Muslim Scholar Imam Afroz Ali is on a tour

Muslim Scholar Imam Afroz Ali, of Sydney, is on a tour of peace of Aotearoa — with events at Otago University in Dunedin Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and in Auckland on Thursday.

Imam Afroz is recipient of the Ambassador for Peace award and is also an ambassador for the Charter for Compassion. He is the founder and Scholar-in-Residence at Al-Ghazzali Centre for Islamic Sciences & Human Development.

Imam Afroz said, "In this time of significant global tribulation, New Zealand remains a fertile environment to cultivate peace and coexistence”.

Imam Afroz will be hosted at New Zealand's oldest university, Otago University in Dunedin, for three main events:

(1) 13th Annual Dunedin Peace Lecture: Wednsday 24th August, 5:30pm

Imam Afroz will deliver the annual peace keynote lecture at the university, on:

"Between Law and Spirituality: Islam’s Legal Basis for its spirit of peaceful coexistence”.

He is being hosted by Dunedin Abrahamic Interfaith Group and Otago University Tertiary Chaplaincy. The previous Muslim speaker was global Muslim woman leader Dr. Ingrid Mattson.

Imam Afroz will be welcomed by the the Mayor of Dunedin, Dave Cull. Mayor Cull is noted to have eloquently welcomed diversity and harmony into his city. This event will be live streamed online*.

(2) The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, of Otago University, Wednsday 24th August, 1pm

Imam Afroz has been given the assignment of a lunchtime seminar on:

"The Role of Religion in Building a Compassionate & Peaceful World".

(3) Six Questions You Wanted to Ask about Islam — An Interview with Imam Afroz, Tuesday, 23rd Aug, 6pm.

This interview will be conducted by Aarif Rasheed, Barrister & Mediator. He will be interviewing Imam Afroz Ali based on 6 questions about Islam, focusing on a range contemporary issues of Peace, Pluralism and Co-existence. The 6 questions have now been finalised*.

(4) Auckland: Turkish coup and its aftermath: lessons for peace from the melting pot of politics, pluralism, faith, secularism and Islam.

Imam Afroz will travel to Auckland and deliver a firsthand experience and insight into the attempted coup and its lessons, on Thursday 25 August at Wesley Community Centre Mt Roskill, 7pm. Imam Afroz has only just returned from Turkey (where he was teaching alongside international scholars) with incredible firsthand accounts of what took place both on the streets and in the various media.

Imam Afroz has been visiting NZ for over a decade, speaking at various interfaith and diversity events over the years, and hosted at various institutions including the University of Auckland, Victoria University, and the NZ Diversity Forum. He was the only international guest at the recent launch of the Religious Diversity Centre Aotearoa-NZ by Hon Helen Clark at Parliament in March.

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