International Association for the Study of Arabia (IASA)
FEATURED ORGANISATIONS Last year we partnered with KFCRIS for a successful event on recent discoveries in Saudi Arabia. King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) The KFCRIS is an independent non-governmental institution based in Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Center was founded in 1403/1983 by the King Faisal Foundation (KFF) to preserve the legacy of the late King Faisal and to continue his mission of transmitting knowledge between the Kingdom and the world. The Center serves as a platform for research and Islamic Studies, bringing together researchers and research institutions from the Kingdom and across the world through conferences, workshops, and lectures, and through the production and publication of scholarly works, as well as the preservation of Islamic manuscripts. The Center’s Research Department comprises specialized research units and experienced researchers who endeavor to produce indepth analyses in various fields, including Socioeconomics, Cultural Studies, African and Asian Studies. The Center also hosts the Library, which preserves invaluable Islamic manuscripts, the Al-Faisal Museum for Arab Islamic Art, the Al-Faisal Institute for Human Resources Development, the Darat Al-Faisal, and the Al-Faisal Cultural Press, which issues the Al-Faisal magazine and other key intellectual periodicals. For more information, please contact pr@kfcris.com
Assistant Minister for Culture and Public Diplomacy. Plus a screening of the History of the Emirates, a series of short films documenting the foundation and growth of the UAE. The Society also hosted a National Day event with HE Mansoor Abulhoul and other distinguished guests from around the Diplomatic community in London, celebrating the UAE together. Events this year have, like everywhere else, been online with webinars being the order of the day. Previously we have held some excellent events with visiting Ministers and dignitaries from the UAE, but for now we must content ourselves with our virtual world. The most recent events were a very popular discussion on the history of defence in the Gulf, with Dr David Roberts and Sir Simon Mayall, and an exceptional update from the Hope Mars Mission team just days before the hugely successful arrival of the probe into the orbit of Mars. HE Sarah Al Amiri, Mission director Omran Sharaf, and Sir Ian Blatchford from the UK Science Museum gave the Society an astonishing tour de force update of the Mission, to an audience of our regular members, Parliamentarians and journalists from around the world.
The Emirates Society is new to us, so we are pleased to incude more details of their activities. The Emirates Society – growing stronger friendship In 2018 the UAE Embassy in London established a friendship group with strong aims to grow and strengthen the UK-UAE relationship. Chaired by the UK’s former Minister for the Middle East, Rt Hon Alistair Burt, the Society organises talks and events designed to increase the understanding of the UAE and its society and culture, and to grow friendships and relationships between our two countries. The mailing list has individuals from Government, civil society, diplomacy, business, journalism and academia, all who have a shared interest in the relationship between the UK and the UAE. We have held some excellent events in London including discussing UK-UAE relations post-Brexit, with HE Dr Anwar Gargash, the planet in the post-Covid world, featuring HH Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan, Lord Goldsmith and Dominic Jermey OBE, the UAE’s response to Covid19, with Orlando Agrippa, George Kapitelli and Sir James Mackey and a discussion with HE Omar Ghobash, the UAE’s 60
Mars Mission Update 1.2.21: HE Sarah Al Amiri / Omran Sharaf / Sir Ian Blatchford / Rt Hon Alistair Burt
We were also extremely privileged to host HE Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, and HE Reem al Hashimy, Minister for International Cooperation, to discuss the Abrahamic Accords, and their impact on politics and religion in the Middle East and beyond. A very special event. Coming up in the near future will be a Webinar on why we must ensure the pandemic does not take our eye off extremism, and a more cultural event looking at the upcoming Expo. Chairman of the Society Rt Hon Alistair Burt says: “What the meetings of the Society have already demonstrated is that it is possible, and indeed necessary, to build upon a base of memory and affection for the Emirates from those who have worked and lived there, to an excitement and interest for the contemporary Emirates and what is to come. I want the
