On the 31st January 2018, Imams Online hosted the 2nd Annual Digital Summit at The YouTube Space, London which was attended by over 200 leaders from UK, France Denmark, Germany & US.
This event, which was supported by Google UK, bought together a diverse cross-section of the Muslim community which included senior religious leaders, male and female scholars, community activists, civil society actors, technologists, students and educationalists to a day of panel discussions and practical sessions delivered by YouTube specialists.
The event was centred around 3 key panel discussions that had speakers and panellists representing media, government, social media, education, faith institutions and universities The 3 discussions were entitled:
- Islamic leadership in tomorrow’s world
- Reviving Female Islamic scholarship
- Islamophobia and Rise of Far Right
One of the key interests on the day for the attendees was the interactive YouTube practical sessions delivered by their team. The 3 sessions delivered by YouTube were as followed:
- YouTube Live
- Storytelling on YouTube
- Virtual Reality on YouTube
The open floor nature of the event allowed participants the opportunity to engage in a robust conversation with panellists to present their ideas and talk through some of the challenges facing the Muslim community. With speakers on the panel discussions from social media companies, scholars, academics & government security department attendees took their opportunity to get to the root of some of the main issues and concerns affecting them.
Feedback from participants at the event was positive with participants encouraged by the frankness of conversations taking place and appreciative of the opportunity to network with individuals, institutions and organisations from within the Muslim community.
The Summit also saw the exclusive launch of the Faith Associates ‘Beacon Mosque’ project. The Beacon Mosque project aims to work with Mosques Internationally to implement the 10 quality standards needed to make the insitution a standard of excellence. Faith Associates developed a three tier accreditation for Mosques ranging from 3*, 4* and 5* Mosques.
The full list of speakers on the day included:
- Ismail Amla – IBM
- Dr Mahmoud Chandia – University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN)
- Shaykh Haroon Sidat – Cardiff University
- Shaykh Adam kelwich – Chaplin, Broadcaster and Humanitarian
- Shaykh Amer Jamil – Chaplin and Author
- Dr Atif Imtiaz – Cambridge Muslim College
- Professor Sophie Gillaet-Ray – Cardiff University
- Anse Tamara Gray – Rabata
- Shayka Safia Shahid – Muslim Womens College
- Saleha Islam – PennyAppeal
- Myriam Francouis – Academic/Journalist
- Dr Sadek Hamid – Researcher
- Nigel Bromage– Former Far Right Leader
- Karim Palant– Facebook, Policy Manager
- Tom Heard – Secretary General (Department of Security)
- Shaukat Warraich – CEO Faith Associates/Imams Online
- Imam Qari Muhammad Asim – Makkah Mosque, Leeds/Imams Online
See below for a range of pictures from the day:
