ISTANBUL SEMINARS May 30-June 5, 2009

Philosophers bridge the Bosphorus
Close encounters across all divides

“Religion, Human Rights and Multicultural Jurisdictions”

The second edition of the Istanbul Seminars focused on multicultural and religious claims and their moral and legal implications. The Seminars followed different paths: Turkish intellectuals and Tariq Ramadan confronted the issue of Islam in Europe. Nasr Abu Zayd and Avishai Margalit, Ayalet Shachar discussed the limits of religious freedom and the issue of apostasy, while Nilüfer Göle reflected on cultural identity, group rights and the politics of memory with Armenian intellectuals. The tangled relations between religion, democracy and secularism have been analyzed by Michael Walzer, Ramin Jahanbegloo, and Richard Bernstein.

Participants: Cengiz Aktar, Andrew Arato, Rifat Bali, Ali Bayramoglu, Benjamin Barber, Seyla Benhabib, Richard Bernstein, Aysen Candas Bilgen, Faruk Birtek, Andrea Buechler, Marina Calloni, Jean Cohen, Maeve Cooke, Alessandro Ferrara, Nancy Fraser, Elisabetta Galeotti, Zeynep Gambetti, Nilüfer Göle, Nader Hashemi, Ramin Jahanbegloo, Ayse Kadioglu, Fuat Keyman, Ioanna Kucuradi, Sebastiano Maffettone, Avishai Margalit, Tariq Ramadan, David Rasmussen, Massimo Rosati, Ayelet Shachar, Roberto Toscano, Nadia Urbinati, Michael Walzer,  Arus Yumul,  Nasr Abu Zayd.