seven years (2000 – 2007), the Institute witnessed a vast number of developments to promote such a vision. For example, to institutionalise the new agenda for cultural engagements and promotion of multiculturalism, I have taken several structural steps, including electing leaders of the local communities into the Institute Council and establishing Al-Maktoum Institute Students Society. The diversity of the Executive members' countries of origin was yet another reflection of the multicultural ethos I have developed at the Institute.

The issue of multiculturalism is also firmly at the heart of the Institute's academic work. This includes, for example, the creation of a professorial chair in multiculturalism. The Institute was the first higher educational institution in the UK to create such a post, currently held by Professor Malory Nye. The chair was created in response to the dire need to engage in a more serious and structured way in research and teaching in multiculturalism. We also established 'The Centre for Research on Multiculturalism and Islam and Muslims in Scotland', which aims to contribute to the development of awareness of multicultural Scotland. Among other activities, it organised an international symposium in Spring 2006 on the Challenges of Multiculturalism. A special think-tank 'Multiculturalism Research Unit' was formed. The theme of the Institute Summer School for female' students from the UAE (including female' students from Qatar University) in the last four years (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) was multiculturalism and leadership. The Multicultural Awards for Scotland we started with the support of the Scottish Executive (Government) and are designed to recognise and encourage individual and institutional contributions to multicultural Scotland in which religious diversity, cultural equality, social justice, and civilisational dialogue flourish. The awards are made up of a principal award combined with seven smaller awards, including multicultural education, multicultural healthcare, multicultural in the media, multicultural in sport, civilisational dialogue, Arab-British understanding, and Scottish-Emirates relations. The Honorary Fellowship of the Institute is given to individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to the multicultural vision. Sponsorship and support is given to local clubs and societies who have demonstrated their commitment to multiculturalism and for projects to further this aim. Last but not least, the Al-Maktoum Multicultural Garden was established for the Fun Factory Out-of-School Club at Park Place Primary School in Dundee, Scotland.

We have clearly also established a niche for ourselves as a unique institute with a timely new agenda. I am proud to be one of the key leading scholars behind the development, implementation, and dissemination of this new innovative agenda in the Study of Islam and Muslims, which defined the field as Post-Orientalist, Post-Traditionalist, Multicultural, and Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary in its methodology as well as its theoretical framework. The aim of this unique new agenda is to challenge and develop current teaching and scholarship, recognising that this is a time for change in Islamic Studies. There must be better education at university level on Islam and Muslims in today's world which reflects the needs of our contemporary multicultural society. The agenda has been developed to bring scholars together from all backgrounds, based on a principle of mutual respect, in order to develop a common intellectual goal in the field of the Study of Islam and Muslims.

Indeed, there is an urgent need for a new agenda to develop Islamic Studies into the Study of Islam and Muslims to challenge both the more traditional approaches that were often faith based and excluded non-Muslims and the orientalist approaches that often alienated Muslims. Indeed, the call for a new agenda is truly timely and necessary, particularly to prevent the misguided and narrow interpretation of Islam which is the source of so many problems in many societies. It is only through education that we can work to undermine and eliminate extremism, radicalism, and fundamentalism. We are promoting this agenda through our teaching of postgraduate programmes, which address the needs of local, national and international need in the twenty-first century.

The success of the Institute comes from its new agenda. To reflect this, the Institute, during the past few years, has seen significant developments, which address the exciting growth of the Institute and the wider network of relationships. The Institute, for example, started the process of disseminating and implementing this new agenda by working internally at the Institute and externally with our sixteen partner universities. I feel also very proud that we have established and are in the process of disseminating our New Agenda in the Study of Islam and Muslims. The success of our academic programmes has been clearly acknowledged by a number of indicators, not least the glowing reports and comments we have received from our external examiners.



How can cultural engagement succeed?

