Q&A: Islamic Urban Futures, Populism, and Belonging – Dr. Heba Raouf-Ezzat & Dr. Uthman Badar

This Q&A explores how Islamic norms can inform contemporary urban life and policy.
Questions addressed scale, neighborliness, and everyday moral texture in city design; critiquing dominant ideologies shaping modern skylines; and proposing ‘designing for disorder’ to enable civic gathering, manoeuvre, and shared spaces. Dr. Heba discusses measures of success and happiness, adaptive housing models, survival skills for youth, and the psychological drivers of populism and nationalisms. Questions also probe nationalism as quasi-religion, healing post-uprising trauma, and balancing Islamic belonging with local identities. Dr Badar adds how Ummatics translates research into recommendations for policymakers, industry, and on-the-ground projects.

This year’s conference builds on our research agenda—focusing on the concept of ummatic soft power, political unification, and the methodologies needed to orient research and policy toward ummatic renewal. We explore how the Umma can meaningfully respond to emerging multipolar realities, navigate competing world orders, and develop new institutional and civilizational models grounded in Islamic ethics.

Discussions covered the global order and ummatic strategy, research methods and conceptual frameworks, and the introduction of Collaboratives of Ummatic Soft Power (CUSPs)—transnational networks intended to cultivate cooperation across fields such as law, education, media, economics, and technology.

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