Making Sense of Hagia Sophia’s Conversion
Hagia Sophia, which means “divine wisdom” in Greek, has been subjected to many worldly yearnings of power and symbolism. There is no doubt that altering the status of the great church has always meant...
View ArticleErdogan’s Latest Anti-Modern Move: A Wake-up Call for Europe
Those were very tense days for Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan – both on the domestic front, due to the approaching anniversary he cares about most, that of the attempted coup against him, and...
View ArticleErdogan’s Turkey and the West after Hagia Sophia
A week after the “re-inauguration” of Hagia Sophia as a mosque, diplomacies are still struggling to understand the full implications of the shocking and yet largely expected choice by Recep Tayyip...
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«Time for Europe to Break Relations with Erdogan’s Regime». A Conversation...
«This move is an insult, to each and every one». A long-time UN civil servant and current professor of Turkish and Modern Asian Studies at the University of Athens, Cengiz Aktar has been pointing to...
View ArticleIslam and Western Secular Modernity: A Conversation with Nilufer Gole
Thursday, August 6, 2020 | 12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. EDT RSVP Required Location: Online Zoom Webinar Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and Reset Dialogues on...
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A Journey Through Pankisi, Georgia’s Remote Sufi Corner
The route between Tbilisi and the small village of Jokolo, in the middle of the Pankisi Valley, features a striking mountain scenery. From the Georgian capital, nestled in a green valley, the road...
View ArticleReligion, Magic, Secularity, and Spirituality – A Conversation with Peter van...
October 15, 2020 12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. EDT RSVP Required 18:30 – 19:45 Rome Time Location: Online Zoom Webinar This event is co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace,...
View ArticleTribute – A Late Conversation with Massimo Campanini
Testimony Today the scholarly community of classical and contemporary Arab-Islamic philosophy and theology lost a great scholar and man, the Italian Orientalist, scholar of Islam, professor Massimo...
View ArticleReading the Qur’an as a Philosophical Book
To open the way for a fresh and reformist reading and understanding of the Qur’an, Massimo Campanini refers to the teachings of Edmund Husserl and Enzo Paci on God’s truth not being absolute but telos,...
View ArticleState and Church in Russia: Has the Love Faded?
In 2012 Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, famously described Putin’s rule as a ‘miracle of God’ bringing together Church and State in Russia in a way not seen for nearly 100 years....
View ArticleIndian and Western Varieties of Secularism – A Conversation with Rajeev Bhargava
November 5, 2020 12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. EST RSVP Required 18:30 – 19:45 Rome Time Location: Online Zoom Webinar This event is co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace,...
View ArticleThe Divided Society After November 3rd
23 & 24 November 2020 If you missed the conference, you can re-view the full registration of each session on our Facebook page. November 23rd:...
View ArticleOn Fundamentalism, the Ambivalence of the Sacred, and Contested Modernities –...
December 3, 2020 12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. EST RSVP Required 18:30 – 19:45 Rome Time Location: Online Zoom Webinar This event is co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace,...
View ArticleA New Legislative Toolbox to Tackle Horizontal Jihadism
Some 31 years ago, in the fall of 1989, France witnessed its first Islamist “affair” in a school. Three young girls of the Gabriel-Havez school in Creil, in the Oise department, came with head veils to...
View ArticleFreedom of Expression and the Violation of the “Sacred”: a Muslim Perspective
We cannot talk about democracy without believing in collective and individual freedoms in their universal sense. Freedoms do not have an identity and they do not fragment. This is one of the intangible...
View ArticleOn Civil Islam, Education, Sharia Law and Ethics, and Democratization – A...
January 14, 2021 12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. EST RSVP Required 18:30 – 19:45 Rome Time Location: Online Zoom Webinar You can find the official event page here. This event is co-sponsored by Georgetown...
View ArticleToleration in Comparative Perspective: Concepts, Practices, Documents
January 19-23, 2021 Location: Online Zoom Webinar – Please register here. You can find the official event page here. A complete list of speakers is obtainable here. Reset Dialogues on Civilizations is...
View ArticleLooking for Redemption: Indians Gather for the Kumbh Mela
Despite the world being in the middle of a deadly pandemic and India as the second most hit country in terms of infection (in absolute numbers) with over 10 million cases and 150,000 deaths, a Hindu...
View ArticleWhat do Turkey and Israel have in Common? A Different Take on Religious...
With the exception of Faysal Devji’s 1993 book, comparing Israel to Muslim countries is a seldom if not taboo exercise. However, as I have argued in my 2018 article, doing so has benefits. First it...
View ArticleReligion, Bioethics, and COVID-19 Vaccination: Muslim Views
In modern history, the year 2020 will be remembered as a catalyst for change in the ways religions like Islam were forced to undertake a fresh understanding of theodicy related to universal human...
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