FULLY BOOKED: Winter Gathering 2025: ‘By Any Means Necessary’: Muslims, Politics and Power in the 21st Century

View this email in your browser OCTOBER 2025 Muslim Institute Annual Winter Gathering Friday 28 - Sunday 30 November 2025 Sarum College, Salisbury THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED WITH PRIORITY GIVEN TO MUSLIM INSTITUTE FELLOWS. WE ENCOURAGE NON-FELLOWS TO BECOME FELLOWS AND RECEIVE PRIORITY PLACES FOR 2026. CLICK HERE TO BECOME A FELLOW.   ********* Every year, over three days and two nights, the Muslim Institute retreats to the auspicious surroundings of Sarum College situated in the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral, joined by a distinguished diverse panel of speakers for a programme of events. Fellows gather to debate and discuss the essential and pressing issues of our times, focusing on an annual theme, in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere. Each year we pick a different theme to discuss through a series of lectures and panel sessions. The theme of this year's Winter Gathering is: 'By Any Means Necessary': Muslims, Politics and Power in the 21st Century'   On the 6oth anniversary of the death of Malcolm X, WG25 will ask how best to build and organise our communities?  How to uphold justice and safeguard spaces for dissent? How to challenge anti-Muslim bigotry in society, politics and media?  How to hold our own leaders to account?  How to ally with others facing bigotry and fighting for justice? How to engage with those in power?  How to generate our own power?  WG25 brings together leading change makers and thinkers to explore how to transform the British Muslim landscape 'by any means necessary'. The sessions and speakers are chosen to allow the greatest level of learning, debate and discussion as possible. Confirmed speakers include:   Fozia Bora, Professor of Islamic History, University of Leeds. Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, Mayor of Newham Iqbal Nasim MBE, Educator, podcaster & co founder of Funders in Good. Kehinde Andrews, Professor of Black Studies, Birmingham City University and author of Nobody Can Give You Freedom – The Real Mission of Malcolm X. Dr Myriam François, journalist, filmmaker, podcaster and writer. Cllr Mothin Ali, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. Dr Wajid Akhtar, Secretary-General of the MCB (video message). Dr Sohail Hanif, CEO National Zakat Foundation & former lecturer at Cambridge Muslim College. Tharik Hussain, author of new book Muslim Europe: a Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History and the award-winning Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey Into Muslim Europe. Sessions: Friday 28th November Evening keynote: 'State power and the struggle for integrity — the Sultans and the Sheikhs in history' (Professor Fozia Bora). Saturday 29th November Political Self-Empowerment: National models (Panel) Economic Empowerment: How to build self-reliance in our communities (Panel) Political Self-Empowerment: The view from the grassroots (Panel) Saturday keynote: The Organisation of Afro-American Unity and the legacy of Malcolm X. (Dr Kehinde Andrews) Book launch: with Tharik Hussain. Sunday 30th November Creating New Narratives: Research, lobbying and the legacy & new media (with Dr Myriam François). Final plenary session: Mapping Our Futures: What can we do now? (with Yahya Birt). We will also be hearing from Humera Khan of the An-Nisa Society from whom the Muslim Institute has commissioned a new report: 'Mapping Muslim Futures in Birmingham: A Study of Belonging, Identity, and Imagination across Diverse Muslim Communities'.  Author/activist Yahya Birt will be the rapporteur for the Winter Gathering. Every fellow in attendance will get a free signed copy of Nobody Can Give You Freedom and Muslim Europe: a Journey. The Winter Gathering, including accommodation and all meals, is subsidised and free for Fellows, who are warmly encouraged to attend the weekend and help to continue the classical tradition of Muslim learned societies.   ******************************************* Previous Events: Watch: Video summary of the Muslim Institute Community Empowerment Fund 2025: 'The Wholesome Retreat'. Watch the 10th Annual Ibn Rushd Lecture: 'On the Margins: The Life and Contribution of Muhamad Asad' held on 30 July 2025 Watch the Second Ibn Sina Lecture: Modern Medicine and the Legacy of Ibn Sina held in Bradford City Hall on 31 May 2025 and view the photos here. Watch the 9th Annual Ibn Rushd Lecture: The History of Muslim Women in Britain held in July 2024, the Inaugural Annual Ibn Sina Lecture held in April 2024 at Leeds Civic Hall, and the book launch held in March 2024 of the new ground-breaking The Qur'an: A Verse Translation. ******************************************* Rethinking Ourselves by Anwar Ibrahim Themes: Rethinking Ourselves: Justice, Reform and Ignorance in Postnormal Times. A groundbreaking exploration of justice, democracy and Islamophobia, inviting us to reconsider our assumptions and build a more