The Centre for the Study & Practice of Conflict Resolution (CSPCR) hosted its first event under the auspices of the Albabtain Chair for Peace. A public lecture was delivered to staff and students by Dr Mohammad Sartawi (Kuwait University) entitled ‘The View from Outside: Understanding the ‘Other’ through effective contact on 12 January 2023. Dr Sartawi recounted his experience of studying Muslim communities in London in the aftermath of the London bombings of 2005.
In his study, Dr Sartawi attempted to access various Muslim communities and spend some time living among them. His aim was to uncover and understand the different groups that formed part of the larger British Muslim community as well as the ideologies that may or may not contribute to 'extremist' thought and behaviour. With assumptions formed on the basis of the media and academic literature at the time, he expected to find a sharply contrasted 'private' Islam and a more sinister 'political' Islam (Islamism).
The reality on the ground couldn't have been more different. After less than two years of conducting research as a participant observer in three different Muslim communities, he observed that extremist ideologies serve a particular function for any oppressed community and could take the form of any belief system that has relevance to that community.
The lecture served to highlight how the view from outside is often distorted and fixed with 'sticking points' that act as semantic barriers to negate the perspective of the other and legitimate intergroup suspicion and denigration. A recording of the lecture is accessible on the University of Malta’s YouTube page.