Scholars of Islam from around the world gathered at CityU from 28 November to 1 December to discuss the development of Islam in the Asia-Pacific region. "Islam in Southeast Asia and China: Regional Faithlines and Faultlines in the Global Ummah", jointly organized by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Southeast Asia Research Centre, the Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies and the Chinese Civilization Centre, was the first large-scale conference on Islam held in Hong Kong and the first comparative discussion of Islam and Southeast Asia and China worldwide.

Using historical, social and political perspectives, the symposium focussed on the "faithlines" that connect Muslims in Southeast Asia and China to global Islam, as well as on the “faultlines” that create diversity of belief and practice in the region.

Some of the world's leading experts on Islam from Australia, mainland China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, the UK, the US, and Hong Kong attended the symposium, which opened with an address by CityU President Professor H K Chang and a keynote speech by Professor Fawaz Gerges, the Christian A Johnson Professor in International Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.