equitable future. Change has run amok! Technology advances by the minute, and much of what we think we know about the world fades in front of our eyes. How we are, how we know, how we live our daily lives—all shifting quicker than we can cope with Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's tenth Prime Minister, asks how we might rethink ourselves for these confusing, uncertain and volatile times, and shape fairer, more sustainable futures. Anwar's passion is rooted in experience: he spent, in total, over a decade behind bars after three separate miscarriages of justice, from his days as a student activist to his time as Leader of the Opposition. Alongside reflections on his time in prison are critical investigations into truth, justice, post-colonialism, Islamophobia, democracy and global order. Anwar assembles ideas from East and West, North and South, to explore how we can create a new inclusive synthesis for a good society and world. Vividly expressed, expertly dissected, this is a timely book for our turbulent age.   Praise for Rethinking Ourselves 'A compelling account by a courageous leader who has triumphed over prosecution, harsh prison life and attempts to ban him from public office. This book sets out the values that shape his life and work and how he proposes to lead Malaysia into the future.' — GORDON BROWN 'The brilliant insights of Anwar Ibrahim radiate here in eloquent prose, now more accessible and necessary than ever. For truth and justice to prevail, we must look to the core human values etched in this enthralling, impassioned manifesto from the foremost Muslim statesman of our time.' — PROFESSOR BRUCE B. LAWRENCE 'This book is evidence that Anwar Ibrahim, in the darkest days of his life, still kept his heart toward light. Ibrahim offers far-sighted designs for the global order, syncretising Eastern and Western wisdom to chart a course forward through tempestuous epochs.' — LIJIN YAN, PRESIDENT, SILK ROAD INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION About the author Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's tenth Prime Minister, asks how we might rethink ourselves for these confusing, uncertain and volatile times, and shape fairer, more sustainable futures. Anwar's passion is rooted in experience: he spent, in total, over a decade behind bars after three separate miscarriages of justice, from his days as a student activist to his time as Leader of the Opposition. Alongside reflections on his time in prison are critical investigations into truth, justice, post-colonialism, Islamophobia, democracy and global order. Anwar assembles ideas from East and West, North and South, to explore how we can create a new inclusive synthesis for a good society and world. Vividly expressed, expertly dissected, this is a timely book for our turbulent age. Hardback £19.99. Also available as an eBook. Rethinking Ourselves is published by HURST, who are also publish the Muslim Institute's house journal Critical Muslim.  CM 55: FASCISM - OUT SOON! Only about a century old, fascism—bogeyman of ideologies—has been both over- and under-attributed to various political phenomena. While the baseline cases of Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy are generally agreed upon, once these two forces were defeated, it was nigh impossible to believe that such a compulsion would ever return in a more enlightened future—let alone be ushered in by the children of those who defeated the fascist regimes. Today, card-carrying fascist forces grab ever more political power across the US and Europe, even in the European Parliament itself, and around the globe. Yet, while there's a reason for Godwin's Law—the longer an online conversation continues, the more likely someone is to invoke Hitler and the Nazis—we must find ways to discern the fascist wheat from the garden-variety nationalist chaff. This issue looks at today's tidal wave, and asks how to ensure that such forces are not allowed to tear the world asunder once more. About Critical Muslim: A quarterly publication of ideas and issues showcasing groundbreaking thinking on Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in a rapidly changing, interconnected world. Each edition centres on a discrete theme, and contributions include reportage, academic analysis, cultural commentary, photography, poetry, and book reviews.   Free to Muslim Institute fellows. About Critical Muslim: A quarterly publication of ideas and issues showcasing groundbreaking thinking on Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in a rapidly changing, interconnected world. Each edition centers on a discrete theme, and contributions include reportage, academic analysis, cultural commentary, photography, poetry, and book reviews. Critical Muslim is edited by Ziauddin Sardar. To order this issue and subscriptions click here info@musliminstitute.org  |  www.musliminstitute.org Muslim Institute, 82 Tanner Street, London, SE1 3GN Copyright © 2025 Muslim Institute, All rights reserved. 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