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Seminars Application 2018

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Students and young scholars as well as visitors are welcome to participate to the Venice Seminars 2018 that will take place in Venice on 7th-9th June 2018 at Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the Island of San Giorgio.

Please, see all application details here below.

HOW TO ENROLL FOR THE RESET-DOC SEMINARS

It is possible to apply for participating to the Venice Seminars, very limited funding might be available to partially support travel and accommodation costs.

  • FINANCIAL SUPPORT REQUEST – DEADLINE: 

To apply for the financial support please click here, complete the form and send your application by the 15th of March 2018. 

  • NO FINANCIAL SUPPORT – DEADLINE:

To apply without financial support, please click here, complete the form and send your application by the 16th of May 2018. 

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The list of speakers may be subject to change. Participants will receive the final program of the Seminars.

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USEFUL INFORMATION FOR AN ENJOYABLE STAY IN VENICE

Location:

You may find useful the official Venice transport map here: waterborne routes  http://www.actv.it/sites/default/files/ultimamappa.pdf

Travel and Accommodation: participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses. Students must arrange their accommodation personally.

A room near Santa Lucia Train Station may be a suitable option since you can reach Ca’ Foscari University – Ca’ Dolfin in 15 minutes by walking. You can easily reach San Giorgio Island as well with vaporetto line n°2 in 45 minutes from Ferrovia Stop (in front of Santa Lucia train station).

Also a room near “Zattere” vaporetto stop may be a good option since you can reach Ca’ Foscari University (Calle de la Saoneria, 3825/D, 30123 Venezia) in 15 minutes by walking and San Giorgio Island with vaporetto line n°2 in 10 minutes.

Another option can be a room in Mestre, that is cheaper than a room on the main Island, from where you can reach Ca Foscari University in 30 minutes with the bus T2.

Here a list of suitable accommodations:

Hotel Andria (Mestre)
http://www.hoteladriavenice.it/en/

Legrenzi Rooms (Mestre) 
http://en.legrenzirooms.com/

B&B outlet sweet Venice (Mestre)
http://www.outletsweetvenice.com/en/

B&B romantica Venezia (Mestre)
http://www.venezia-bb.it/en_bb_home.htm

Hotel San Geremia (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2)
http://www.hotelsangeremia.com/?lang=en

Hotel Adriatico (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2)
http://www.venicehoteladriatico.com/

Hotel Dolomiti (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2)
http://www.hoteldolomitivenice.com/index.php

Hotel Pensione Seguso (near Zattere Stop – vaporetto line n°2)
http://www.pensionesegusovenice.com/index.php

Also Fondazione Cini have few single and double rooms available in Vittore Branca Center, on the Island of San Giorgio
write directly to: Massimo Busetto <campus@cini.it>

You may find useful the official Venice transport map here: waterborne routes  http://www.actv.it/sites/default/files/ultimamappa.pdf

For any further information please write to Cristina Sala: cristina.sala@resetdoc.org

 

L'articolo Seminars Application 2018 proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.


Practicalities and Registration for Visitors 2018

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The Seminars are free and open to all.

Registration is required.

Please, in order to register click here
For more information send an e-mail to events
@resetdoc.org

Venice Seminars
Close Encounters Across all Divides
June 7th-9th, 2018 | Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice

The Venice Seminars, in partnership with the Center for Humanities and Social Change at University of Venice Ca’ Foscari and Giorgio Cini Foundation, intend to explore the sources of toleration in diverse cultural and religious traditions, in both the secular liberal as in a confessional context, in different historical regions of the world, Western and Eastern, in the Christian history of thought as well as in Hebraism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism.

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR AN ENJOYABLE STAY IN VENICE

Location:

– From 7th (afternoon) to 9th June the Venice Seminars will be held at Giorgio Cini Foundation, on the Island of San Giorgio, Venice.

Address: Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, 30124 Venezia

Travel and Accommodation:

Participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses.

A room near Santa Lucia Train Station may be a suitable option since you can easily reach San Giorgio Island with vaporetto line n°2 in 45 minutes from Ferrovia Stop (in front of Santa Lucia train station).

Also a room near “Zattere” vaporetto stop may be a good option since you can reach San Giorgio Island with vaporetto line n°2 in 10 minutes.

Another option can be a room in Mestre, that is cheaper than a room on the main Island, from where you can reach the main island with the bus T2.

Here a list of suitable accommodations:

Hotel Andria (Mestre) http://www.hoteladriavenice.it/en/

Legrenzi Rooms (Mestre) http://en.legrenzirooms.com/

B&B outlet sweet Venice (Mestre) http://www.outletsweetvenice.com/en/

B&B romantica Venezia (Mestre) http://www.venezia-bb.it/en_bb_home.htm

Hotel San Geremia (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2) http://www.hotelsangeremia.com/?lang=en

Hotel Adriatico (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2) http://www.venicehoteladriatico.com/

Hotel Dolomiti (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2) http://www.hoteldolomitivenice.com/index.php

Hotel Pensione Seguso (near Zattere Stop – vaporetto line n°2) http://www.pensionesegusovenice.com/index.php

Also Fondazione Cini have few single and double rooms available in Vittore Branca Center, on the Island of San Giorgio write directly to: Massimo Busetto <campus@cini.it>

You may find useful the official Venice transport map here: waterborne routes http://www.actv.it/sites/default/files/ultimamappa.pdf

For any further information please write to Cristina Sala: cristina.sala@resetdoc.org

L'articolo Practicalities and Registration for Visitors 2018 proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Summer School Application 2018

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The Summer School explores the sources of toleration in diverse cultural and religious traditions, in both the secular liberal as in a confessional context, in different historical regions of the world, Western and Eastern, in the Christian history of thought as well as in Hebraism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism. In the history of these different systems of thought what are the developments that have led on the one side to an exclusivist, extremist and fundamentalist perspective and, on the other side, to an inclusive, pluralist, tolerant view?

The Summer School begins with the hypothesis that the shape of the political, social and economic institutions of a society are the result of its history, culture and religion, while taking into account that the different traditions are not separated and immutable entities, but in contact with each other and subject to permanent evolution. Current research in comparative political theory analyzes above all the justifiability and legitimacy of political concepts in different cultural areas. The Summer School aims to complete those approaches, concentrating notably on the history of ideas while searching for the sources in the different models of thought that lay the groundwork for toleration, the acceptance of differences and of the other.

Classes will cover following broader topics:

  1. The Concept of Toleration
  2. Political Systems and the Practice of Toleration 3. Toleration in Cultural and Religious Contexts 4. Toleration and Monotheism: Hebrewism, Islam and Christianity 5. Identity Conflicts and Toleration in the Middle East 6. Toleration in Western Political Thought 7. Toleration in the Asian and Indian Political traditions 8. Toleration in the African and Latin American contexts 9. The prospects of Toleration: towards a new cosmopolitanism?

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Students and young scholars are welcome to participate to the Venice Summer School 2018 that will take place in Venice from the 4th to the 9th of June 2018.  The Summer School is organized in partnership with the Center for Humanities and Social Change at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

The Summer School is fully integrated with the Venice Seminars. The goal of the Summer School is to prepare young scholars to present a brief group discussion on one aspect of the question of toleration during the last day of the Seminars. Young scholars who want to qualify for the 6 CFU\ECTS credit points are expected to elaborate the discussion in form of a paper (for the evaluation of the Summer School see below).

  • For Ca’ Foscari’s students 6 CFU/ECTS will be granted after successful completion of the course work.
  • Instead for other universities students, Italian or international, a certificate of attendance indicating the lessons, workshops, seminars and home assignments hours will be provided, that corresponds to 6 CFU/ECTS. Each student will be responsible to contact his/her University for the credits recognition and approval, that is a discretionary decision of each single Institute. We do recommend to arrange the recognition with your University before the beginning of the Summer School.

The structure of the Summer School is the following: During the first three days (June 4-6) invited professors are going to give lectures and seminars. At the end of each day, there will be workshops guided by professors in which one particular issue with regard to toleration will be discussed. The workshops aim to prepare the group discussions that are going to be presented at the Venice Seminars. During the last three days (June 7-9) the Summer School coincides with the program of the Venice Seminars.

All enrolled students are going to be assigned to one of the three workshop seminars. In the workshops students discuss and elaborate one specific issue of the overall topic and prepare a short presentation that will be delivered at the Venice Seminars on Saturday, June 9.

Evaluation: Presentation during the Venice Seminars and attendance (60%); final paper to be submitted three weeks after the end of the Summer School (40%).

The list of speakers may be subject to change. Participants will receive the final program of the Summer School and of the Venice Seminars at the end of April.

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HOW TO ENROLL FOR THE VENICE SUMMER SCHOOL: 

It is possible to apply for participating to the Venice Summer School WITH or WITHOUT FELLOWSHIP:

  • FELLOWSHIP REQUEST – DEADLINE:

In order to register to the Reset-DoC Seminars without fellowship request, please click here, complete the form and send your application by the 15 March 2018

  • NO FELLOWSHIP REQUEST – DEADLINE: 

    In order to register to the Reset-DoC Seminars without fellowship request, please click here, complete the form and send your application by the 15 March 2018

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FELLOWSHIP WILL INCLUDE: 

Accommodation: 

Accommodations for all the selected students of the Summer School will be provided and covered by the Organisation. Accommodation will be in very nice apartments, in single or double rooms to be shared with other students of the Summer School, according to sign-up order. All the apartments will be in the city center, walking distance from the venue of the Summer School classes.

Local boat-transport tickets will be provided as well as meals during the whole period of the Summer School.

 

L'articolo Summer School Application 2018 proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Speakers, Faculty and Participants 2018

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Speakers, Faculty and Participants: Awam Amkpa, Karen Barkey, Shaul Bassi, Homi Bhabha, Jacqueline Bhabha, Daniel A. Bell, Seyla Benhabib, Giancarlo Bosetti, José Casanova, Tiziana Lippiello, Stephen Macedo, Pratap Mehta, Antonio Rigopoulos, Federico Squarcini, Nayla Tabbara, Francesca Tarocco, Charles Taylor (TBC), Diego von Vacano, Ida Zilio Grandi, Pei Wang and others

L'articolo Speakers, Faculty and Participants 2018 proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

What is the Geopolitics of Religions?

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Today, there is no doubt that religions are one of the factors that increasingly contribute to the shaping and conditioning of international relations. Accordingly, their role needs to be studied using the same tools and the same thoroughness usually devoted to other branches of political affairs.

Geopolitics is one of these tools. If we consider religions exclusively from a political point of view, i.e. as political tools among other political tools, we can roughly say that in order to understand international phenomena in which religions are involved, one must chiefly study geopolitics, not religions. This is of course a shortcut, because the specific nature of each individual religion makes it a different political tool, but it allows an order of priorities, methodologically speaking.

To better understand what we mean, we can take the example of the Middle East: if one wants to study the phenomenon of the so-called “Islamic State”, one has to study the proxy war between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar aimed at controlling Greater Syria and the role of the traditional great powers, not the Koran. In this conflict, the control of Greater Syria is the end, and the Koran is one of the means used in order to achieve this goal.

On the contrary, many have tried to explain Middle Eastern events through the allegedly irreconcilable, historic conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims. However, in modern times, until the Iranian Revolution in 1979, there were no significant confrontations between Sunni and Shia communities. Until 1979, Iran and Saudi Arabia were on the same side of the Cold War and their international roles prevented them from fighting against each other for hegemony in the region. After 1979, the best path the Saudis had to (attempt to) balance their uneven relations with Iran was to exploit Sunnism (which represents roughly 90% of the Muslim world) against Shiism (the remaining 10% or so).

