VIDEO: What does it mean to be human?

Presented at the CES ALICE Colloqium Panel 1:4 in Coimbra in 2014.

She discusses what it means to human, who controls the meaning, and how using different traditions – specifically the Islamic tradition – can show us how to move beyond the polarisation Westernised societies are facing today.

 

From CES: Arzu Merali is a writer, researcher and activist in the field of human rights. Her academic career includes degrees in English literature, law and international relations at Cambridge University, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Kent. Merali co-founded and currently directs the research department of the Islamic Commission for Human Rights (Islamic Human Rights Commission – IHRC), a non-profit organization, based in London, with consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council promoting campaigns, research and advocacy, struggling for justice for all people regardless of race, religious belief or political identification. Was chief editor of the Palestine Internationalist, an online newspaper focusing on issues of struggle for the liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian people. Arzu Merali organized books and frequently writes articles about Islam, human rights and other subjects for academic and non-academic publications.