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Memory identity and belonging
Simon Fraser University
The Ismaili Centre, Burnaby launched the 2018 Ismaili Centre Conversations, a series of three onstage conversations at the nexus of citizenship, identity and religion. Co-sponsored by Simon Fraser University, the conversation was facilitated by Dr. Amyn Sajoo, Scholar-in-Residence at SFU’s Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies & Cultures (CSMSC).
In the first event of this series, historian Dr. Amal Ghazal, Director of the CSMSC examined how memory shapes who we are and why this question is so important in the world today.
Dr. Ghazal focused her attention on the emergence of a “Muslim” cosmopolitanism in Zanzibar as a product of certain social, economic, historical and cultural forces. From the experience of colonialism and anti-colonialist sentiments, to the transformative technologies of the printing press and steamships the Zanzibari experience was one in unique in that its emergence resulted from a unique mix of factors that coalesced at a certain moment in time. In providing a window into the remembrance of the past, Dr. Ghazal highlighted the role memory and history play in how we think about cosmopolitanism and citizenship in the present.
The conversation was attended by young and diverse audience including members of the Jamat and students from Simon Fraser University.