In the last seven years (2000-2007), I have successfully established a leading distinctive national and international centre of academic excellence for developing teaching and research in the Study of Islam and Muslims of the highest standard. This is based on critical and analytical debate in which better understanding of Islam and Muslims can be developed – both for Muslims and non-Muslims – in an environment focused on a common sense of purpose and belonging. I feel proud that the Institute is playing a unique and key role in setting the new agenda in cultural engagement and shaping and developing teaching and research in the Study of Islam and Muslim at university level in the UK and internationally. Indeed, the Institute is now a unique seat of learning and research-led institution of higher education, which offers postgraduate programmes of study (validated by the University of Aberdeen).

Through the Institute, I have also been actively involved in educating the next generation of scholars both nationally and internationally to enable them to face the challenges and opportunities of a diverse and multicultural world. Indeed, cultural engagement and multiculturalism are now at the centre of the Institute's vision and structure. Our multicultural ethos is visibly translated and implemented in our day-to-day operation. Our staff and students come from diverse national and cultural backgrounds including both Muslims and non-Muslims, and our research is taken forward by a team of internationally renowned scholars. For example, the plan is to balance our student profile by having 50% home students and 50% international students.

The Institute takes great pride in the continual growing success of our Master and PhD students. With the 14 graduates in 2006 (7 with PhDs), this brings the total of PhD and Masters Graduates to 54. Indeed, as the Founding Principal and Vice-Chancellor, I feel very proud that we have now a community of 54 graduates working across the globe at several levels. These students are to be highly commended for their hard work. They are truly one of the Institute's greatest assets. I am absolutely delighted that we are playing our part in educating the new generation of scholars who will take that message of cultural engagement and multiculturalism out into the wider world, and will go out into the world of work ready to challenge the old ways of thinking, teaching and learning.

In May 2007, the Institute celebrated the excellent achievements of the foundation and first stages of the Institute's history in this very short period. There is much I can look back on with pride. Indeed, the Institute's success is not only impressive but also well deserved. I feel very proud of the progress and growth in the last seven years. I am enormously privileged and honoured to be the Founding Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the Institute, which has been extremely successful in achieving its vision, mission, aims and objectives in the first seven years of its existence and beyond. It has been a remarkable period for the Institute, demonstrating our uniqueness at both academic and communities levels.

If the first year was the phase where we worked hard to set up the foundations for a successful endeavour, the following years were spent more on building on the foundations and developing our core competence. Our hard work in these seven years was in order to ensure that we continue to foster excellence in everything we do, especially in teaching and research. Indeed, the Institute has generated and established a very strong foundation and framework for solid and continuous delivery of results, which will help the Institute to continue playing its leading role at both academic and communities levels.

The Institute's achievements demonstrate our continuous success in developing our academic activities, in particular the development and enhancement of our research culture, enhancing the learning environment and community, our quality assurance systems, our new agenda, and the widening and strengthening of our international academic network and collaboration. Our reputation as a centre of academic excellence is well established, acknowledged, and recognised. Our name is now becoming more and more recognised nationally and internationally, at the levels that we hope will bring benefits to the Institute and to the communities that we are part of.

Through the Al-Maktoum Institute, I have been actively setting the new agenda for cultural engagement and encouraging dialogue across cultures and people which has enhanced greater understanding and appreciation between the Arab and Muslim worlds and the west in general and between the UAE and Scotland in particular. Indeed, the Institute has played a fundamental role in building progressive links between the UAE and Scotland. We have been continually striving to implement the vision to further facilitate the creation of mutually beneficial relationships between the two people. Our strategic aim was to help promote a two way traffic for this developing relationship between the two nations.

At the personal and professional levels, the last seven years of establishing and building the Institute have been challenging, demanding, hard and tiring work BUT an enjoyable experience. In each successful step, I have felt very strongly that we are making a positive change and making history. I believe that we have made a groundbreaking development both at the academic and communities levels. Indeed, the last seven years have been inspiring years where we have set the new agenda for the Study of Islam and Muslims globally, and through the results of our major academic research we have begun a constructive dialogue and debate on how the future of the study of Islam and Muslims should be developed in the twenty first century.



