An Interview with Hasan Rahman and Hassan Malik (Presidents 2004-05 and 2005-06)

Can you tell me a little more about yourself?

Hasan Rahman: I was at Oxford between 2003-07. I read PPE at Lincoln College and stayed on for a year to do a law conversion course. I am now a lawyer in Abu Dhabi. 

Hassan Malik: I studied E&M at Pembroke college and was also at Oxford between 2003-06 and I am now a strategy consultant out in Abu Dhabi.

What is your defining memory of ISoc?

Hasan Rahman: I think it would be the sense of community at university and the fact that friendships made there have lasted for so long.

Hassan Malik: Yes, pretty similar to what Hasan said! Both of us live in Abu Dhabi and we’ve been friends for around 15 years now! We have a group of around 7-10 people from our time at Oxford who we’re still really good friends with.

What inspired you to go for presidency?

Hasan Rahman: I was persuasively convinced! The previous president stepped down early so I filled in for a term until the new committee was selected. A lot of my university life had revolved around the Islamic society and I felt that I had benefited from what it had to offer, so I wanted to ensure that other people were also encouraged to attend, participate and benefit as well.

Hassan Malik: I can’t remember how I ended up as president! But I suppose when you start Oxford you end up in a new place with no friends. But through Fresher’s week I made a lot of friends and found a good home in ISoc. It was a matter of continuing that baton of community. We didn’t just hold Islamic events but also had other types of events such as ISoc brother’s football and the community element extended beyond just talks and speeches. 

What was your vision for ISoc?

Hasan Rahman: We had a lot of members who we would meet at Jumu'ah and iftaars only, so the vision for me was to encourage as many people to attend and feel welcome at all of our events so that we could grow the Isoc while allowing as many people to benefit from it as possible.  

Hassan Malik: Yes, inclusivity was important and a big part of it. We had a few other things going on too, such as missions trying to get a Prayer room. We also started Islam Awareness Week for the first time to open up the society and make it inclusive to both Muslims and non-Muslims.

As president, what was your favourite event? 

Hasan Rahman: From my stint as president, my favourite speaker events were a talk on Isa (AS) by Imam Shabbir Ally from Canada and a fundraising dinner for the Indonesian tsunami, both of which were very well attended by people of other faiths.

Hassan Malik: Islam Awareness Fortnight. We had 2 weeks of events and it was still a new thing for us at the time.

What notable speakers and events occurred during your presidency?  

Hasan Rahman: The term before I became president we’d had a successful Islam Awareness Week and there were a couple of interfaith events we ran as a follow-up, including an event on Isa AS by Shabir Ally as I’ve mentioned which was very well attended (and received) by many members from the Christian Union. We also had a very successful fundraising dinner to raise money for a tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.  

Hassan Malik:

I remember we had Timothy Winter and Tariq Ramadan. At some point, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf came over too. In terms of events, we also did the 1001 Muslim Exhibition in the Ashmolean museum and a lot of interfaith events. We also went to Manchester and Leeds to host conferences for the GCSE and A-Level students so began our access work. 

We had 3 long term projects. The first was alumni related, regarding OMA (Oxbridge Muslim Alumni). The other thing was access, which I’ve mentioned. Lastly, we wanted a Prayer room.  We started to formalise the process to appeal for a Prayer room, but I guess there wasn’t a sufficient number of people pushing for it in an organised fashion and the common retort was always that people could pray in their own rooms.

Is there anything you would have done differently/ if you had more time, what else would you have done?

Hasan Rahman: I would probably adopt a more long-term mindset and focus less on the larger speaker events and more on the regular welfare/community and educational/personal development aspects of what the ISoc was there to do. From a personal perspective, I would try to spend more time on my own personal development and learning more about Islam and comparatively less time ‘running ISoc’ and focussing on organising events etc.

Hassan Malik: We tried to highlight inclusivity but I think this could have been done more.

Has being president/a member of ISoc had any influence on yourself as a person, after you graduated from University?

Hasan Rahman: Yes definitely - I changed quite a bit during my time at Oxford - mainly due to those experiences. I learned a lot through the ISoc and got to know some special people who have had an influence on me.

Hassan Malik: It was an experience. We learnt from it. Should we have spent as much time doing some of the stuff that we did? Probably not. There were elements of ISoc such as organising events, interacting and communicating with people, issues around the PR i.e. how to deal with very senior stake holders which were definitely learning experiences though.

What challenges were faced by the society during your tenure?

Hassan Malik:  I think we’ve touched upon a number of elements of the challenges. The PR was a challenge. I think there’s ups and downs. Sometimes people get upset and sometimes things don’t go as well you’d like. Sometimes turnout isn’t too good, but other times it’s better than you expect.

Hasan Rahman: Without a central ‘hub’ that a prayer room would have provided, I think the greatest challenge we faced was being able to bring the wider membership together on a regular basis outside of Jumu’ah prayers and iftaars. I’m sure that having a place where people could pray together and get to know one another better would have helped to get more people actively involved in the ISoc on a regular basis.

What are your thoughts on ISOC today?

Hasan Rahman: It’s great to see that some of the campaigns we started working on such as the prayer room, alumni network, and access scheme now seem to be well established, and that ISoc appears to making good use of many of the positive resources and opportunities available in the wider Oxford Muslim community. 

In one sentence, can you summarise why ISOC was important to you?

Hassan Malik: For me, friends. It gave me my friends.

Hasan Rahman: I think I would concur with Hassan and would add as well that it gave us something productive to do with our time.