BOOK LAUNCH DISCUSSION: MUSLIM EUROPE A JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF A 1400 YEARS

Organised by the Manchester Muslim Forum[MMF] and hosted by European Islamic Centre [EIC] in partnership:

BOOK LAUNCH DISCUSSION: MUSLIM EUROPE: A JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF A FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEAR HISTORY

with author *Tharik Hussain[award-winning author and journalist]

*Host and chair: Dr Sadek Hamid [Founder of Manchester Muslim Forum]

Date and time: Sunday 21st December 2025, 4pm - 6pm [Prompt start]

Venue: The European Islamic Centre [EIC], 79 Manchester Road, OL8 4LN

‘Vital, important’ WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
‘Perspective-shattering’ CAROLINE SANDERSON‘Uncovers a world of which few are fully aware’ COLIN THUBRON
For over 1,400 years, Muslims have been an integral part of Europe’s story, yet their contributions have been pushed to the margins or erased altogether. In Muslim Europe, award-winning author Tharik Hussain restores this forgotten history.
In a revelatory journey across the continent, we tread in the footsteps of the first Muslims who arrived on European soil in 647 AD. We travel through Cyprus, Sicily, Malta, Portugal and Spain, learning about the continent’s great Caliphate culture and Muslim commonwealth, encountering red-haired European Sultans and Arabic-speaking Christian Kings, the Sufi lodges of Cyprus and the palaces of Sicily.
Forgotten Muslim pioneers like Abbas Ibn Firnas gave us flight, Ibn Rushd gifted us modern philosophy and the cross fertilisation of faiths and cultures birthed Europe’s Christian Renaissance. For twelve centuries, Muslim Europe was a sanctuary for the continent’s Jews. Recalling the poignant voices of Hasdai Ibn Shaprut and Abraham Ibn Daoud, Jews flourished under Muslim protection triggering the Jewish Golden Age.
For the first time, Muslim Europe lays bare the cause of our collective Islamic amnesia by mapping Europe’s ‘anti-Muslim DNA’ through medieval Crusade narratives and nation-building myths. But Islam was never a sideshow to Western culture; it was integral to its development for over 1,400 years.
Deep, learned and utterly convincing, this first Muslim Eurocentric history of the continent dismantles the myth of Europe’s Judaeo-Christian cultural foundation, and offers nothing less than a profound shift in our self-understanding.

A vital, important and sharply observant new voice . . . In an age of growing Islamophobia, when ignorant commentators constantly depict Muslims as the Other, as dangerous outsiders, Hussain reminds us of the long history and the complex, mixed syncretic culture of European Islam, and nudges us to remember the massive debt Europe still owes to the Muslim world . . . A book I’ve been longing for someone to write -- William Dalrymple
Uncovers a world of which few are fully aware -- Colin Thubron
A perspective-shattering work showing that, far from being fatal to Western culture, Islam has been integral to the development of Europe for more than 1,400 years . . . Muslim Europe reads as both a revisionist work of history and a voyage of discovery -- Caroline Sanderson
Tharik Hussain is the essential second eye we need to get the history of Europe into focus, a brilliantly informed and also charming guide to the often hidden place of Islam in our shared past. He takes us to unfamiliar times and unfamiliar places – some glittering, some domestic – and expertly shows how they shaped us -- Michael Pye
A vital, eye-opening journey into a Europe we were never taught about. A truly extraordinary work of rediscovery that pulls back the veil on a millennium of forgotten history and shows us that Europe has always been far more diverse, interconnected and culturally rich than we’ve been led to believe. With the curiosity of a traveller and the rigour of a historian, Tharik uncovers forgotten stories that challenge everything we think we know about the continent’s past. An important and necessary book for these times -- Levison Wood, author of WALKING THE NILE
Tharik Hussain is just the kind of travelling companion we need in polarised times like these: curious, empathetic, erudite. An absolutely fascinating book, expertly threading past and present with a revelatory light -- Sophy Roberts, author The Lost Pianos of Siberia

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Main speaker and author: *Tharik Hussain is an award-winning author and journalist specialising in global Muslim heritage and culture. He has written for newspapers such as The Times, Guardian and Telegraph, magazines such as National Geographic Traveler, and broadcast media such as Al Jazeera and the BBC. For the latter, he produced award-winning radio program America’s Mosques. Tharik has written or contributed to travel books on areas including the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Europe, and his book on Islam in the Western Balkans, Minarets in the Mountains, was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year, and won the Adele Evans Award.

Host and chair : *Dr Sadek Hamid is Founder Director of the Manchester Muslim Forum. Previously he was a Senior Research Fellow, at the University of Edinburgh] and prior he was Head of Research at UKIM and Research Fellow at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He has previously held teaching and research positions at the universities of Chester, Liverpool Hope, Cambridge Muslim College and Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He has been actively engaged in Muslim communities for more than 30 years and prior to transitioning to academia was a Youth & Community Development professional. He has written extensively on Muslim young people, Islamic activism, religion, politics, and public policy. He is author of Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism (I. B. Tauris, 2016), co-author of British Muslims: New Directions in Islamic Thought, Creativity and Activism, (Edinburgh University Press, 2018), editor of Young British Muslims: Between Rhetoric and Realities (Routledge, 2016), co-editor of Political Muslims: Understanding Youth Resistance in a Global Context (Syracuse University Press, 2018), Youth Work and Islam: A Leap of Faith for Young People (Sense, 2011) and most recently; Contemporary British Muslim Arts an Cultural Production: Identity, Belonging and Social Change (Routledge, 2023).. He has previously held teaching and research positions at the universities of Chester, Liverpool Hope, Cambridge Muslim College and Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He has been actively engaged in Muslim communities for more than 30 years and prior to transitioning to academia was a Youth & Community Development professional. He has written extensively on Muslim young people, Islamic activism, religion, politics, and public policy. He is author of Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism (I. B. Tauris, 2016), co-author of British Muslims: New Directions in Islamic Thought, Creativity and Activism, (Edinburgh University Press, 2018), editor of Young British Muslims: Between Rhetoric and Realities (Routledge, 2016), co-editor of Political Muslims: Understanding Youth Resistance in a Global Context (Syracuse University Press, 2018), Youth Work and Islam: A Leap of Faith for Young People (Sense, 2011) and most recently; Contemporary British Muslim Arts an Cultural Production: Identity, Belonging and Social Change (Routledge, 2023).

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