Date and Time: Friday 19th March 2010 at 6.45 - 8.30pm

Venue: Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, London, W1H 4LP (nearest tube is Edgware Road) (map)

Speakers: Roger Hardy and Ziauddin Sardar

What are the roots of Islamism -- has it succeeded or failed -- and how intelligently, or otherwise, has the West responded to it? Roger Hardy has been a Middle East and Islamic affairs analyst with the BBC World Service for the last 25 years. He has written and presented radio series on Islam in the Middle East, in south-east Asia, and in the West. In a new book -- The Muslim Revolt: A Journey through Political Islam, to be published by Hurst on 15 March -- he uses his travels and experiences as a journalist to attempt to put Islam and Islamism in context. He argues that, without a better grasp of Islamism and its discontents, Western efforts to win Muslim 'hearts and minds' are destined to fail. In a special City Circle debate, Roger Hardy will discuss the themes of his book with the well-known Muslim writer and columnist Ziauddin Sardar

Roger Hardy worked in book publishing and as editor of the monthly magazine The Middle East, before joining the BBC World Service in 1985 as a Middle East and Islamic affairs analyst. His radio series have included Islam: Faith and Power, Waiting for the Dawn: Muslims in the Modern World, Europe's Angry Young Muslims and, most recently, Jihad and the Petrodollar. He is the author of Arabia after the Storm (Chatham House, 1992), a study of the impact of the Gulf crisis of 1990-91 on the Arabian monarchies, and is a regular contributor to the Economist, International Affairs, the New Statesman and Middle East International.

All welcome. Free Entrance and no need to pre-book.
For further information contact rabia at thecitycircle.com or 07733932134