Popular knowledge of other cultures is filtered through images and stereotypes. Understanding of Islam in the West is largely formed by half-remembered history, religious and social attitudes and prejudices with their roots in the distant past, as well as a mass of more recent inputs from the media, film, novels and urban mythology. Laziness and malice often play their part, too, though misunderstandings can be neutral or even benign. Globalisation has sharpened the contrasts between western images of Islam and Muslims’ views of themselves and their religion, often widening the gap of misunderstanding. Much of this divergence centres on very different readings of the same sets of images and data, and it is this divergent understanding that the seminar addresses. Misunderstanding is a two-way street. We shall look at images in order to explore some of the ways non-Muslims misread Islam, but also some of the ways Muslims use images – often unconsciously, sometimes deliberately – which reinforce these misreadings. How are these images made? How are they read? By understanding the process of representation better, can we move towards a better and more constructive understanding of each other? This seminar has two central themes: how the West sees Islam; and how Muslims see each other, particularly between the old Muslim heartlands of the Middle East, South and East Asia and the diasporic Muslims of the West. We shall begin by trying to dispel some of the over-simplifications that popular understanding in Europe and political Islamists in the Muslim world have given it. We shall then move on to look at Islam in Europe and in the UK, as well as – by video-link – in Cairo and Kuala Lumpur. We shall look at shared values and histories, as well as the way issues like the status of women are differently seen. We shall examine the western press and the way in which stories are constructed – as well as how they are understood, by different criteria of credibility and trust. There will also be a chain of specifically image-based workshops running through the week. Finally we shall attempt to formulate some preliminary conclusions which can form the beginning of a further stage of conversation and debate, within the group and beyond. | 