Every religion everywhere is the object of political exploitation, for purposes that have nothing to do with the salvation of the soul. As Graham Fuller wrote: “Religion will always be invoked wherever it can to galvanize the public and to justify major campaigns, battles and wars,” but “the causes, campaigns, battles and wars are not about religions.” (A World Without Islam, 2010)

This is possible because holy texts can serve as very flexible political tools. With the holy texts of any religion it is in fact possible to support all theses and their opposites. During the ruthless debates about slavery in the United States in the 19th century, both pro- and anti-slavery forces made immense use of Biblical quotations to support their points of view. Jacques Berlinerblau, the Georgetown scholar who studied the exploitation of the Scriptures in American politics, stated that “the Bible can always be cited against itself, no matter what the issue… The Bible is to clear and coherent political deliberation as sleet, fog, hail and flash floods are to highway safety.” (Thumpin’ it: The Use and the Abuse of the Bible in Today’s Presidential Politics, 2008).

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The Political Role of Religions

When it comes to the political role of religions, the most important distinction is between passive and active religions. Passive religions are those religions that cannot take any independent political initiative for at least three reasons: 1) they lack a unified leadership that is acknowledged by all faithful adherents; 2) they do not establish a clerical mediation between the faithful and God; 3) their holy texts do not have a unique authorized interpretation (which prevents them from being cited against themselves). Conversely, active religions present the opposite features: 1) they have a leadership that is acknowledged by all faithful adherents; 2) they have at their disposal a clerical mediation between the faithful and God; 3) their holy texts have a unique authorized interpretation. Only active religions can take independent political initiatives.

Sunnism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Evangelicalism – among others – are some examples of passive religions. None of them has a religious center or a religious leader acknowledged by all the faithful, and they allow each believer (or group of believers) to read and interpret the holy texts in a personal (or factional) way. When these religions become political tools, each believer can support all theses and their opposites, can support terrorism or the beheading of unbelievers or, following the very same holy text, can commit themselves to meekness and universal harmony among humankind. Their holy texts are “to clear and coherent political deliberation as sleet, fog, hail and flash floods are to highway safety.”

To some extent, Christian Orthodox Churches and other established Churches are also passive religious institutions, but for different reasons. Because they are intrinsically linked with – and subordinate to –political power, they are not allowed to take any independent political initiative.

In a nutshell, we can say that the only religious institution capable of an independent political initiative, the only active one, is the Roman Catholic Church. As an anonymous cardinal said in a long interview with a French journalist, “We unquestionably exert an influence on the world stage every time the opportunity arises… We are the only religious power to be able to do so. Only the Catholic Church has official embassies in almost all the countries of the world [as well as] an individual and centralized leadership. We are so accustomed to it that we often forget how very exceptional our condition is.” (Confession d’un cardinal, 2007). This description is correct, even though the network of embassies of the Holy See around the world is much more a consequence of its power than its source. Rather, its source lies in its history, in its organization, and above all in its multi-secular experience in human affairs, particularly in political affairs.

This experience dates back to the time of the partition of the Roman Empire. In its Eastern part, the central political power was strong and solid and therefore the Church was subordinated to, and an institution of, the Empire. The emperor himself was the actual leader of the Church, even in theological affairs; he exercised “supreme authority in ecclesiastic matters by virtue of his autonomous legitimacy” (this is how Max Weber, in his Economy and Society, describes “cesaropapism”). On the contrary, in the Western part of the Roman Empire, where political power (both central and local) was weak or nonexistent, the Church stood as the central authority and its network of dioceses replaced the crumbling imperial rule.

The Latin Church developed as a center of direct political power, an experience that it shares with different Buddhist communities (and it comes as no surprise that Buddhism and Latin Christianity are the only religious bodies that independently produced a theory of the “just war”). Only the differing histories of Southeast Asia and Western Europe explain why Buddhism eventually did not organize itself in a unique, centralized and hierarchical Church as the Catholic Church did: the latter was able to give birth to a theocracy, while the former was able to give birth to many theocracies. This fragmentation made them easy prey to secular political power.

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The Resurgence of Religions 

Religions returned to the public sphere in the 1970s. As Gilles Kepel noted as early as 1991, “Les années soixante-dix ont été une décennie-charnière pour les relations entre religion et politique » (La Revanche de Dieu, 1991). What happened in this decade? In the “developing” world, the industrialization of agriculture prompted massive rural flight and urbanization, and this social disruption coincided with the political crises of the postcolonial world. In the “developed” countries, the 1974-1975 recession put an end to the “Trente Glorieuses”, thirty years of almost uninterrupted economic growth after the Second World War, and opened a new era of free market principles in which the traditional “Westphalian” state’s decline accelerated.

France and Religion

In these “advanced” countries the return of religions has taken place at a rate inversely proportional to the credibility of the state (and of any ideology that promised progress and welfare). The less effective states become at offering their citizens both meaning and social services (and the latter are often the best guarantor of the former), the more religions tend to reoccupy the public stage.

In “developing” countries, the resurgence of religions was more sudden because the processes of industrialization (rural flight and urbanization) were extremely rapid and often had dreadful effects. For millions of urbanized peasants, keeping a living link with their rural traditions was – with their clan networks – often the only possibility of social survival. In the slums of the newly densely populated cities, new mosques were built with makeshift means. Religious charities tried to make up for at least a part of the infrastructural deficiencies and tried to offer residents access to some safe and controlled spaces. Governments saw these forms of “grassroots religiosity” as both a safeguard against the risks of social and political unrest and a solution to their inability to meet the elementary needs of the population.

In a nutshell: in the 1970s, the lives of the populations of “developed” countries and of the populations of “developing” countries were disrupted. When these two processes converged, political exploitation acted as detonator of a still latent desecularization. In the beginning, very few people were able to identify this new political role of religions; today, it is part of our daily landscape, and it is almost impossible to have a clear vision of current political life if one ignores the role of this powerful actor.

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If interested in understanding more the “Geopolitcs of Religions”, Manlio Graziano is teaching an e-learning certificate course on it with the Geneva Institute of Geopolitical Studies (GIGS) 

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Credit: NASA /AFP

L'articolo What is the Geopolitics of Religions? proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Why Muslims still feel second-class citizens in today’s India?

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Dr. Rehman, what is cow vigilantism and how is it taking over India?

Mujibur Rehman: Cow vigilantism has become a menace in India. Unfortunately however, that is not how the government sees it. Cow vigilante groups are people who randomly target those they suspect of owning cows for the purpose of slaughter and beef consumption. They claim that their purpose is to rescue cows, but all the indications – not to mention incidents – suggest that they are vigilante bands of robbers whose sole purpose is to target Muslims, with the aim of unleashing violence.

What has led to the growth in violence towards Muslims over the last couple of years?

Rehman: Violence against Muslims in India is not a recent development. It is something they have been putting up with for years. Research suggests that since the 1940s the loss of life and property among Muslims has been disproportionately high. The emergence of the Ayodhya movement in the 1980s, however, saw societal antagonism towards Muslims mushroom. Hate campaigns conducted by various right-wing organisations have consistently presented Muslims as an existential threat to Hindu identity. Moreover, under the BJP government, these groups now feel emboldened. That′s not to say, of course, that previous governments were particularly efficient at protecting Muslim lives or property.

What is behind the lynching of Muslims?

Rehman: Lynching is mainly being used to create a climate of fear among Muslims, with the expectation that they will eventually stop slaughtering cows and consuming beef. But it′s not going to work. Eating beef has been turned into a Hindu-Muslim issue. The fact is, however, that dalits (the lowest Hindu caste) also eat beef, so it is actually an upper caste issue. Cow vigilantism is a reflection of the muscle power of majoritarian politics – the message being: you live and die at our mercy.

What are the implications of these developments for minority rights and secularism in India?

Rehman: Hindutva does not believe either in secularism or minority rights. Hindutva groups don′t regard Muslims as a minority, but rather as oppressors of Indian history who need to be taught a good lesson. Unable to conceive of secularism, Hindutva politicians, activists and supporters see it as a Muslim initiative. Even though Indian Muslims remain the poorest religious minority in modern India, they are always accused of being the most pampered. The way Hindu nationalists promulgate such interpretations borders on the sadistic.

What needs to change for Indian Muslims to stop feeling like second-class citizens in their home country?

Rehman: Much needs to be done. Whatever their religion, all fundamentalist groups and groups engaged in hate campaigns should be banned outright. The judicial system needs to come down very heavily on all perpetrators of violence. India urgently requires new national legislation – scheduled caste atrocity laws – against mob lynching. And there is a role for civil society organisations too: reconciliation work between the two communities should be a top priority. It is crucial that steps are taken to prevent ghettoisation and promote coexistence in the same physical space, thus helping to dispel suspicion and undermine the hate campaigns.

How unsafe is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s India for Muslims?

Rehman: The rise of PM Modi represents a new phase of Hindutva politics. It differs in many ways from what we saw during the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party under L. K. Advani’s leadership in the late 1980s. In his capacity as prime minister, Modi has not made any provocative statements against Muslims, but his studied silence on issues that directly impact Muslim lives – such as cow vigilantism or ″love jihad″-related violence, has raised legitimate questions regarding his commitment to the constitution. He tries to give the impression that he is doing a balancing act, while maintaining his credentials as a leader on the Hindu Right. All this has fostered an atmosphere of fear and mistrust among Muslims regarding the state of India under his leadership. There is a lot Modi could have a done. He could, for instance, have met the families of cow vigilantism victims, such as Mohammed Akhlaq′s relatives, and offered them consolation, reassuring them that his government would protect them. But he didn′t. Hardly surprising, then, that Muslims feel deeply unsafe in present-day India.

Interview conducted by Roma Rajpal Weiss

The article was published on Qantara.de on 2nd of November 2017 

© Qantara.de 2017

Mujibur Rehman is a member of faculty at the Dr K R Narayanan Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.

Credit: Tauseef Mustafa / AFP

L'articolo Why Muslims still feel second-class citizens in today’s India? proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Fountainheads of Toleration – Forms of Pluralism in Empires, Republics, Democracies

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Venice Seminars
Close Encounters Across all Divides
June 7th-9th, 2018 | Giorgio Cini Foundation and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

The Venice Seminars, in partnership with the Center for Humanities and Social Change at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Giorgio Cini Foundation, intend to explore the sources of toleration in diverse cultural and religious traditions, in both the secular liberal as in a confessional context, in different historical regions of the world, Western and Eastern, in the Christian history of thought as well as in Hebraism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism.

For each philosophical, theological and political tradition, the Seminars will discuss the turning points and critical moments that have led on the one side to an exclusivist, extremist and fundamentalist perspective and, on the other side, to an inclusive, pluralist, tolerant view. To make just one possible example: In Islamic thought, one interpretation sees the Mutazili school of Islamic theology and authors such as Ibn Rušd as a possible backdrop for the development of a liberal perspective and considers, on the other hand, Ibn Taymiyya to the Wahhabism and Salafism as an exclusivist tradition, less compatible with modernity and pluralism. But also contributions from a comparative perspective focusing on interactions in the history of ideas between the different traditions that promote forms of greater tolerance are highly appreciated.

The Seminars begin with the hypothesis that the shape of the political, social and economic institutions of a society are the result of its history, culture and religion, while taking into account that the different traditions are not separated and immutable entities, but in contact with each other and subject to permanent evolution. Current research in comparative political theory analyzes above all the justifiability and legitimacy of political concepts in different cultural areas. The Seminars aim to complete those approaches, concentrating notably on the history of ideas while searching for the sources of models of thought that lay the groundwork for toleration, the acceptance of differences and of the other, and that allow a plurality of confessions and conceptions of the world to live peacefully together.

Registration

The Seminars are free and open to All.

Registration is required:

FOR STUDENTS AND YOUNG SCHOLARS: To register for only the Seminars (7-9 June) please click here

FOR VISITORS: Please, in order to register click here

For more information send an e-mail to events@resetdoc.org

L'articolo Fountainheads of Toleration – Forms of Pluralism in Empires, Republics, Democracies proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Purpose and History 2018

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In the past few years, the Seminars held in Istanbul in collaboration with Bilgi University have discussed topics such as 1.Postsecularism (2008), 2.Religion, Human rights and Multicultural Jurisdictions (2009), 3. Realigning Liberalism: Pluralism, Integration, Identities (2010), 4.Overcoming the Trap of resentment (2011), 5. The Promises of Democracy in Troubled Times (2012), 6. The Sources of Political Legitimacy. From the Erosion of the Nation-State to the Rise of Political Islam (2013), 7. The Sources of Pluralism. Metaphysics, Epistemology, Law and Politics (2014) 8. Politics Beyond Borders. The Republican Model Challenged by the Internationalization of Economy, Law and Communication (2015), Religion Rights and the Public Sphere (2016).

