Portraits
"I am a daughter of this country"
I am a daughter of this country. In the last 40 years many things have changed in the lives of the Muslims in Germany. Today there are parallel societies and ghettos, there are fundamentalists and fanatics, and young Muslims who are caught mid-fire. There is a religious concept which, due to prejudice-related ignorance, often produces considerable mistrust and distance between worlds, instead of uniting them. After more than 30 years - writes Emel Abidin-Algan, daughter of the founder of the Milli-Görüs group - I have bid adieu to my veil. I have realised that the Quoran can be understood in its historical context. Today for example, unlike in the age of the Prophet, no man still needs a clear sign such as the veil so as not to molest a woman. Because when a woman hides behind a veil, it is because of men.
Timothy Garton Ash, The British Voice of Europe
Timothy Garton Ash is the author of eight books of political writing or ‘history of the present’ which have charted the transformation of Europe over the last quarter-century. He is Professor of European Studies in the University of Oxford, Director of the European Studies Centre at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of our Association, Reset Dialogues on Civilizations.
Mohammed Arkoun and the modernization of Islam
French academician of Algerian origin, philosopher and historian, he is considered a leading authority on contemporary Islam. He "has urged examination of the 'unthought' dimensions in traditional Muslim thought in order to tap recessed resources of both secular and religious insight" (Dallmayr). He wrote about the “dogmatic enclosure” of the quranic discourse, and in 1994 the New York Times defined him “the leading French-language spokesman calling for a rethinking of Islam in a modern mode”, adding that “Mr. Arkoun’s Islam is tolerant, liberal and modern”.
Abdolkarim Soroush, the Great Reformer
“If Iran’s democratic reform movement has a house intellectual, it’s Abdolkarim Soroush”, wrote The Boston Globe in 2004. “Drawing from both Western and Islamic sources, Soroush has laid the foundations for Islamic pluralism by challenging Khomeini’s claim that Iran’s mullahs have a God-given right to govern”, wrote the American Time magazine in 2005. Time also included him in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Who is Abdolkarim Soroush? A reformist voice of Islam, a reformist voice of Iran. According to some, “a dangerous man”.