The Muslim Institute Winter Gathering 2026'Muslim Europe and the Curious Case of Amnesia'.
The 2026 Winter Gathering confronts a deliberate historical amnesia: the erasure of over a millennium of Muslim presence in Europe and the decisive role Muslim societies and populations played in shaping European civilisation. This is not an obscure academic oversight. It sits at the centre of today’s argument about Western decline, contested values and whether Muslims are internal to Europe or permanently alien to it.
Across Europe and North America a powerful narrative claims that Muslim immigration heralds the fatal weakening of Western civilisation and the erosion of its values. This revisionism fuels Islamophobia and “replacement” theories that cast Muslims as a hostile ‘fifth column’ that must be expelled. Such claims depend on treating Islam as permanently foreign to Europe. The 2026 Gathering will intervene directly in this crucial historical and ideological debate. 
The later erasure of Muslim Europe continues to structure contemporary Islamophobia by presenting Muslims as permanent outsiders. The 2026 Gathering will treat this not only as a dispute about the past, but as a contest over Europe’s possible futures. It will explore these areas:
Historical memory and belonging, asking who is permitted to count as indigenous.
Intellectual inheritance, tracing how Muslim Europe shaped European modernity.
Narratives of decline, examining how fear of civilisational loss is constructed and mobilized.
How Muslims tell their own European history to themselves and to their fellow citizens.
& the future(s) of Europe; considering what a confident European identity grounded in historical truth might look like.
Speakers confirmed include: Diana Darke, author of Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture shaped Europe, Tharik Hussain, author of Muslim Europe: a Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History, Professor Fabrizio Boscaglia, Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal and Professor Iftikhar Malik, author of The silk road and beyond: narratives of a Muslim historian. 
The Winter Gathering has become increasingly popular and is by far our single largest annual expenditure. As long-standing fellows will be aware, we have not raised our monthly subscription of £10 for well over a decade, during which time costs and inflation have risen sharply year on year.
The trustees have reluctantly decided to introduce a modest registration fee of £50 per adult attendee to the Winter Gathering to help contribute towards overall costs for the event. Only those who are paying monthly or annual subscriptions to the Muslim Institute on the date registrations open will be eligible to register to attend the Winter Gathering. Any person becoming a fellow after registrations open, and wishing to attend the Winter Gathering, must pay the annual fellowship fee (£120) upfront.
We are also limiting numbers to those who can be accommodated at Sarum College. We will allocate places on a first come, first served basis. If you wish to book yourself into a local hotel and attend the Winter Gathering you are most welcome to do so, and we will only ask you to contribute towards the cost of your meals. Registration for fellows opened on Friday 11th September 2026.If you are a current fellow and have not received a registration form please email info@musliminstitute.org and one will be sent to you.
|
