The educational legacy of Dr. Zaki Badawi provides us all with a glimmer of hope in our troubled times 

by ANAS AL-SHAIKH ALI

The First Zaki Badawi Annual Memorial Lecture, jointly organized by AMSS (UK) and Lambeth Palace, was held at Lambeth Palace, London, on 26th April 2007. The lecture was presented by Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, on the topic of "Islam, Christianity and Pluralism". The event was marked by a presentation of the prestigious AMSS Building Bridges Award to Dr. Rowan Williams, in recognition of his distinguished contributions to a better understanding between faiths. Lords, policy makers, academics, and community leaders were all in attendance to pay tribute to the role Dr. Zaki Badawi had played in giving British Islam a voice. We publish here excerpts of the speech by Dr. Anas al-Shaikh Ali, Chair of AMSS UK, which presents an impassioned case for education as the only long-term solution to tackle racism, intolerance, Islamophobia, and all forms of xenophobia, affecting society.

It was in 1996 that Dr. Zaki Badawi and I attended a seminar organised by the Oxford Academy for Advanced Studies. The seminar brought together some 30 Muslim academics, scholars, and theologians to examine research on Islam in higher education and Muslim graduate studies in the West. After much  discussion, the participants resolved to establish an association dedicated to the promotion of the Islamic position in various academic disciplines.

Dr. Zaki and I were asked to follow up, and in 1999 the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) was launched at the London School of Economics. Since then and until his sad passing last year, Dr. Zaki was an integral and inspirational member of its executive committee.

The AMSS has based its activities on the belief that the development of Islamic thought and intellectual discourse, designed to create an awareness of Islamic alternatives and opinions on issues relevant to Muslims, is vital for the healthy continuity and development of Muslim communities today. This cutting edge approach shared with other organisations as well as individual Muslim scholars and thinkers in the West will also have a ripple effect across the Muslim world, developing perspectives in a positive way. In addressing issues of Islamic thought, the AMSS has sought to combine what it terms "the two readings", the reading of the Revelation and the reading of the real-existential, that is of reality and time-space. And this is exactly where Dr. Zaki proved to be particularly successful, addressing as he did a wide range of challenging and complex issues which required a combining of his knowledge as a Shari'ah scholar and Azhar graduate with his training and knowledge in psychology and other areas of the social sciences.  

Towards this end and since its inception in 1999, the AMSS has tried through international, European, and local conferences and workshops, some jointly organised with universities and think tanks, to deal with topical and emerging issues pertaining to Islamic thought and Muslim communities. Issues of Pluralism, Diversity, Social Responsibility, Muslims of Europe in the New Millennium, Identity, Citizenship, Fiqh for Minorities, Security, and Democracy have been a few among the many themes debated and discussed at the Association's conferences by leading international and local Muslim and non-Muslim academics, researchers and scholars as well as Muslim theologians.

One of the areas that the AMSS has given special attention to over the years has been Education. Why? Because we strongly believe, as did Dr. Zaki, that the only effective long-term strategy to defeat racism, extremism, Islamophobia and all forms of xenophobia is objective and enlightened education. Education systems produce, among others, the future teachers, policy makers, politicians, artists, writers and media experts of our societies. Therefore, the values of humanitarianism, morality, citizenship, peaceful coexistence, revulsion of racism and discrimination, acceptance of the "other" should be married to actively taught skills of critical thinking and awareness, forming part of all national curricula.