Recent events across the city and country have significantly impacted cohesion and the way in which people engage and interact on a day-to-day basis. Often misrepresented or misunderstood, the city’s Muslim communities deserve a safe space where they have the opportunity to have open and honest conversations with leaders, institutions and policymakers among others. As a leading Russell Group institution, the University of Birmingham occupies a singular niche to facilitate these conversations – some of which will be necessarily difficult and challenging.
Building on our links across the political sphere, state apparatus and the city, we aim to broker these conversations through bringing together diverse groups of people to engage them in a variety of activities from which the outcomes and findings will be shared in order to try and catalyse further debates and discussions.
Birmingham - as a city and as a University - has a strong commitment to fairness, tolerance and co-operation. This project aspires to generate new ideas to support and encourage others to understand Birmingham's Muslim communities as both 'in' and 'of' the city as a means of better understanding how we can all live together – irrespective of our differences - in a more cohesive and fairer city.