Published: 19 August 2011
Region: Worldwide
UN Alliance of Civilizations, British Council and top US universities release timely video series: 100 Questions About Islam, debates on the role xenophobic anti-Muslim rhetoric played in influencing Anders Breivik have abounded in the aftermath of the Norway attacks.
Separately, the role of Islam in democracy is being widely discussed as uprisings in the Arab world continue apace.
In this context—and ahead of the ten-year anniversary of 9/11—a new and timely video series, launched by the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the British Council, seeks to provide insight on these and other current issues around perceptions of Islam and Muslim communities.
The series consists of video interviews with scholars, journalists and policymakers from a diversity of geographical and professional backgrounds on major social, foreign policy, and historical questions. Marc Scheuer, Director of the UNAOC, commented, “With the Arab Spring, people’s views on Muslims and Arabs are evolving in unprecedented ways, and the 100 Questions About Islam video project taps into a lot of unanswered questions.”
The 100 videos, which average two minutes in length, address common misconceptions about Islam. Participating commentators -members of the Our Shared Future Opinion Leaders Network and some UNAOC Global Experts – expertly draw parallels between Muslims and other minority groups in Western countries, such as American Jews.
Topics discussed include the role of women in Islam, the place of democratic principles in theocratic governments, the veil, the Arab Spring, Shariah law, among many others. A selection of clips also features the findings of a recent poll by Gallup of a billion Muslims around the world, the largest such survey ever undertaken.
100 Questions About Islam aims, above all, at being a digital resource for the general public. It is a joint endeavour by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations’ Media Program; the British Council’s Our Shared Future project, and was produced by students from the University of Missouri School of Journalism during a symposium hosted by Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.
Click here to watch the entire collection of videos.
Courtesy of UN Alliance of Civilizations