The Second Phase: An Institute in the Muslim World

In the last seven years, the Institute has been clearly focused upon the niche of Al-Maktoum Institute's Vision, Mission and New Agenda and should continue to maintain the passion and ambition demonstrated so far towards the strategic attainment of its collective goals at the local, national and international level.

Yet even while we celebrate our achievements, we know there is still much to do to promote our vision for cultural engagements, and to get our message across that we are playing a major part in trying to bring peace to the world. To deliver real impact in the Muslim and Western worlds in countering radicalisation and tackling extremism, we must engage with Muslims, at all levels, in a much more systematic way through much larger scale educational and cultural project. I firmly believe that education is the key means to undermine extremist narrative and ideology.

To break down the barriers that separate and divide the contemporary world and to undermine/defeat/eliminate religious and secular fundamentalism, radicalism, and extremism, there is an urgent need to establish and develop this new agenda for cultural engagement through education in both the west and the Arab and Muslim world. Although we were successful in setting the new agenda for cultural engagement in Scotland and the UK at both academic and communities levels through the establishment of Al-Maktoum Institute in Scotland, we urgently need to establish this new agenda in cultural engagement in the Muslim world.

Through the Institute in Scotland, we have done everything possible to encourage a two way traffic in developing cultural engagement, in particular through serving the local, national, and international communities, and by forging international academic links, scholarship and collaborations with sixteen of the world's leading Universities in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Gulf States, and South East Asia, BUT this is not enough.

At this stage of setting the new agenda in cultural engagements, it is time to establish a similar institute in the Muslim world which will hopefully complete the circle of laying the foundation for the new agenda for cultural engagement. Indeed, to ensure really successful cultural engagement, it should be well established and accepted by all the peoples in the world including China, Japan and Africa BUT at least at this stage by both the Western and Muslim worlds.

Setting this new agenda in the Muslim world is at the top of my priorities in the coming years. I have devoted all of my professional and personal life to education. As a scholar and leader who established several academic projects nearly from scratch, I enjoy innovative, creative, and challenging big ideas. As a person and a professional, I am very passionate about progressive education, research and community welfare. One of my central arguments is that, to improve the quality of life in a country and to transfer that country into a knowledge-based society, the leaders of that country need to work with scholars to provide world-class educational opportunities for its citizens. In addition, I am a great supporter of higher education institutions in the Muslim countries who are trying to maintain their credibility as leading public institutions in their own country and be responsive to the local and international market needs. To address the needs of our local and international societies, and to prepare our graduates to take their place in developing their society, there must be better education at university level in the fields of humanities and social sciences, in particular Islamic Studies and the Study of Islam and Muslim.

Invitation for partnership

To implement and develop this idea, I decided to change my place from being in a western higher education environment in the West and return back to the Arab counties. I have moved temporarily on August 2007 to Sana'a in Yemen to establish for the University of Science and Technology a research centre “Humanities and Social Sciences Research Centre”.

I am still searching to find the right place and environment to establish a leading, innovative and creative academic and cultural institute where I can transfer my expertise, passion, extensive experience, outstanding knowledge and skills, and personal qualities.

After nearly eight months of living in this part of the world, I am more convinced of the need to establish this Institute in this region: either in Saudi Arabia, or Yemen: Sana'a, or United Arab Emirates: Dubai/Abu Dhabi, or Qatar: Doha.

I am looking forward to continue working with colleagues in both western and Muslim worlds to face the challenges and opportunities of the twenty first century.









'Multiculturalism and Cultural Engagement:

Mapping an Agenda for the Twenty-First Century'



To gain the support of the Arab and Muslim elites to this vision, I successfully organised a joint international academic symposium between Zayed House for Islamic Culture (United Arab Emirates) and Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (Scotland-UK) on 'Multiculturalism and Cultural Engagement: Mapping an Agenda for the Twenty-First Century', on Sunday 8 April 2007 at Emirates Palace (Abu Dhabi).



