Two videos: Islamic Responses to COVID-19

Two lecturers on staff at the Islam-UK Centre were among the scholars invited to a day-long virtual conference at the beginning of July. Prof. Gary Bunt, who runs the Virtually Islamic website and studies online expressions of Islam and Muslims, hosted the event at University of Wales, Trinity St David. Including scholars from around the world, the event featured reflections on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic for Muslims.

Dr Mansur Ali, Lecturer in Islamic Studies, shared a paper on the migration of religious and spiritual rituals to the online spaces during lockdown. “E-Majlis: Nikah, Tarawih and Hadith audition during Covid-19 lockdown” considered the transformation of online spaces to a majlis when physical attendance in traditional religious spaces was not permitted.

Aided with tools of various fatwas, Ali considers the validity of Skype Nikah, virtual Tarawih, and wireless Hadith audition. You can watch the video recording of his talk here.

Dr Michael Munnik, Lecturer in Social Science Theories and Methods, shared reflections on media coverage of Muslims in the UK during the pandemic. He clustered his analysis around three broad themes that emerged: Muslims reported to blame for the virus’s spread, to suffer from it, or to help fight it. His talk is also available as a video recording.

We thank Prof. Bunt for including staff from our centre in this international conference. The full list of videos can be accessed here. https://www.virtuallyislamic.com/irc19/irc19-videos.php