The proceedings of the Seminars are published by the journal Philosophy&  Social Criticism, Sage publications.

The 2017 edition of the Seminars was held on the Island of San Giorgio, Venice in partnership with Ca’ Foscari University, Giorgio Cini Foundation and Bilgi University, the topic was: “The Upsurge of Populism and the Decline of Diversity Capital”.

Executive Committee

2013-2017: Asaf Savaş Akat, Seyla Benhabib, Giancarlo Bosetti, Alessandro Ferrara, Abdou Filali-Ansary, Nina zu Fürstenberg, Nilüfer Göle, Ferda Keskin, David Rasmussen.

2008-2012: Seyla Benhabib, Giancarlo Bosetti, Alessandro Ferrara, Abdou Filali-Ansary, Nina zu Fürstenberg, Nilüfer Göle, Ferda Keskin, Nadia Urbinati.

Scientific coordinator:
Volker Kaul

Students coordinator: Chiara Galbersanini, events@resetdoc.org 

L'articolo Purpose and History 2018 proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.


Seminars Application 2018

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Students and young scholars as well as visitors are welcome to participate to the Venice Seminars 2018 that will take place in Venice on 7th-9th June 2018 at Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the Island of San Giorgio and in Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. 

Please, see all application details here below.

HOW TO ENROLL FOR THE VENICE SEMINARS

It is possible to apply for participating to the Venice Seminars, very limited funding might be available to partially support travel and accommodation costs.

  • FINANCIAL SUPPORT REQUEST – THE APPLICATION ARE CLOSED 
  • NO FINANCIAL SUPPORT – DEADLINE:

To apply without financial support, please click here, complete the form and send your application by the 16th of May 2018. 

*****************

The list of speakers may be subject to change. Participants will receive the final program of the Seminars.

*****************

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR AN ENJOYABLE STAY IN VENICE

Location:

You may find useful the official Venice transport map here: waterborne routes  http://www.actv.it/sites/default/files/ultimamappa.pdf

Travel and Accommodation: participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses. Students must arrange their accommodation personally.

A room near Santa Lucia Train Station may be a suitable option since you can reach Ca’ Foscari University – Ca’ Dolfin in 15 minutes by walking. You can easily reach San Giorgio Island as well with vaporetto line n°2 in 45 minutes from Ferrovia Stop (in front of Santa Lucia train station).

Also a room near “Zattere” vaporetto stop may be a good option since you can reach Ca’ Foscari University (Aula Morelli, Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà, Dorsoduro 3484/D, Calle Contarini, 30123 Venezia) in 15 minutes by walking and San Giorgio Island with vaporetto line n°2 in 10 minutes.

Another option can be a room in Mestre, that is cheaper than a room on the main Island, from where you can reach Ca Foscari University in 30 minutes with the bus T2.

Here a list of suitable accommodations:

Hotel Andria (Mestre)
http://www.hoteladriavenice.it/en/

Legrenzi Rooms (Mestre) 
http://en.legrenzirooms.com/

B&B outlet sweet Venice (Mestre)
http://www.outletsweetvenice.com/en/

B&B romantica Venezia (Mestre)
http://www.venezia-bb.it/en_bb_home.htm

Hotel San Geremia (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2)
http://www.hotelsangeremia.com/?lang=en

Hotel Adriatico (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2)
http://www.venicehoteladriatico.com/

Hotel Dolomiti (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2)
http://www.hoteldolomitivenice.com/index.php

Hotel Pensione Seguso (near Zattere Stop – vaporetto line n°2)
http://www.pensionesegusovenice.com/index.php

Also Fondazione Cini have few single and double rooms available in Vittore Branca Center, on the Island of San Giorgio
write directly to: Massimo Busetto <campus@cini.it>

You may find useful the official Venice transport map here: waterborne routes  http://www.actv.it/sites/default/files/ultimamappa.pdf

For any further information please write to events@resetdoc.org

L'articolo Seminars Application 2018 proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Practicalities and Registration for Visitors 2018

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The Seminars are free and open to all.

Registration is required.

Please, in order to register click here
For more information send an e-mail to events
@resetdoc.org

Venice Seminars
Close Encounters Across all Divides
June 7th-9th, 2018 | Giorgio Cini Foundation and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

The Venice Seminars, in partnership with the Center for Humanities and Social Change at University of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Giorgio Cini Foundation, intend to explore the sources of toleration in diverse cultural and religious traditions, in both the secular liberal as in a confessional context, in different historical regions of the world, Western and Eastern, in the Christian history of thought as well as in Hebraism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism.

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR AN ENJOYABLE STAY IN VENICE

Location:

– From 7th (morning) to 9th June the Venice Seminars will be held at Giorgio Cini Foundation, on the Island of San Giorgio, Venice and at Ca’ Foscari University.

Address: Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, 30124 Venezia

Travel and Accommodation:

Participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses.

A room near Santa Lucia Train Station may be a suitable option since you can easily reach San Giorgio Island with vaporetto line n°2 in 45 minutes from Ferrovia Stop (in front of Santa Lucia train station).

Also a room near “Zattere” vaporetto stop may be a good option since you can reach San Giorgio Island with vaporetto line n°2 in 10 minutes.

Another option can be a room in Mestre, that is cheaper than a room on the main Island, from where you can reach the main island with the bus T2.

Here a list of suitable accommodations:

Hotel Andria (Mestre) http://www.hoteladriavenice.it/en/

Legrenzi Rooms (Mestre) http://en.legrenzirooms.com/

B&B outlet sweet Venice (Mestre) http://www.outletsweetvenice.com/en/

B&B romantica Venezia (Mestre) http://www.venezia-bb.it/en_bb_home.htm

Hotel San Geremia (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2) http://www.hotelsangeremia.com/?lang=en

Hotel Adriatico (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2) http://www.venicehoteladriatico.com/

Hotel Dolomiti (near Ferrovia stop, Santa Lucia Train Station – vaporetto line n°2) http://www.hoteldolomitivenice.com/index.php

Hotel Pensione Seguso (near Zattere Stop – vaporetto line n°2) http://www.pensionesegusovenice.com/index.php

Also Fondazione Cini have few single and double rooms available in Vittore Branca Center, on the Island of San Giorgio write directly to: Massimo Busetto <campus@cini.it>

You may find useful the official Venice transport map here: waterborne routes http://www.actv.it/sites/default/files/ultimamappa.pdf

L'articolo Practicalities and Registration for Visitors 2018 proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Summer School Application 2018

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The Summer School explores the sources of toleration in diverse cultural and religious traditions, in both the secular liberal as in a confessional context, in different historical regions of the world, Western and Eastern, in the Christian history of thought as well as in Hebraism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism. In the history of these different systems of thought what are the developments that have led on the one side to an exclusivist, extremist and fundamentalist perspective and, on the other side, to an inclusive, pluralist, tolerant view?

The Summer School begins with the hypothesis that the shape of the political, social and economic institutions of a society are the result of its history, culture and religion, while taking into account that the different traditions are not separated and immutable entities, but in contact with each other and subject to permanent evolution. Current research in comparative political theory analyzes above all the justifiability and legitimacy of political concepts in different cultural areas. The Summer School aims to complete those approaches, concentrating notably on the history of ideas while searching for the sources in the different models of thought that lay the groundwork for toleration, the acceptance of differences and of the other.

Classes will cover following broader topics:

  1. The Concept of Toleration
  2. Political Systems and the Practice of Toleration 3. Toleration in Cultural and Religious Contexts 4. Toleration and Monotheism: Hebrewism, Islam and Christianity 5. Identity Conflicts and Toleration in the Middle East 6. Toleration in Western Political Thought 7. Toleration in the Asian and Indian Political traditions 8. Toleration in the African and Latin American contexts 9. The prospects of Toleration: towards a new cosmopolitanism?

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Students and young scholars are welcome to participate to the Venice Summer School 2018 that will take place in Venice from the 4th to the 9th of June 2018.  The Summer School is organized in partnership with the Center for Humanities and Social Change at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Giorgio Cini Foundation.

Location: The Summer School will be held from the 4th to the 6th of June in Ca’ Foscari University: Aula Morelli, Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà, Dorsoduro 3484/D, Calle Contarini, 30123 Venezia and from the 7th to the 9th of June in Giorgio Cini Foundation (Island of San Giorgio Maggiore) and Ca’ Foscari University (Auditorium Santa Margherita)

The Summer School is fully integrated with the Venice Seminars.

The structure of the Summer School is the following: 

During the first three days (June 4-6) invited professors will give lectures and seminars. At the end of each day, workshops guided by professors on one particular issue with regard to toleration will be organized. All enrolled students are going to be assigned to one of the three workshop seminars. In the workshops students will discuss and elaborate one specific issue of the overall topic and prepare a short presentation that will be delivered at the Venice Seminars on Saturday, June 9.During the last three days (June 7-9) the Summer School coincides with the program of the Venice Seminars.

One of the goals of the Summer School is to prepare students and young scholars to present a brief group discussion on one aspect of the question of toleration during the last day of the Seminars.

CREDITS:

Students and young scholars who want to qualify for the 6 CFU\ECTS credit points are expected to elaborate the discussion in form of a paper (for the evaluation of the Summer School see below).

  • For Ca’ Foscari’s students 6 CFU/ECTS will be granted after successful completion of the course work.
  • For all other  Italian and international students, a certificate of attendance will be provided detailing the lessons, workshops, seminars and home assignments, for a total workload corresponding to to 6 CFU/ECTS. Each student will be responsible for contacting his/her University for the credits recognition and approval, which is a discretionary decision of each single Institute. We do recommend to arrange the recognition with your University before the beginning of the Summer School.

All enrolled students are going to be assigned to one of the three workshop seminars. In the workshops students discuss and elaborate one specific issue of the overall topic and prepare a short presentation that will be delivered at the Venice Seminars on Saturday, June 9.

Evaluation: Presentation during the Venice Seminars and attendance (60%); final paper to be submitted three weeks after the end of the Summer School (40%).

The list of speakers may be subject to change. Participants will receive the final program of the Summer School and of the Venice Seminars at the end of April.

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THE APPLICATION FOR THE SUMMER SCHOOL, BOTH WITH AND WITHOUT FELLOWSHIP, ARE CLOSED

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FELLOWSHIP WILL INCLUDE: 

Accommodation: 

Accommodations for all the selected students of the Summer School will be provided and covered by the Organisation. Accommodation will be in very nice apartments, in single or double rooms to be shared with other students of the Summer School, according to sign-up order. All the apartments will be in the city center, walking distance from the venue of the Summer School classes.

Local boat-transport tickets will be provided as well as meals during the whole period of the Summer School.

 

L'articolo Summer School Application 2018 proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Speakers, Faculty and Participants 2018

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Speakers, Faculty and Participants: Cengiz Aktar, Giuliano Amato, Karen Barkey, Shaul Bassi, Seyla Benhabib, Homi Bhabha, Jacqueline Bhabha, Enrico Biale, Murat Borovalı, Giancarlo Bosetti, Marina Calloni, José Casanova, Alessandro Ferrara, Pasquale Ferrara, Pasquale Gagliardi, Simon Goldhill, Ahmet İnsel, Volker Kaul, Jonathan Laurence, Tiziana Lippiello, Stephen Macedo, Liav Orgad, David Rasmussen, Massimo Raveri, Antonio Rigopoulos, Tatjana Sekulić, Federico Squarcini, Nayla Tabbara, Francesca Tarocco, Diego von Vacano, Pei Wang, Ida Zilio Grandi.

