Maimonides Foundation
History
In 1989, as a reaction to the Rushdie affair, the Calamus Foundation was set up in the UK by Mohammed and Saba Risaluddin. This Muslim charity developed activities intended to improve the image of Islam in the UK, which had deteriorated considerably due to the Rushdie Affair. While its initial focus was Muslim-Christian dialogue, later it also turned its attention to Jewish-Muslim dialogue. The Jewish counterpart of Calamus is the Maimonides Foundation, established in 1985 by Richard Stone, Greville Janner MP, and Rabbi Hugo Gryn, all members of the reform branch of Judaism. Together with the Calamus Foundation, during the 1990s this group organised dinners four times a year at which substantive themes of interest to Jews and Muslims alike were discussed. The two foundations also developed other Jewish-Muslim initiatives. In 1994, for example, Saba Risaluddin and Richard Stone cowrote an article for The Guardian warning of the rise of Islamophobia in the UK. In 1997 Maimonides initiated the Alif-Aleph Foundation, intended as a forum ‘for businesspeople of both faiths’, and in 1999 it set up a long-term Interfaith Football Programme for Muslim and Jewish children in partnership with Arsenal Football Club. 53 54 In 1998 the Calamus Maimonides Student Forum was formed with the aim of promoting dialogue between Jewish and Muslim students.[1]
People
- Rokhsana Fiaz, Chief Executive, April 2013-2017
