On Being Human

Dr. Osman Latiff has a BA in History, an MA in Crusader Studies, and has completed a PhD in the 'Place of Fada'il al-Quds (Merits of Jerusalem) and Religious Poetry in the Muslim effort to recapture Jerusalem in the Crusades'. He has delivered many papers in the UK and internationally at renowned academic institutions. His book on the crusades, ‘The Cutting Edge of the Poet’s Sword: Muslim Poetic Responses to the Crusades’ was published by Brill in 2018. He has also written and continues to write academic articles and book chapters in the field of history.Further to his PhD he conducted post-doctorate research in Politics and International Relations ('The effect of war media iconography on US identity: disruptive images, counter hegemony and political syncretism') - considering bottom-up, grassroots humanistic values and affective principles of empathy and syncretism, and the power of the visual dimension in war and conflict. His second book, on the place of empathy in challenging attitudes of otherness in human societies, entitled ‘On Being Human: How Islam addresses othering, dehumanisation and empathy’ was published in February 2020 and launched in Christchurch New Zealand on the anniversary of the Christchurch mosque shootings (2019). He also awaits a forthcoming academic publication – ‘War, Dissent and Empathy: Seeing Our Others in Darkened Spaces’ (forthcoming - Springer, 2020). Dr. Latiff is a lecturer and teacher at Jamia Masjid and Islamic Centre, Slough, and is a regular speaker at mosques and universities in the UK and internationally.