Abdal Hakim Murad – Closing remarks

			We have been pondering in some
detail and with a range of often
		

			quite brilliant and meticulous
historical approaches this
		

			interesting fact that perhaps
uniquely amongst major Western
		

			Muslim communities, British
Muslims have this very
		

			distinctive, sometimes eccentric,
but sometimes quite passionate
		

			prehistory. It will be difficult,
I think, to imagine in the context
		

			of many Western European countries
such a constellation of luminaries
		

			as Pickthall Quilliam, Parkinson
and others, perhaps this is just
		

			my ignorance, but it does seem
that we have this dis advantage.
		

			And I've also been very happy with
the extent to which the speakers
		

			have avoided the obvious
temptation of proposing these
		

			individuals as people who can
simply be wheeled, wheeled out, in
		

			order to generate solutions to the
problems that communities are
		

			facing today. We don't inhabit a
world in which there is a an
		

			Ottoman Sultan Kalish. We don't
inhabit a world in which generally
		

			the perception of Muslims is
framed in the context of different
		

			races. We don't live in the
context of a triumphant British
		

			Empire, our questions are
different. But still, we find at
		

			least in the energy of those
people and the way in which in
		

			their distinctive ways in their
Victorian or Edwardian contexts,
		

			they were able to find ways of
recognizably unmistakably
		

			undeniably inhabiting both spaces
of as it were being amphibians,
		

			very English are very Scottish,
but also at the same time
		

			unmistakably true and faithful to
an Islamic passion as they
		

			understood it. That I think is
something that we can all take
		

			away with us today. And hugely
grateful to all of the speakers.
		

			It's evident that some of them
most of them, I think, really
		

			worked very hard on their their
presentations. My hope is that if
		

			we speak nicely enough to them,
they will allow us to take their
		

			scripts from their, their clutches
and put them together to create
		

			what I hope will be quite an
interesting collection of essays.
		

			It's been a great privilege for us
here in the college to be the
		

			midwife of that. That project.
		

			grateful to the organizers, my
head, rather marginal roll myself,
		

			but a lot of hard work has gone
into this. Dr. Asif Abdul Aziz
		

			Amara Davina and everybody in the
office, of course Latif, the cook
		

			who has been slaving away while
we've been enjoying this
		

			intellectual feast. And, of
course, the incumbent at St.
		

			Paul's Church here, we just
inhabit the former vicarage. And
		

			this is this is the main space of
the complex. And my hopes that we
		

			will be able to do this again
looking at it from different
		

			angles, but also conferences on
other aspects of the British
		

			Muslim experience is very much at
the heart of what we do. And
		

			thanks also those who have been
contributing with with donations
		

			and to the Nuffield Foundation,
who have generously undertaken to
		

			underwrite the main costs of this
we're hugely grateful to everybody
		

			for their goodwill and for their
for their prayers. were accepted
		

			that Weiner and in hamdulillah
Robben Island