27th-29th April will see the British Library in London hold the first ever ‘MFest’ to celebrate Islamic literature, ideas and culture.
The event will bring together works from notable Muslim writers, poets, and artists from various disciplines including theatre, literature, dance, stand-up comedy, and visual arts to Muslims and non-Muslims.
Sponsored by the Aziz Foundation and DeepMind, the festival will also aim to hold and encourage challenging discussions on contentious topics including race, identity, and global politics. One event “will include one event which will host a discussion on the practice of people studying Islam on the internet and how this is shaped by the function of in-built algorithms and the emergence of Artificial Intelligence”.
Tufyal Choudhury, Director of MFest, said the festival will “challenge a fundamental feature of Islamophobia, which sees Islam and Muslims as a monolithic, static block”.
Sources
Mend. (2018) ‘UK’s first ever Muslim festival to be held to celebrate Islamic literature, ideas and culture’. [online] 6 March. https://mend.org.uk/news/uks-first-ever-muslim-festival-held-celebrate-islamic-literature-ideas-culture/. [Accessed 15 March 2018].