Cengiz Aktar is Senior Scholar at Istanbul Policy Center. As a former director at the United Nations where he spent 22 years of his professional life, Aktar is one of the leading advocates of Turkey’s integration into the EU. In 1999, he began a civil initiative for Istanbul’s candidacy for the title of European Capital of Culture. Istanbul successfully held the title in 2010. He also headed another initiative called European Movement 2002 which aimed at putting pressure on the legislature to speed up political reforms necessary to begin the negotiation phase with the EU. More recently in December 2008, he developed the idea of an online apology campaign addressed to Armenians and supported by a number of Turkish intellectuals in Turkey. Aktar is involved in studying policies of memory regarding ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey. Aktar has published nine books and numerous articles in Turkey and abroad. The latest book he edited Ecumenical Patriarchate was published in Turkish in March 2011. He is a member and advisor to following institutions to the French periodical La Revue du Mauss, the Turkish ecological NGO Buğday, the Hrant Dink Foundation and the Aladin Project. He is also a reviewer for the European Commission, DG Research.

Giuliano Amato is a Judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy, since September 2013. He served as Secretary of the Treasury in Italy and was the Italian Prime Minister in 1992-93 and in 2000-01. From 2006 to 2008 he served as the Minister of the Interior. He was the vice-chairman of the Convention for the European Constitution. He has chaired the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani and the Center for American Studies in Rome. A Professor of Law in several Italian universities and abroad, he has written books and articles on the economy and public institutions, European antitrust, personal liberties, comparative government, European integration and humanities. He has served as the Chair of Reset-DoC’s scientific committee from 2003 to 2013.

Karen Barkey is Professor of Sociology and Haas Distinguished Chair of Religious Diversity at Berkeley, University of California. She got a M.A. degree from The University of Washington and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Karen Barkey has been engaged in the comparative and historical study of the state, with special focus on its transformation over time. She has focused on state society relations, peasant movements, banditry, opposition and dissent organized around the state. Her work Empire of Difference (Cambridge UP, 2008) is a comparative study of the flexibility and longevity of imperial systems. Karen Barkey is now engaged in different projects on religion and toleration. She has written on the early centuries of Ottoman state toleration and is now exploring different ways of understanding how religious coexistence, toleration and sharing occurred in different historical sites under Ottoman rule. She published an edited book, Choreography of Sacred Spaces: State, Religion and Conflict Resolution (with Elazar Barkan) (Columbia UP, 2014) that explores the history of shared religious spaces in the Balkans, Anatolia and Palestine/Israel, all three regions once under Ottoman rule.

Shaul Bassi is associate professor of English literature. He graduated from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, studied at Berkeley and Liverpool, and earned his Ph.D. from the Universities of Pisa and Florence. His research, teaching and publications are divided between Shakespeare, postcolonial theory and literature (India and Africa) and Jewish studies. He has taught at Wake Forest University-Venice, Venice International University, Harvard-Ca’Foscari summer school and has been visiting professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is the founder of the international literary festival Incroci di civiltà. He is the director of the International Center for the Humanities and Social Change at Ca’Foscari.

Seyla Benhabib is Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University and Director of its Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics and serves as the current President of Reset DOC’s Scientific Committee. She has been awarded with the Ernst Bloch Prize in Ludwigshafen, one of Germany’s most distinguished philosophical honors. In 2012 she was awarded the Dr. Leopold-Lucas Prize by the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of theology, intellectual history, historical research and philosophy, as well as the commitment to international understanding and tolerance. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Georgetown University in May 2014. Among her publications: The Claims of culture: Equality and diversity in the Global Era (2002), Politics in Dark Times: Encounters with Hannah Arendt (2010), Dignity in Adversity: Human Rights in Troubled Times, (2011).

Homi Bhabha is the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Languages, Director of the Mahindra Humanities Center, and Senior Advisor to the President and Provost at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous works exploring postcolonial theory, cultural change and power, contemporary art, and cosmopolitanism, including Nation and Narration, and The Location of Culture, which was reprinted as a Routledge Classic in 2004. His forthcoming book projects will be published by some of the leading university publishers in the United States: Harvard University Press will publish A Global Measure, and Columbia University Press will publish The Right to Narrate, and a book on contemporary art to be published by the University of Chicago Press. Bhabha is one of the most important figures in contemporary postcolonial studies. His honours include the Padma Bhushan award, a prestigious award from the Republic of India that recognizes outstanding contribution in literature and education (2012); the Humboldt Research Prize (2015), and honorary degrees from Université Paris 8, University College London, and the Free University Berlin. Professor Bhabha is a member of the Academic Committee for the Shanghai Power Station of Art, and the Mobilising the Humanities Initiating Advisory Board (British Council). He is an advisor on the Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (C-MAP) project at the Museum of Modern Art New York, a Trustee of the UNESCO World Report on Cultural Diversity, and the Curator in Residence of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Jacqueline Bhabha is a Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is also the Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is the Director of Research at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard’s only university wide Human Rights research center. From 1997 to 2001 Bhabha founded and directed the Human Rights Program at the University of Chicago. Prior to 1997, she was a practicing human rights lawyer in London and at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. She has published extensively on issues of transnational child migration, refugee protection, children’s rights and citizenship. She is the author of Child Migration & Human Rights in a Global Age (Princeton University Press, 2014), the editor of Children Without A State (MIT Press, 2011), and of Human Rights and Adolescence (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014). Her current research focuses on adolescents at risk of violence, social exclusion or discrimination. She is actively engaged in several research projects in India, examining the factors that drive access of low caste girls from illiterate families to higher education, and that transform gender norms among children and adolescents. She also works on similar issues within the Roma community in Europe.  Bhabha serves on the board of the Scholars at Risk Network, the World Peace Foundation and the Journal of Refugee Studies.

Enrico Biale is the senior scientific coordinator of ResetDOC and Research Fellow at the Department of Humanities of the University of Piemonte Orientale. His research interests are normative democratic theory, multiculturalism, and justice in immigration. On these topics he published on many international journals, among which Res Publica and Critical Review of International, Social and Political Philosophy. He recently edited with Anna Elisabetta Galeotti and Federica Liveriero Democracy and Diversity (Routledge 2019). He teaches Political Philosophy at the University of Piemonte Orientale and Political Sociology at the University of Genova.

Murat Borovali is Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations at Istanbul Bilgi University. He holds a PhD in political philosophy from University of Manchester. Among his most recent publications are “Turkish Secularism and Islam: A Difficult Dialogue with the Alevis”, in Philosophy & Social Criticism (2014), “Islamic Headscarves and Slippery Slopes”, in Cardozo Law Review (2009), “A Legitimate Restriction of Freedom? The issue of the headscarf in Turkey,” in E. F. Keyman (ed.), Remaking Turkey: Globalization, Alternative Modernities and Democracy (2006), ‘John Rawls ve Siyaset Felsefesi’ (John Rawls and Political Philosophy, 2003). 

Giancarlo Bosetti is the Director and one of the founders of Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations. He is the editor-in-chief of the online journal www.resetdoc.org and of Reset, a cultural magazine he founded in 1993. He was vice-editor-in-chief of the Italian daily L’Unità. He is currently a columnist for the Italian daily La Repubblica and has taught at University La Sapienza and University Roma Tre. Among his books La lezione di questo secolo (a book-interview with Karl Popper, 2001), Cattiva maestra televisione (with essays by Karl Popper, John Condry and Pope John Paul II, 2002), Il Fallimento dei laici furiosi (2009). He edited the volume Omnia mutantur. La scoperta filosofica del pluralismo culturale (2013).

Marina Calloni is Professor of Social and Political philosophy at the State University of Milano-Bicocca. Since 2007 she is a component of the Inter-ministerial Committee for Human Rights (CIDU), based at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome. From 2007 to 2010 she was member of the management board of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (based in Vienna) as representative for Italy and director of the «International Network for Research in Gender». Among her last books: A. Saarinen & M. Calloni (eds.), Women Immigrants as constructers of a New Europe. Gender Experiences and Perspectives in European Trans-regions (2012), Y.Galligan, S.Clavero, M.Calloni, Gender Politics and Democracy in Post-socialist Europe (2008).

José Casanova is one of the world’s top scholars in the sociology of religion. He is a professor in the Departments of Sociology and Theology at Georgetown University and senior fellow at the Berkley Center, where his work focuses on globalization, religions, and secularization. During 2017 he is the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North at the U.S. Library of Congress’ John W. Kluge Center, where he is writing a book manuscript on Early Modern Globalization through a Jesuit Prism. He has published works on a broad range of subjects, including religion and globalization, migration and religious pluralism, transnational religions, and sociological theory. His best-known work, Public Religions in the Modern World (University of Chicago Press, 1994), has become a modern classic in the field and has been translated into several languages, including Japanese, Arabic, and Turkish. In 2012, Casanova was awarded the Theology Prize from the Salzburger Hochschulwochen in recognition of his life-long achievement in the field of theology.

Alessandro Ferrara is Professor of Political Philosophy and Director of the Center for the Study of Post-Secular Society (CSPS) at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, as well as former President of the Italian Association of Political Philosophy. Recently he has published The Democratic Horizon. Hyperpluralism and the Renewal of Political Liberalism (2014) and “Democracy and the Absolute Power of Disembedded Financial Markets” in Azmanova/Mihai (eds.), Reclaiming Democracy (2015), as well as “Constitution and Context”, in Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies, (2016) and Rousseau and Critical Theory (Boston and Leiden: Brill, 2017). He has also published on such topics as judgment and exemplarity as sources of normativity, critical theory, the relevance of reflective judgment in political philosophy, expanding the Rawlsian paradigm of political liberalism, religion in a post-secular society.

Pasquale Ferrara is the Italian Ambassador in Algeria since October 2016. He has previously been First Counsellor at the Italian Embassy in Washington (2002-2006), Head of Press Service at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome (2006-2009), Head of Policy Planning Unity at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome (2009-2011) and Secretary General at the European University Institute in Florence (2011-2016). He has been Visiting Fellow at the Latin-American Political Thought in Santiago (Chile) and became Adjunct Professor at University Institute “Sophia” in Florence in 2009 and at LUISS School of Government in 2010. His areas of specialization are Theory and Practice of Contemporary Diplomacy, Negotiation and Mediation, Religions and International Relations, Mediterranean Studies, Global Governance, Regional Integration and Peace Studies. He is also author of various books including: Transnational Peace. Toward a New Pluralism in World Politics (1989), Global Religions and International Relations: A Diplomatic Perspective (2014), Francis’ World. Jorge Bergoglio and International Politics (2016); and articles: Internet speaks more and more Arabic (2008), The Run After Obama. The Expanding Atlantic (2010), Apollo in Gaza (2014), Turkey’s Twists and Turns (2015).

Nina zu Fürstenberg is the founder and Chair of Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations Foundation. She has been focusing for years on the study of Islam and on the promotion of intercultural dialogue, both working as a journalist for the cultural magazine «Reset». She edited Euro-Islam. L’integrazione mancata by Bassam Tibi,  Lumi dell’Islam. Nove intellettuali musulmani parlano di libertà and Europa laica e puzzle religioso with Krzysztof Michalski. She is the author of Chi ha paura di Tariq Ramadan. L’Europa di fronte al riformismo islamico, translated in German version (2008, Herder Verlag).

Patrizio Fondi has been Ambassador of the European Union to the United Arab Emirates since 06/09/2015. Amb. Fondi has a 30 years experience serving different roles in the Italian diplomacy. Previously he was Ambassador of Italy to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and  Diplomatic Advisor of the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities. He also served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Italy to UNESCO and BIE (Bureau International des Expositions) in Paris. He worked as well in the Italian  Diplomatic Missions  in Tirana, New York ( United Nations) and Stockholm. At the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome he served in the Directorate General for Cultural Promotion and Cooperation, in the Directorate General for Political Affairs and in the Department for Development Cooperation. He was decorated with the Official Knight of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy (2004), with the Order of the Polar Star of the Kingdom of Sweden (2008) and with the Grand Cordon of the Order of Istqlal of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan ( 2015).

