Sabina Berberović, Yahya Birt, Sarah Joseph

Islam Between East and West: Alija Izetbegović at 100

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Description

In partnership with the Alija Izetbegović Foundation and the Yunus Emre Institute.

To mark the centenary of Alija Izetbegović, this special event celebrates the launch of the newly revised English edition of Islam: Between East and West, one of the most influential works of modern Muslim thought. First published in the late twentieth century, the book continues to speak to some of the defining questions of our age: faith and modernity, identity and belonging, technology and human dignity, and the future of civilisation.

Rejecting both materialist reductionism and religious dogmatism, Izetbegović presents Islam as a worldview that embraces the full complexity of human existence, reason and revelation, freedom and responsibility, body and soul. Drawing on philosophy, history, religion, culture, and science, Islam: Between East and West offers a profound reflection on what it means to be human in an increasingly fragmented world. More than four decades after its publication, its insights remain strikingly relevant for contemporary discussions surrounding Islam, citizenship, pluralism, and the future of Europe.

The event will open with welcome remarks from Sabina Berberović, daughter of Alija Izetbegović, followed by a panel discussion exploring his intellectual legacy and the continuing relevance of his ideas today.

About the Speakers

Sabina Berberović

Daughter of Alija Izetbegović and representative of the Alija Izetbegović Foundation. Through her work with the Foundation, she contributes to preserving and promoting the intellectual, cultural, and political legacy of one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s most influential thinkers and statesmen.

Yahya Birt

Yahya Birt has twenty years of experience in public policy engagement on British Muslim affairs at community, national, and international levels, and has written extensively on aspects of Muslim life and history in Britain. His work explores questions of faith, identity, citizenship, and the future of Muslim communities in the West.

Sarah Joseph

Sarah Joseph is a British journalist, author, and broadcaster best known as the founding editor of Emel magazine. For more than two decades, she has contributed to public conversations on faith, identity, culture, and contemporary Muslim life, and is widely recognised as one of the leading voices in British Muslim media.

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