8-9 September, 2007. Birmingham, UK
More than 250 Muslim grassroots community and organizational representatives met at Edgbaston Cricket Club, Birmingham, to strategize towards establishing a new National Muslim Communities Development Network.
The proposed Network, would be an independent structure that would not only acknowledge the continuing good work of existing organizations but would draw on expertise and experiences from further afield. Among other things, it would help address key concerns, including challenges posed by radical/violent extremism, and would help develop and broaden emerging leaderships within the communities themselves.
The Network requires support from communities as well as public and corporate sectors, but the idea is to get communities to genuinely cooperate, to empower themselves through positive action and cutting edge initiatives, to emphasize delivery, and to help raise the standard of the debate on Islam, Muslims and Britain today which appear to have spiralled into trivia and subjective sloganism. It is essential that the debate on extremism, for example, is not polarised into two dichotomous camps: rabid secularism or religious fundamentalism. A kaleidoscope of more sophisticated and nuanced approaches from the commonsense silent majority seem to have been ignored up to now.
The Network will seek to reach out beyond sectarian, ethnic or political ties, engaging with non-Muslims, as well as with professionals (without any leadership hierarchy or need for affiliation) with the aim of promoting an aspirational and progressive vision of and for Muslims in Britain – one that allows them to play their rightful and full role in wider British society and polity.