Pasquale Gagliardi is Secretary-General of Cini Foundation since 2002. Since 1986 he has been Professor of the Sociology of Organizations at the Faculty of Political Sciences at the Catholic University, Milan. Gagliardi has contributed to the international spread of the use of cultural and social anthropology in studying the issues faced by companies and contemporary institutions. On this subject he has published articles, essays and books both in Italy and abroad; the best-known is Le imprese come culture (1986). He is a member of the editorial board of Organization and Organization Studies, and a member of the scientific committee of AICIS- Åland International Institute of Comparative Island Studies.

Simon Goldhill is the director of CRASSH, Professor in Greek Literature and Culture and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. His appointment in 2011 coincided with the Centre’s move to the Alison Richard Building and its 10th anniversary. Simon’s research interests include: Greek Tragedy, Greek Culture, Literary Theory, Later Greek Literature, and Reception. His latest book is Victorian Culture and Classical Antiquity: Art, Opera, Fiction, and the Proclamation of Modernity. He directs the ERC-funded project: the Bible and Antiquity in Nineteenth-Century Culture.

Ahmet İnsel is a former faculty member of Galatasaray University in Istanbul, Turkey, and Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University, France. He is Managing Editor of the Turkish editing house Iletisim and member of the editorial board of the monthly review Birikim. He is a regular columnist at Cumhuriyet newspaper and an author who has published several books and articles in both Turkish and French.

Volker Kaul is Research and Teaching Fellow at the Center for Ethics and Global Politics at LUISS University in Rome and lecturer at the CEA Rome Center and CIEE Global Center. Moreover, he works as scientific coordinator of the Istanbul/Reset DOC Seminars for Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations. His work focuses on the possibility of emancipation. In this regard, he works on the concepts of identity, agency, autonomy, self-knowledge, recognition and culture. He published together with Seyla Benhabib a book entitled Toward New Democratic Imaginaries – Istanbul Seminars on Islam, Culture and Politics for Springer. Together with David Rasmussen and Alessandro Ferrara he is editing the yearly special issues of Philosophy & Social Criticism on the Istanbul Seminars since 2010. He is currently also editing together with Ananya Vajpeyi a book on Populism and Minorities based upon the Venice-Padua-Delhi Seminars 2014 and with Ingrid Salvatore a volume on What is Pluralism? The Question of Pluralism in Politics for Routledge in its book series “Ethics, Human Rights and Global Political Thought”.

Jonathan Laurence, Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston College, researches and writes about European politics, transatlantic relations and Islam in the West. Currently on sabbatical from Boston College, he is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution (Washington, DC) and Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (New York City). He was the Daimler Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin in Fall 2012 and guest researcher at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin. Laurence is the author of The Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims (2012) and the co-author of Integrating Islam (2006).

Tiziana Lippiello, is Vice Rector of Ca’ Foscari University and Professor of Classical Chinese, Religions and Philosophy of China at the Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University. She has been Head of the Department of Asian and North African Studies (2011- 2014) and Head of the Department of East Asian Studies (2009- 2011) at Ca’ Foscari University. From 2008 to 2011 she has been Rector for the relations with the International Institutions in Venice and from 2006 to 2011 Member of the Board of Directors of Venice International University. Amongst other she published the book Il confucianesimo (2010) and Auspicious Omens and Miracles in Ancient China. Han, Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties (2001). Professor Lippiello is also Director of the Series La fenice, Classici cinesi, Marsilio Editore Venezia, Director of the Series Sinica venetiana, Edizioni Ca’ Foscari and in the Academic Board of the Collegio Internazionale Ca’ Foscari. She is also Coordinator of the Project RobinBA (The Role of books in non bibliometric areas), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Macerata University, University of South Brittany, sponsored by ANVUR.

Stephen Macedo is Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. From 2001-2009, he was Director of the University Center for Human Values. He writes and teaches on political theory, ethics, public policy, and law, especially on topics related to liberalism, democracy and citizenship, diversity and civic education, religion and politics, and the family and sexuality. He recently published Just Married: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy, and the Future of Marriage (2015). As vice president of the American Political Science Association, he was first chair of its standing committee on Civic Education and Engagement and principal co-author of Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation, and What We Can Do About It (2005). His other books include Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy (2000); and Liberal Virtues: Citizenship, Virtue, and Community in Liberal Constitutionalism (1990)

Liav Orgad is the Director of the ‘Global Citizenship Law’ Project at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute (EUI); the Head of the Research Group ‘International Citizenship Law’ at WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and a Recurrent Visiting Professor at Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel. In recent years, Orgad was a Fellow-in-Residence at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, a Visiting Professor at Columbia Law School, a Marie Curie Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin, a Fulbright Scholar at NYU Law School, and a Jean-Monnet Fellow at the EUI. He is a Member of the Global Young Academy, where he heads the Working Group ‘Global Migration and Human Rights,’ the author of The Cultural Defense of Nations: A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights (Oxford University Press, 2016), and the recipient of the Eric Stein Prize for ‘best scholarly article’ by the American Society for Comparative Law (2011). His research project funded by an ERC Starting Grant on ‘Global Citizenship Law’ advances the establishment of a new subfield in international law—International Citizenship Law (ICIL)—which would regulate nationality law; it explores the idea of ‘blockchain membership’ and matching algorithm for citizenship and invites us to challenge our understanding of citizenship in the age of global economy, technology, and mobility.

Antonio Rigopoulos (Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara) is Full Professor of Indology at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. His main fields of research are: the ascetic and devotional traditions of medieval and modern Maharashtra (with special focus on the Datta-sampradaya); annotated translation of Sanskrit texts on renunciation and bhakti; the guru institute; termite mound mythologies; modern Hindu hagiographies and hagiographers. Among his publications are: The Life and Teachings of Sai Baba of Shirdi (SUNY Press, Albany, N.Y., 1993); Dattātreya: The Immortal Guru, Yogin, and Avatāra. A Study of the Transformative and Inclusive Character of a Multi-Faceted Hindu Deity (SUNY Press, Albany, N.Y., 1998); Hindūismo (Queriniana, Brescia, 2005); The Mahānubhāvs (Firenze University Press – Munshiram Manoharlal, Firenze, 2005); Guru. Il fondamento della civiltà dell’India (Carocci, Roma, 2009); “The Construction of a Cultic Center through Narrative: The Founding Myth of the Village of Puttaparthi and Sathya Sāī Bābā,” History of Religions 54, no. 2 (2014): 117-50. He has authored the entries Maharashtra, Dattātreya, Vibhūti, and Shirdi Sai Baba in the Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, vols. 1, 5 (Leiden, 2009, 2013).

David Rasmussen is Professor of Philosophy at Boston College and Honorary President of the Center for Ethics and Global Politics of LUISS University. His fields of interest are contemporary continental philosophy, social and political philosophy. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Philosophy & Social Criticism. His books include: Reading HabermasUniversalism vs. Communitarianism in EthicsHandbook of Critical TheoryJürgen Habermas: The Foundations of the Habermas ProjectJürgen Habermas: Law and PoliticsJürgen Habermas: EthicsJürgen Habermas: Epistemology and TruthCritical Theory Vol. I-IV. He currently prepares a book on John Rawls. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Istanbul Seminars.

Tatjana Sekulić is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Milan-Bicocca, where she taught Political Sociology of Europe and Sociology of Education. Main fields of her research: European integration in polycentric perspective; new wars and contemporary conflicts; crimes of war and genocide studies; democratic transition of post-totalitarian regimes and new forms of totalitarianism; political culture; higher education structural and institutional transformation. Director of the International Summer School “Rethinking the Culture of Tolerance” (1° edition 2014-2016; 2° edition 2017-2019). Member of the Doctoral Program URBEUR-Urban Studies, University of Milan-Bicocca. She published several studies as “Constituting the social basis of the EU. Reflections from the European margins”, PACO Volume 9(2) 2016. Sekulić, T., “The Bosnian Puzzle of Higher Education in the Perspective of the Bologna Process”, in Zgaga P., Teichler U., Brennan J., The Globalisation Challenge for European Higher Education. Convergence and Diversity, Centres and Peripheries, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang 2016 (pp. 309-324). “Harmonization in Turbolent Times: Western Balkans’ Accession to the European Union” Sarajevo Social Science Review, Vol. 5, n.1-2/2016. Sekulić T. “Bosnia Erzegovina, l’Unione Europea e l’arte di vivere insieme. Sul ventennio degli Accordi di Dayton” in Motta G. (2017) Balcani e Europa a vent’anni dagli Accordi di Dayton, Roma: Aracne editrice.

Federico Squarcini taught at Florence University and at the Università La Sapienza, Rome, before joining the Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice, Italy, where he is currently Associated Professor of History of Religions. Prof. Squarcini lectures on a range of South-Asia related topics, including Indian philosophy and religions. He is also Director of doctoral studies with regard to Asian subjects and In 2012 he launched the Ca’ Foscari Yoga Studies MA (information in Italian here), which he continues to direct. His main teaching and research interests include Sanskrit normative textual traditions (dharmaśāstra), intellectual history of asceticism and anthropotechnics, western receptions of South Asian cultural and intellectuals traditions, methods and theories in the studies of religions. More information on Prof. Squarcini’s research and teaching can be found here.

Nayla Tabbara is the director of the Adyan Institute and the vice chair of Adyan Foundation and, previously served as director of its Cross-Cultural Studies Department. She holds a doctorate in religious studies from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne, Paris) and Saint Joseph University (Beirut, Lebanon) and is a university professor of comparative religions and Islamic studies. She has published in the fields of Islamic theology and other religions; education on interreligious and intercultural diversity; and Qur’anic exegesis and Sufism. In addition, she works on curricula development (formal and non-formal) for multifaith education and intercultural citizenship. Her publications include Divine Hospitality: Christian and Muslim Theologies of the Other (2011, co-author with Fadi Daou; in Arabic and French, 2012); What About the Other? A Question for Intercultural Education in the 21st Century (editor, 2012); and the UNESCO publication, Christianity & Islam in the Context of Contemporary Culture (2009, co-editor with Dimitri Spivak). Dr. Tabbara has also participated in numerous research projects and gives frequent interviews for numerous international media outlets, both print and television.

Francesca Tarocco is Visiting Associate Professor of Buddhist Cultures at NYU Shanghai. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai she was Lecturer in Buddhist Studies and Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow in Chinese History at the University of Manchester, UK. She holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and an MA from Venice University. Tarocco’s research interests are in the cultural history of China, Chinese Buddhism, visual culture and urban Asia. Her books include The Cultural Practices of Modern Chinese Buddhism: Attuning the Dharma (Routledge, 2007 and 2011) and The Re-enchantment of Modernity: Buddhism, Photography and Chinese History (2018). Her scholarly articles include “The City and the Pagoda: Buddhist Spatial Tactics in Shanghai” (2015), “Terminology and Religious Identity: The Genealogy of the Term Zongjiao,” (2012) and “On the Market: Consumption and Material Culture in Modern Chinese Buddhism” (Religion, 2011). Tarocco is the cofounder and director of the international research initiative Shanghai Studies Society and a fellow of the Critical Collaborations network at the Institute for Advanced Study (NYU). She is the recipient of awards from the Leverhulme Trust, the Sutasoma Foundation and the Chinese Ministry of Education, among many others. Tarocco is a regular contributor of the contemporary visual culture journals Parkett, Flash Art International and Frieze.

