Register for this workshop, led by Arzu Merali, to critically examine Islamophobia as a structural and systemic tool of imperialism and colonialism.

WHEN: Saturday, 26 April, 2025, 2pm – 4pm BST
WHERE: IHRC Bookshop (202 Preston Road, Wembley, HA9 8PA)
Registration: available soon

About the workshop host:

Arzu Merali has been working in the field of human rights as an author, writer, researcher and consultant for more than twenty five years. She also teaches modules on human rights, feminism and Islamic discourse.

She has worked on projects with small and medium sized NGOS, as well as in partnerships between civil society and academia spanning Europe, Asia and North America.  This includes working on state of the art research projects on Islamophobia, racism, feminism, equality, decoloniality, human rights / grammars of human dignity, and political theory.  She has worked as a manager, researcher and consultant on such projects, developing analyses and recommendations for policy makers, media and civil society.

She also works as an editor both in the field of human rights, as well as poetry, children’s literature and fiction.

Her website is a home for different aspects of her work, including her blog, podcasts, articles, reports and details of her books.

She is one of the founders (in 1997) of Islamic Human Rights Commission and was their Head of Research.  She was formerly the editor-in-chief of Palestine Internationalist, and is currently editor of The Long View.  She is on the board of Amrit publishers, and a part of the Decolonial International Network Foundation.  She teaches at the annual Critical Muslim Studies Summer School in Granada, Spain.  She has helped curate exhibitions and events on issues of social justice, genocide, racism and Islamophobia, and miscarriages of justice.

In 2024, Arzu helped found Amirali Publishing House which focuses on new poetry, children’s books and fiction.

Arzu is a graduate of the University of Cambridge (BA Hons and MA Hons English Literature), Nottingham Trent University (PgDip Law), and the University of Kent (MA Hons International Relations).

About the event:

Rather than viewing Islamophobia solely as individual prejudice, this session will explore how it has been deliberately constructed and maintained to serve geopolitical interests, control narratives, and extract material resources.

Through a rigorous analysis of historical and contemporary examples, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how Islamophobia functions as a mechanism of power—shaping policies, justifying military interventions, and reinforcing racial hierarchies. This session aims to equip attendees with the knowledge to critically engage with these structures and challenge the dominant discourse.

This is an essential discussion for those seeking to understand the intersections of racism, imperialism, and global power.