Five prominent scholars and intellectuals presented papers on the following topics:

– Multiculturalism and Cultural Engagement in the Twenty-First Century

– Islamicjerusalem as a Model for Peaceful Co-existence, Cultural Engagement, and Multiculturalism

– Education in Multicultural States: UAE as an Example

– How to Bridge the Trenches amongst Cultures, with special focus on the relation between Islam and the West

– The Challenges of Multiculturalism



In the conclusion of my paper, I presented the vision and argument for cultural engagement body and called for the establishment in the Muslim world of an institute for cultural engagement. This call was adopted in Abu Dhabi Declaration for Cultural Engagement.

Following their intellectual discussions of these distinguished papers, the delegates of the Symposium have agreed to make the following declaration of their common ground, and shared values and goals (This final statement is known as Abu Dhabi Declaration for Cultural Engagement):

1. Multiculturalism not only requires a toleration of others, it also necessitates finding ways of mutual co-operation and cultural engagement between communities and individuals at all levels of society. It is both concerned with the mutual acceptance of, and mutual respect for, difference and the requirement for common ground.

2. The differences between our cultural and religious backgrounds are what give strength and importance to our communities, and the different cultural lenses that we each bring add to the pursuit of our common goal.

3. We share a common aim to build bridges, to provide a meeting point between the Muslim and Western worlds of learning, and to encourage scholarship, academic co-operation, and cultural engagement at this crucial time.

4. We seek to work towards cultural engagement at all levels: within both academic and community contexts, and between religions and cultures, and also within and between religious and cultural communities.

5. The Arab Muslim history provides us with several examples of peaceful co-existence between peoples, religions and cultures. 'Umar's Assurance of Safety and the central principle of Islamicjerusalem provide a key model for multiculturalism, cultural engagement, and mutual understanding and respect. Indeed, Islamicjerusalem gives us a model of a common space in which people from different backgrounds can live together in a centre in which diversity and pluralism thrive.

6. We have to work at all levels to break down the barriers that separate and divide the contemporary world, particularly in the areas of cultural engagement and education.

7. To improve understanding between people we need to promote cultural engagement that will see people acknowledging and respecting their differences, but being willing to work together in peaceful co-existence.

8. Multicultural education is the key means to defeat fundamentalism and extremism and will contribute to the achievement of common ground and space, mutual respect, and peaceful co-existence between and within people, nations, religions, and cultures.

9. We recognise the need to develop Islamic Studies at higher education level, to address the needs of our local and international societies, and to prepare our graduates to take their place in developing their society.

10. To develop Islamic Studies in the twenty-first century and enhance cultural engagement and constructive dialogue, universities in both Muslim and Western countries should ensure that the teaching of Islamic Studies should be in both Arabic and English languages (should go hand-in-hand)

11. The call for this new agenda for cultural engagement through education is timely and necessary, particularly to prevent the misguided and narrow interpretation of Islam, which is the source of so many problems in our societies.

As a conclusion of the 'Multiculturalism and Cultural Engagement: Mapping an Agenda for the Twenty-First Century' Symposium, the delegates have agreed to work together to achieve a practical step, which is the establishment of an academic and cultural institute in the Arab Muslim world, which seeks to enhance two-way traffic between and within people, cultures, and religions.

This institute will lay the foundations for the new agenda for cultural engagement through higher education. The mission of this institute should be:

– to educate the next generation of scholars and practitioners, locally, regionally and internationally, to enable them to face the challenges and opportunities of a diverse and multicultural society and world in the twenty-first century

– to be a research-led centre of excellence, to promote intelligent debate and understanding on cultural engagement and Islam and the role of Muslims in the contemporary world

to generate an atmosphere in which constructive dialogue and engagement will take place rather than a clash



About the author

Professor Abd al-Fattah El-Awaisi has been studying, teaching and researching in the Study of Islam and Muslims at both Arab and British universities for 30 years (from 1977). In addition, he received training in Political Sciences, History, Middle Eastern Studies, and Islamic Studies; and taught for a number of years in History departments, Religious Studies department, Arabic and Islamic Studies department, and the Study of Islam and Muslims Department. For him, education is not a career, it's a passion.
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