Diego von Vacano is the Editor of the Oxford University Press book series Studies in Comparative Political Theory. During 2017-2018 he is Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University on a Presidential Visiting Fellowship. He has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He was also a Member of the School of Social Science of the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, NJ, during 2008-2009. He is the author of The Color of Citizenship: Race, Modernity and Latin American/Hispanic Political Thought (Oxford University Press, January 2012) and The Art of Power: Machiavelli, Nietzsche and the Making of Aesthetic Political Theory (Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, November 2006), as well as of various articles, including a piece on “The Scope of Comparative Political Theory” for the Annual Review of Political Science in 2015. He received his doctorate in Politics from Princeton University and his master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University. He also studied in the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University. Dr. von Vacano’s teaching and research interests are in political theory, political philosophy and the history of political thought. He works mainly in Comparative Political Theory (modern Latin American and European political thought) and also in immigration ethics and race & ethnicity. The authors he focuses on are Machiavelli, Las Casas, Nietzsche, Bolivar, and Vasconcelos.

Pei Wang, Postdoctoral researcher in Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences in Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Graduated from the department of philosophy in Tsinghua, joint Ph.D at Université Paris I. Dissertation Title: “A Study of Eros and individuation in Levinas’ Early Philosophy”. Published several essays on Levinas, political philosophy, and intellectual history in Chinese and English.

Ida Zillio Grandi teaches Islamology, Arabic Language and International Relations and Politics at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. She is the author of Il Corano e il male (Einaudi, Turin, 2002); Una corrispondenza islamo-cristiana sull’origine divina dell’Islam (Patrimonio Culturale Arabo Cristiano (PCAC), Silvio Zamorani Editore, Turin, 2004); and Le opere di controversia islamo-cristiana nella formazione di una letteratura filosofica araba and Temi e figure dell’apologia musulmana (‘ilm al-kalâm) in relazione al sorgere e allo sviluppo della “falsafa”, in C. D’Ancona (ed.), Storia della filosofia nell’Islam medievale (Einaudi, Turin 2005). She is the editor of the Italian edition of the Dictionnaire du Coran by M. A. Amir-Moezzi (Mondadori, Milan, 2007). She has also worked as a consultant at the publishing house Marsilio, for the series Le sabbie (1999-2001); at the moment she is a consultant for arab-islamic publications in Einaudi publishing. From 2015, she is member of the Committee of Islam in Italy, at the Interior Ministry, Rome. She partecipates as a researcher in the Oasis project “Not an Era of Change, But a Change of Era”.

 

L'articolo Speakers, Faculty and Participants 2018 proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Program 2018

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Venues

Thursday, June 7 and Saturday, June 9

Giorgio Cini Foundation
Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore
Venezia

 

Friday, June 8

Auditorium Santa Margherita

Dorsoduro 3689, Campo Santa Margherita,

Venezia


Registration

The Seminars are free and open to All.

Registration is required: please, in order to register click here
For more information send an e-mail to events@resetdoc.org

 



PROGRAM


 

Thursday, June 7| Giorgio Cini Foundation
9.30 am – 10.00 am

Introduction

Tiziana Lippiello, Vice Rector Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Pasquale Gagliardi, Secretary-General Giorgio Cini Foundation

Shaul Bassi, Director Center for the Humanities and Social Change, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Giancarlo Bosetti, Director Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations

 

10.00 am – 11.00 am

Opening Lecture

José Casanova: From Imperial Toleration of Religious Groups to Religious Freedom as an Individual Human Right

 

11.15 am – 1.00 pm

Ida Zilio Grandi: The Virtue of Tolerance. Notes on the Root S-M-H in the Islamic Tradition

Nayla Tabbara: What Does it Take to Spread an Islamic Pluralist Theology of Other Religions?

Cengiz Aktar: Turkey, Failure of Islam or Failure of Political Islam?

Chair: Murat Borovalı

 

2.00 pm – 2.45 pm

Jacqueline Bhabha: Global Migration Policy: Can it Ensure Just, Safe and Regular Human Mobility?

Chair: Enrico Biale

 

2.45 pm – 4.00 pm

Federico Squarcini: To Tolerate, or Not to Tolerate, that is the Question. On Aśoka’s Edicts, Empire and the Rhetoric of Tolerance in South Asia

Antonio Rigopoulos: Tolerance in Swami Vivekananda’s Neo-Hinduism

 

4.15 pm – 5.15 pm

Seyla Benhabib: The Rise of Intolerance in the Post-Secular Age: A Dilemma

Chair: Marina Calloni


 

Friday, June 8| Auditorium Santa Margherita

10.00 pm – 11.00 pm
Homi Bhabha: The Barbed Wire Labyrinth: Thoughts on the Culture of Migration

Chair: Shaul Bassi

 

11.15 am – 1.00 pm

Pei Wang: Zhong and Shu as Ancient Virtues. The Ethical Foundation of the Repeated Unifications in Chinese History and Lessons for Today
Massimo Raveri
: Buddhist Esoteric Hermeneutics of the Plurality of Truths

Francesca Tarocco: Religion and the Secular State: A View from China

Chair: Tiziana Lippiello

 

2.00 pm – 3.45 pm

Ahmet İnsel: Tolerance is not the Acceptance of Equality

Tatjana Sekulić: Nationalism and Language. The Curious Case of the ‘Western Balkans’

Liav Orgad: Illiberal Liberalism: The Limits of European Tolerance

Chair: Jonathan Laurence

4.00 pm – 5.30 pm

ROUNDTABLE: Overcoming Intolerance in Different Cultural and Social Contexts

Speakers: Giuliano Amato, Seyla Benhabib, Homi Bhabha, David Rasmussen, Pei Wang

Chair: Pasquale Ferrara

 

5.45 pm – 6.30 pm

Karen Barkey: Forms of Pluralism in Empire: The Narratives of Religious Forbearance

Chair: Patrizio Fondi


 

Saturday, June 9 | Giorgio Cini Foundation

9.30 am – 11.15 am

Diego von Vacano: El Presidente Trump: Understanding the Decline of Toleration due to Populism through Latin American Thought

Alessandro Ferrara: Sideways at the Entrance of the Cave: Plato and Pluralism

Simon Goldhill: Infrastructures of Toleration and Pluralism

Chair: David Rasmussen

 

11.30 am – 12.15 pm

Presentations of the Summer School Workshops

 

12.15 pm – 1.15 pm

Closing Lecture

Stephen Macedo: Toleration, Inclusion, and Solidarity

Chair: Volker Kaul

 

1.15 pm

Closing Remarks

Shaul Bassi, Director Center for the Humanities and Social Change, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Giancarlo Bosetti, Director Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations

 

The program may be subject to change 

L'articolo Program 2018 proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

What is the Geopolitics of Religions?

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Today, there is no doubt that religions are one of the factors that increasingly contribute to the shaping and conditioning of international relations. Accordingly, their role needs to be studied using the same tools and the same thoroughness usually devoted to other branches of political affairs.

Geopolitics is one of these tools. If we consider religions exclusively from a political point of view, i.e. as political tools among other political tools, we can roughly say that in order to understand international phenomena in which religions are involved, one must chiefly study geopolitics, not religions. This is of course a shortcut, because the specific nature of each individual religion makes it a different political tool, but it allows an order of priorities, methodologically speaking.

To better understand what we mean, we can take the example of the Middle East: if one wants to study the phenomenon of the so-called “Islamic State”, one has to study the proxy war between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar aimed at controlling Greater Syria and the role of the traditional great powers, not the Koran. In this conflict, the control of Greater Syria is the end, and the Koran is one of the means used in order to achieve this goal.

On the contrary, many have tried to explain Middle Eastern events through the allegedly irreconcilable, historic conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims. However, in modern times, until the Iranian Revolution in 1979, there were no significant confrontations between Sunni and Shia communities. Until 1979, Iran and Saudi Arabia were on the same side of the Cold War and their international roles prevented them from fighting against each other for hegemony in the region. After 1979, the best path the Saudis had to (attempt to) balance their uneven relations with Iran was to exploit Sunnism (which represents roughly 90% of the Muslim world) against Shiism (the remaining 10% or so).

Every religion everywhere is the object of political exploitation, for purposes that have nothing to do with the salvation of the soul. As Graham Fuller wrote: “Religion will always be invoked wherever it can to galvanize the public and to justify major campaigns, battles and wars,” but “the causes, campaigns, battles and wars are not about religions.” (A World Without Islam, 2010)

This is possible because holy texts can serve as very flexible political tools. With the holy texts of any religion it is in fact possible to support all theses and their opposites. During the ruthless debates about slavery in the United States in the 19th century, both pro- and anti-slavery forces made immense use of Biblical quotations to support their points of view. Jacques Berlinerblau, the Georgetown scholar who studied the exploitation of the Scriptures in American politics, stated that “the Bible can always be cited against itself, no matter what the issue… The Bible is to clear and coherent political deliberation as sleet, fog, hail and flash floods are to highway safety.” (Thumpin’ it: The Use and the Abuse of the Bible in Today’s Presidential Politics, 2008).

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The Political Role of Religions

When it comes to the political role of religions, the most important distinction is between passive and active religions. Passive religions are those religions that cannot take any independent political initiative for at least three reasons: 1) they lack a unified leadership that is acknowledged by all faithful adherents; 2) they do not establish a clerical mediation between the faithful and God; 3) their holy texts do not have a unique authorized interpretation (which prevents them from being cited against themselves). Conversely, active religions present the opposite features: 1) they have a leadership that is acknowledged by all faithful adherents; 2) they have at their disposal a clerical mediation between the faithful and God; 3) their holy texts have a unique authorized interpretation. Only active religions can take independent political initiatives.

Sunnism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Evangelicalism – among others – are some examples of passive religions. None of them has a religious center or a religious leader acknowledged by all the faithful, and they allow each believer (or group of believers) to read and interpret the holy texts in a personal (or factional) way. When these religions become political tools, each believer can support all theses and their opposites, can support terrorism or the beheading of unbelievers or, following the very same holy text, can commit themselves to meekness and universal harmony among humankind. Their holy texts are “to clear and coherent political deliberation as sleet, fog, hail and flash floods are to highway safety.”

To some extent, Christian Orthodox Churches and other established Churches are also passive religious institutions, but for different reasons. Because they are intrinsically linked with – and subordinate to –political power, they are not allowed to take any independent political initiative.

In a nutshell, we can say that the only religious institution capable of an independent political initiative, the only active one, is the Roman Catholic Church. As an anonymous cardinal said in a long interview with a French journalist, “We unquestionably exert an influence on the world stage every time the opportunity arises… We are the only religious power to be able to do so. Only the Catholic Church has official embassies in almost all the countries of the world [as well as] an individual and centralized leadership. We are so accustomed to it that we often forget how very exceptional our condition is.” (Confession d’un cardinal, 2007). This description is correct, even though the network of embassies of the Holy See around the world is much more a consequence of its power than its source. Rather, its source lies in its history, in its organization, and above all in its multi-secular experience in human affairs, particularly in political affairs.

This experience dates back to the time of the partition of the Roman Empire. In its Eastern part, the central political power was strong and solid and therefore the Church was subordinated to, and an institution of, the Empire. The emperor himself was the actual leader of the Church, even in theological affairs; he exercised “supreme authority in ecclesiastic matters by virtue of his autonomous legitimacy” (this is how Max Weber, in his Economy and Society, describes “cesaropapism”). On the contrary, in the Western part of the Roman Empire, where political power (both central and local) was weak or nonexistent, the Church stood as the central authority and its network of dioceses replaced the crumbling imperial rule.

The Latin Church developed as a center of direct political power, an experience that it shares with different Buddhist communities (and it comes as no surprise that Buddhism and Latin Christianity are the only religious bodies that independently produced a theory of the “just war”). Only the differing histories of Southeast Asia and Western Europe explain why Buddhism eventually did not organize itself in a unique, centralized and hierarchical Church as the Catholic Church did: the latter was able to give birth to a theocracy, while the former was able to give birth to many theocracies. This fragmentation made them easy prey to secular political power.

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The Resurgence of Religions 

Religions returned to the public sphere in the 1970s. As Gilles Kepel noted as early as 1991, “Les années soixante-dix ont été une décennie-charnière pour les relations entre religion et politique » (La Revanche de Dieu, 1991). What happened in this decade? In the “developing” world, the industrialization of agriculture prompted massive rural flight and urbanization, and this social disruption coincided with the political crises of the postcolonial world. In the “developed” countries, the 1974-1975 recession put an end to the “Trente Glorieuses”, thirty years of almost uninterrupted economic growth after the Second World War, and opened a new era of free market principles in which the traditional “Westphalian” state’s decline accelerated.

