Forward Thinking host Hayder al-Khoei at breakfast meeting roundtable, 26th May 2016

Forward Thinking hosted  Hayder al-Khoei, an associate fellow at Chatham House and a Fellow at Forward Thinking, to explore the theme, "The Middle East Beyond the Sectarian Divide". It was attended by parliamentarians, media professionals and individuals with expertise on the Middle East to explore underlying issues, exchange perspectives and deepen analysis.Discussions examined the growing tendency in the West to understand conflicts in the Middle East as the continuation of a 1,400-year-old sectarian battle between Sunni and Shia Islam. It questioned whether sectarianism is a useful model for understanding why people are mobilising violently across the Islamic world, or if viewing the region through this lens risks creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.Discussions covered the shortcomings of legacies of overly simplified essentialist understandings of the Middle East which are perpetuated within the media and Western policy responses in the region. It called for a more nuanced approach which better understands the interplay of  political and religious complexities in the region, instead of pre-ascribing the causes of conflict as sectarian and religious often without a deeper understanding of the localised and internal divisions which exist.His latest article on sectarianism in the MENA region can be found here: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2016/04/19/The-Middle-East-Beyond-the-sectarian-divide1.aspx