France and Religion

In these “advanced” countries the return of religions has taken place at a rate inversely proportional to the credibility of the state (and of any ideology that promised progress and welfare). The less effective states become at offering their citizens both meaning and social services (and the latter are often the best guarantor of the former), the more religions tend to reoccupy the public stage.

In “developing” countries, the resurgence of religions was more sudden because the processes of industrialization (rural flight and urbanization) were extremely rapid and often had dreadful effects. For millions of urbanized peasants, keeping a living link with their rural traditions was – with their clan networks – often the only possibility of social survival. In the slums of the newly densely populated cities, new mosques were built with makeshift means. Religious charities tried to make up for at least a part of the infrastructural deficiencies and tried to offer residents access to some safe and controlled spaces. Governments saw these forms of “grassroots religiosity” as both a safeguard against the risks of social and political unrest and a solution to their inability to meet the elementary needs of the population.

In a nutshell: in the 1970s, the lives of the populations of “developed” countries and of the populations of “developing” countries were disrupted. When these two processes converged, political exploitation acted as detonator of a still latent desecularization. In the beginning, very few people were able to identify this new political role of religions; today, it is part of our daily landscape, and it is almost impossible to have a clear vision of current political life if one ignores the role of this powerful actor.

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If interested in understanding more the “Geopolitcs of Religions”, Manlio Graziano is teaching an e-learning certificate course on it with the Geneva Institute of Geopolitical Studies (GIGS) 

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Credit: NASA /AFP

L'articolo What is the Geopolitics of Religions? proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Non-believers: atheism in the crosshairs of Egyptian legislators

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The Arab spring uprising opened the way to public debates inconceivable in North African countries before 2011. Yet, the reaction of the Cairo authorities has been very hostile to “free thinkers”, including citizens who eschew religion.

In Egypt, the Ministry of Youth, the university mosque of al-Azhar and the national security forces work as a team to identify, arrest and incriminate atheistic citizens.

A law that prohibits blasphemy has been on the books since 1982, allowing the state to pursue atheists who express disbelief in public. But in recent months, the campaign against atheists has taken a new turn. Amr Hamroush, the vice-president of the parliamentary commission for religious affairs has drafted an ad hoc law that would criminalize atheism in Egypt, even in private.

The existing law provides for periods of imprisonment of between six months and five years for «anyone who uses religion to promote, through speech, writing, or any other medium, extremist ideas with the aim of spreading discord or to belittle or disdain one of the monotheistic religions or their different sects, or to harm national unity». While atheism is not directly prohibited, the text is sufficiently ambiguous that those claiming religion lacks any factual basis are at risk.

Between 2011 and 2013, 42 Egyptian citizens were tried for having openly declared themselves atheists (not merely being suspected of it), according to a 2014 report – Besieging Freedom of Thought – published by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a human rights organization. Their condemnation (and that of other bloggers, intellectuals, artists who have “come out” as non-religious since), is not surprising. Yet the decision of those people to break a social taboo shows amazing courage.

Despite this ongoing repression, the political and social earthquake that hit the North African country from 2011 on has legitimized debates that would previously have been unimaginable, including the right of people not to believe. Moreover, the trend has been steadily increasing, thanks to the social networks and discussion forums made available by groups trying to defend personal freedoms.

Traditional actors, however, have given little ground in the debate. At the beginning of March 2018, the broadcaster “Egypt TV” hosted a debate between Mohammed Hashem, a young declared atheist, and a prominent sheikh of the al-Azhar university, Mahmoud Hashour, during the talk show “al-Hadath al-Youm” (The Fact of the Day). Yet as soon as it began, the discussion descended into an attack on Hashem when he invoked reason as the basis of his non-belief, stating «there is no scientific evidence of the existence of Allah». The host, Mahmoud Abd al-Halim, suggested he visit a psychiatrist, calling him «confused and unreliable».

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has led Egypt’s war against atheists: in 2014, he promised to «erase» the phenomenon of atheism. And the campaign is backed by the Council of Christian churches, which -while not promoting criminalization outright – has joined Dar el-Iftaa, the Islamic institution responsible for issuing fatwas on the issue, in condemning atheism.

It is worth sketching the details of the proposed law, which is still being drafted by lawmakers. The first article will define atheism; the second will criminalize it, imposing sanctions; the third will establish the possibility for the guilty to retract and deny atheism; and the last will detail the penalties for those convicted, which are expected to be severe for the most serious cases.

While hard numbers are hard to come by, the head of the Catholic Church in Egypt, Rafic Greiche, estimates that today there are about two million Egyptian atheists, «especially from Muslim families» (AsiaNews, January 2018). In 2014, the leaders of al-Azhar warned that Egypt had the highest number of atheists in the Arab world: 866 people.

The topic has assumed a prominent place in public debate in other North African countries that have experienced – directly or indirectly – the so-called Arab Spring and the open discussion of the right to free expression that came in its wake.

In Tunisia, as with so many issues of individual rights in the post-2011 period, the public debate has been rather schizophrenic. On the one hand, in August 2012 the popular Islamist Ennahda party then in government was able to enact particularly strict anti-blasphemy legislation. On the other, a major victory was won in October 2017, when the Association of Free Thinkers, an NGO founded to defend the rights of Tunisian non-believers, was granted authorisation by the state, a unique outcome in the Arab world. Its members, who seek to defend the secular nature of the country and its constitution, have for years been subject to threats and attacks by radical Islamists. The Association has abolition of the law that punishes those who do not respect fasting during Ramadan as a key goal and has also brought disparities in the treatment of Tunisian women in inheritance on to the public agenda.

In Algeria, the latest news, and the information campaigns of young bloggers and intellectuals, confirm that not much has changed since 2015, when the poet and writer Rachid Boudjedra was “excommunicated” by the Algerian ulema for declaring himself an atheist. Indeed, a report issued at the end of 2016 by the International Humanist and Ethical Union found «non-believers are socially invisible» in Algeria. The report – called Free Thought – noted that the enactment of regulations against blasphemy and apostasy has seen atheists driven underground, afraid to speak publicly.

Non-believers in Morocco are no better off. In the Kingdom of Mohammed VI it is illegal for atheists or non-religious to declare their positions openly and – unlike in Tunisia – associations of non-believers receive no public backing. Indeed, it remains the case that a spouse’s atheism is sufficient reason to seek a divorce under the country’s legal system.

However, one recent step in the right direction has been moves to decriminalize apostasy, legislation for which is still being drafted. In a truly historic development, this move has been backed by the Islamic establishment in Morocco. In the summer of 2017, the Superior Council of Moroccan ulamas overturned a 2013 fatwa that had outlawed all apostasy as inherently sinful. The new interpretation, which distinguishes the religious from the political level, draws on the writings of the illustrious Muslim scholar, Sufyan al-Thawri, who lived in the eighth century after Christ. This innovative reading of al-Thawri’s argument considers apostasy punishable by death only if accompanied by a “political betrayal” towards the community of origin, ndr. On the basis of this ruling, Moroccan legislators have been able to draft amendments to the current law, which condemns all apostates to death, against the wishes of Morocco’s conservative Islamist fringe. Surprisingly, national and Arab media in general have shown little interest in these developments; most reporting has come from Francophone sources.
In any event, if Moroccan legislators succeed in changing the law, greater freedom will be extended not only to those converting from Islam to another Abrahamic faith, but probably also those who declare themselves agnostic or atheist.

As for troubled Libya, if it is true that in the immediate post-Gaddafi period there was a flourishing of independent media keen to host debates of all kinds, it is equally true that atheists and agnostics have continued to live at risk of repression and victimisation as under the Colonel’s rule. Those writing on social media or exposing themselves openly as unbelievers risk, at the very least, being ostracised by family and society. At worst, they risk their lives, since atheism, as in neighboring Egypt, is seen as a leading threat to the social and political stability of the country.

Credit: Khaled Desouki / AFP

L'articolo Non-believers: atheism in the crosshairs of Egyptian legislators proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.


India: questions of representation

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The Karnataka election results once again perpetuate a disturbing trend regarding the decline of Muslim representation in various Assemblies where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged a dominant force. The number of MLAs is just seven in a State where Muslims make up 12.91% of the population. The decline from 2013 is mainly owing to the BJP’s continued strategy of not fielding Muslim candidates, although it has emerged as the single largest party with 104 members.

One story, three States

Though the BJP has a few symbolic Muslim faces in New Delhi, its decision not to field Muslim candidates in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 and 2017, and in Gujarat in 2017, and now in Karnataka only confirms that this exclusion is indeed a carefully crafted campaign strategy. In December 2017, in Gujarat, the Vijay Rupani-led BJP government was sworn in with no Muslims in its ranks. U.P.’s BJP government has the same story, and it will be so in Karnataka too if the BJP manages to form the government.

When India’s largest political party pursues such a strategy and finds it electorally rewarding, it may be emulated by other political parties. What does this exclusion from legislatures imply for the Indian polity or for Muslims? One implication is that Muslims will not be part of the political elites and consequently command their own political voice. Such a vision of denial has been ingrained in the Hindutva narrative and in the writings of its founding fathers. Indeed, it is a necessary process for any majoritarian polity that hopes to force minorities to live according to its terms.

These exclusionary possibilities of a majoritarian polity were foreseen by minority leaders during the Partition debate. In the Constituent Assembly, there was demand for communal electorates and reserved seats like those for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Sardar Patel, as the chairman of the advisory committee on minorities, took the initiative to abolish communal electorates and communal quotas in legislatures. According to Rajmohan Gandhi, Patel’s biographer, this gave him enormous satisfaction.

Representatives of minorities in the Constituent Assembly backed the idea to end separate electorates, seen as the reason for Partition. But a considerable campaign was needed to persuade them to give up the demand for reserved seats. Patel was fiercely opposed to the idea of reserved seats. A minority community, he argued, if it speaks in one voice might be able to achieve its demands, but it would lose the goodwill of the majority. Patel persuaded the minorities — Christians, Parsis, Sikhs, Anglo-Indians, and Muslims — to give up reserved seats, to earn that goodwill. Maulana Azad took time but finally conceded. Patel even won over Begum Aizaz Rasul of U.P., a former Muslim League member, to give up reservation. On May 11, 1949, the advisory committee moved a resolution that there would be no reservation except for SCs and STs — it had 58 votes in favour and three against, thus no consensus.

Christians also gave up their demand for reserved seats, because they were promised the right to propagate Christianity. But with a slew of anti-conversion laws in later years, harsh and stringent under various BJP governments, the deal with Christians regarding propagation of Christianity stands seriously compromised today.

On another occasion, two weeks later, Patel had said, “I want the consent of all minorities to change the course of history… Whatever may be the credit for having won a Muslim homeland, please do not forget what the poor Muslims have suffered. I respectfully appeal to the believers in the two-nation theory to go and enjoy the fruits of their freedom and leave us in peace.” In this age of ‘love jihad’, ‘ghar wapsi’ and cow vigilantism, we may ask: Where is Patel’s promised peace?

Since 2002, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticised over the Muslim exclusion issue. He was once confronted by former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh at a function in New Delhi in 2008 on this issue. Muslim exclusion, he argued, was not based on any communal consideration but was determined purely by winnability criteria. The idea of winnability is a subjective one, and if the notion of winnability were entirely objective, all the BJP candidates should invariably win. Clearly, this argument of winnability is intended to hide a deliberate policy of denying Muslims an opportunity to compete for a place in India’s political power structure.

Empowerment

Diversity of representation is a natural working principle for a diverse society to articulate the varied interests of different communities — and expand the idea of political justice and empowerment. In an ideal secular polity, non-Muslims could represent Muslim interests, and vice versa, as some would argue. Since that ideal polity is utopian, self-representation becomes necessary as part of diversity of representation to further the cause of democracy. To have a blanket policy not to let a minority community from being part of its highest political structure is a sinister design. For Muslims, this exclusion would depoliticise the community and create political conditions in which the majority would dictate terms, and force Muslims to live at its mercy. It would further perpetuate the idea of Muslim backwardness as naturally ordained in a polarised polity, the way it was argued for India’s Dalits for centuries.

Article published on The Hindu on May 19, 2018 

Credit: Manjunath Kiran / AFP

L'articolo India: questions of representation proviene da Reset DOC Dialogues on Civilization.

Summer School Casablanca

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The Casablanca School on Pluralism, Education and Political Liberties
9-14 July, 2018
Fondation du Roi Abdul-Aziz
Rue du Corail, Ain Diab – Casablanca, Morocco

The Casablanca School combines an educational workshop targeting young scholars, researchers, journalists and media professionals together with an international conference addressing the broader public.

The Seminars’ core topic is the reawakening of Islamic pluralistic traditions. This is addressed by using critical tools provided by the social sciences — from domestic law to theology, and from political philosophy to sociology, anthropology and history. Comparative cases are also discussed — especially within contexts that share the same religious background, as well as contexts that once held similar backgrounds before turning to secular / liberal models.

The School focuses on the multiple historical, theological, social, philosophical and legal-constitutional dimensions of the complex and constantly evolving relationships between religion and politics in societies around the Mediterranean. Special attention is paid to the role played by education – and that of religious education in particular – in the historical evolution of this relationship. Within this thematic framework, the main objective is to trace the diverse historical conditions behind the formation, perpetuation and transformation of related concepts and ideas.

STRUCTURE OF THE SUMMER SCHOOL

The School will start on the 9th of July -morning. From the 9th of July afternoon to the 11th of July the Summer School coincides with the program of the Casablanca Conference.  From the 12th of July to the 14th of July invited professors will give lectures. At the end of each day, workshops guided by professors on one particular issue will be organized. All enrolled participants are going to be assigned to one of the workshops. In the workshops students will discuss and elaborate one specific issue of the overall topic and prepare a short presentation that will be delivered on Saturday, June 14.

WORKING LANGUAGE: English and Arabic.  A simultaneous translation from English to Arabic and vice-versa will be provided.

L'articolo Summer School Casablanca proviene da Reset Dialogues on Civilizations | a venue for all tribes.

Speakers Casablanca

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Symposium Speakers: Abdou Filali-Ansary, Amin Abdullah, Asma Afsaruddin, Fadma Ait Mous, Shabbir Akhtar, Mariam Al-Attar, Ednan Aslan, Armando Barucco, Fouad Ben Ahmed, Clinton Bennett, Mohammed Bensalah, Anthony Booth, Giancarlo Bosetti, Massimo Campanini, Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Mohamed Elhachmi, Meriem El Haitami, Nouzha Guessous,Mohamed Haddad, Mohammed Hashas, Mohamed-Sghir Janjar, Mohsen Kadivar, Emmanuel Karagiannis, Jonathan Laurence, Oliver Leaman, Mohamed Mahjoub, Moin Nizami, Mohammed Khalid Rhazzali, Abdallah Seyid Ould Bah, Imtiyaz Yusuf

L'articolo Speakers Casablanca proviene da Reset Dialogues on Civilizations | a venue for all tribes.

Program Casablanca

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Casablanca Seminars
Sources of Pluralism in Islamic Thought
International Conference

9-11 July, 2018

Reset Dialogues in partnership with the King Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences and the Granada Institute for Higher Education and Research, are pleased to present this international symposium that was made possible also thanks to the support of Henry Luce Foundation’s Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, Nomis Foundation and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As a global religion, Islam and its jurisprudence have offered heterogeneous responses to a range of questions facing different faiths and communities. Modernity imposed new questions upon religious scholars, theologians and philosophers, demanding of them a new version of pluralism in the theological and political arenas. While doctrinal or philosophical exclusivism rejects “the other” in theory — and frequently in practice, too — inclusivism connotes the accommodation and toleration of difference. But if that means the reluctant acceptance of difference within a hierarchy of worldviews, inclusion may not be enough to create more egalitarianism within modern multicultural societies. Modern pluralism might come to mean, instead, a robust appreciation of human diversity and values.


Conference Program

Monday, July 9

2.30-3.00 PM: Registration and Welcome coffee

3.00-3.30 PM: Welcome Session

Ahmed Toufiq, Director, King Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences, Casablanca

Giancarlo Bosetti, Director, Reset DOC

Mohammed Bensalah, Director, Granada Institute

3.30-3.45 PM: Conference Introduction: On Pluralism and the Islamic Traditions

Mohammed Hashas, LUISS University, Rome

3.45-5.15 PM: Session 1 – Pluralism in the Quran and the Prophetic Tradition

Panel 1

Asma Afsaruddin (Indiana University), Valorizing Religious Dialogue and Pluralism within the Islamic Tradition

Mohsen Kadivar (Duke University), Genealogies of Pluralism in Islamic Thought: Shia Perspective

Shabbir Akhtar (Oxford University), Reading the Rival’s Scripture in the Open Society: Western Christians and the Quran

Chair: Fouad Ben Ahmed (Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania Institute for Higher Islamic Studies EDHH, Rabat)

5.15-5.30 PM: Coffee Break

5.30-6.30 PM: Roundtable 1 – Modernization of Civil Rights and Family Law in Islamic Contexts

Nouzha Guessous (Hassan II University, Casablanca), Fadma Ait Mous (Hassan II University, Casablanca), Giancarlo Bosetti (Reset DOC), Mohammed Hashas (LUISS, Rome), Abdou Filali-Ansary (Aga Khan University, London)

Chair: Armando Barucco, Head, Unit for Analysis and Planning, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs



Tuesday, July 10

10.00-11.30 AM : Session 2 – Pluralism and Universalism in Classical Islamic Scholarship

Panel 2

Mariam Al-Attar (Sharjah University), Theories of Ethics in Islamic Thought and the Question Of Moral Pluralism

Oliver Leaman (University of Kentucky), Pluralism and Islamic Law: Why the Past is Better than the Present

Massimo Campanini (University of Trento), Universalism and Cosmopolitanism in Islam: The Idea of the Caliphate

Chair: Asma Afsaruddin (Indiana University)

11.30-11.45 AM: Coffee Break

11.45 AM- 1.15 PM

Panel 3

Mohammed Mahjoub (University of Tunis), On the Possible Hermeneutical Interpretation of Pluralism in Islamic Thought: From Truth to Meaning

Abdallah Seyid Ould Bah (University of Nouakchott), Religious Plurality and Kalam Perspective on Diversity of the Creed: al-Ash‘ari, al-Shahrastani and al-Razi

Fouad Ben Ahmed (EDHH, Rabat), Philosophy in the Hanbali Contexts: Ibn Taymiyya as a Reader of Ibn Rushd

Chair: Mohammed Bensalah (Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Rabat)

1.15-2.15 PM: Lunch Break

2:15-3:45 PM : Session 3 – Insights from Multicultural Societies, Sufism and Politics

Panel 4

Amin Abdullah (State Islamic University, Indonesia), Islamic Political Theology for a Global Age: Indonesian Religious Experience in Reforming Islamic Political Thought

Imtiyaz Yusuf (Mahidol University, Bangkok), Islamic Theology of Religious Pluralism:  Building Islam-Buddhism Understanding

Moin Nizami (Oxford University), The Limits of Pluralism in South Asian Sufism

Chair: Jonathan Laurence (Boston College)

3.45-4.00 PM: Coffee Break

4.00-5.00 PM: Roundtable 2 – Modern theologians and reforms | Book launch discussion

Abdallah Seyid Ould Bah (University of Nouakchott), Massimo Campanini (University of Trento), Mohamed Haddad (University of Carthage, Tunis)

Chair: Mohamed – Sghir Janjar (King Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences, Casablanca)

Book: Mohamed Haddad, Le réformisme musulman: Une histoire critique (Mimesis, 2013)


Wednesday, July 11

10.00 – 11.30 AM: Session 4 – Political philosophy, politics, Sufism and education

Panel 5

Abdelwahab El-Affendi (Doha Institute), Tahkeem as an Islamic Democratic Precedent: Towards a New Look at One of Islam’s Formative Episodes

Anthony Booth (University of Sussex), Rawlsian Liberalism and Political Islam: Friends or Foes?

Emmanuel Karagiannis (King’s College), The Environmental Policy of the Muslim Brotherhood

Chair: Nouzha Guessous (Hassan II University, Casablanca)

11.30 – 11.45 AM: Coffee Break

11.45 AM – 1.15 PM

Panel 6

Ednan Aslan (University of Vienna), Educating Muslim Children Towards Plurality

Clinton Bennett (SUNY, New York), On Sufism and Politics

Meriem El Haitami (International University of Rabat IUR, Rabat), Morocco’s Religious Policy: A Post-Sufi Turn?

Chair: Fadma Ait Mous (Hassan II University, Casablanca)

1.15-2.15 PM: Lunch Break

2.15-3.30 PM: Roundtable 3: Religious authority and education in plural societies | Book launch discussion

Ednan Aslan (University of Vienna), Mohammed Khalid Rhazzali (University of Padova), Jonathan Laurence (Boston College), Amin Abdullah (Islamic State University, Indonesia), Mohammed Hashas (LUISS, Rome)

Chair: Giancarlo Bosetti (Reset DOC)

Book: Mohammed Hashas, Jan Jaap de Ruiter, Niels Valdemar Vinding, eds., Imams in Western Europe: Developments, Transformations, and Institutional Challenges (Amsterdam UP, 2018)

 


Held at King Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences

Rue du Corail, Ain Diab, Casablanca, Morocco

Tel. : 05 22 39 10 27/30 Fax : 05 22 39 10 31

secretariat@fondation.org.ma – http://www.fondation.org.ma


Scientific Committee

Fouad Ben Ahmed (Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania Institute for Higher Islamic Studies EDHH, Rabat)

Mohammed Bensalah (Granada Institute for Higher Education and Research, Granada)

Giancarlo Bosetti (Reset DOC, Milan)

Abdou Filali-Ansary (Aga Khan University, London)

Nouzha Guessous (Hassan II University, Casablanca)

Mohamed Haddad (University of Carthage, Tunis)

Mohammed Hashas (LUISS University, Rome)

Mohamed-Sghir Janjar (King Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences, Casablanca)

Jonathan Laurence (Boston College)

Conference Scientific Coordinator

Mohammed Hashas (LUISS University, Rome)

Attendance is free and open to the public.

Working languages: English and Arabic.

A simultaneous translation from English to Arabic and vice-versa will be provided.

For information, please contact us at events@resetdoc.org

L'articolo Program Casablanca proviene da Reset Dialogues on Civilizations | a venue for all tribes.

Sources of Pluralism in Islamic Thought

$
0
0

Casablanca Seminars
International Conference
9-11 July, 2018
Fondation du Roi Abdul-Aziz
Rue du Corail, Ain Diab – Casablanca, Morocco

Reset Dialogues in partnership with the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation and the Granada Institute for Higher Education and Research are pleased to present this international symposium that was made possible also thanks to the support of Henry Luce Foundation’s Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, Nomis Foundation and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As a global religion, Islam and its jurisprudence have offered heterogeneous responses to a range of questions facing different faiths and communities. Modernity imposed new questions upon religious scholars, theologians and philosophers, demanding of them a new version of pluralism in the theological and political arenas. While doctrinal or philosophical exclusivism rejects “the other” in theory — and frequently in practice, too — inclusivism connotes the accommodation and toleration of difference. But if that means the reluctant acceptance of difference within a hierarchy of worldviews, inclusion may not be enough to create more egalitarianism within modern multicultural societies. Modern pluralism might come to mean, instead, a robust appreciation of human diversity and values.

 

L'articolo Sources of Pluralism in Islamic Thought proviene da Reset Dialogues on Civilizations | a venue for all tribes.

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