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islam

Migrations
Open society and Islam: a debate held in Zurich
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Nicola Missaglia 1 December 2010
On November 17th 2010, ResetDoc and the Swiss University organisation UFSP Asia and Europe organised a conference on this subject in Zurich, on the theme “Islam in Europe”. Widely reported by the Swiss press, the event was held in the assembly hall at Zurich University, filled with students, professors and ordinary citizens, bearing witness to the fact that the need to address subjects such as pluralism, relations with Islam and European democracies, democratic dialectics between the majority and the minorities, tension between liberal principles and the traditional instruments of democratic deliberation, is a need that a rising number of people consider pressing.
Religion
Farewell to Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd, Master of critical thought
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Sadik Al-Azm 15 August 2010
Nasr is the very up to date descendant of the long line of courageous, bold, outspoken and critical Arab intellectuals, dating back to Qassim Amin from the end of the 19th century, who adopted and vehemently defended the most enlightened, progressive and advanced positions of their times on the major issues vexing Arab and Muslim societies to this very moment, such as progress, renewal, development, education, women’s emancipation, secularism, democracy, human rights, heritage, Islam, modernity, science, rationality and so on.
Religion
«Problems in the Islamic world cannot be blamed exclusively on Islam»
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Nasr Abu Zayd interviewed by Nina zu Fürstenberg 12 July 2010
From Reset-DoC’s Archive – Within the framework of the in-depth analysis that Reset devotes to the subject of liberal Islam, we wish to present an interview with the Egyptian thinker Abu Zayd, who is one of the most respected and influential Muslim reformists. Abu Zayd explains that, contrary to widespread belief, within the Muslim world there are many reformists and organisations that spread the principles of liberalism, equality, democracy and human rights. Unfortunately, however, the West appears not to acknowledge this and instead of contributing to strengthen these tendencies, it tends to emphasise Islam’s negative aspects and, in particular, its links with terrorism. The problem – continued Abu Zayd – does not lie in Islam or in the Koran, but rather in the stubbornness that characterises extremists in interpreting the Holy Book in a rigid and literal manner, without allowing for any kind of critical debate. Applying hermeneutics to the Koran would instead facilitates its understanding and a more current interpretation, opening the way to a modernisation of the text without corrupting its sacredness. (This interview was published by Reset-DoC in June 2010)
Religion
Farewell to Zayd, liberal Islamic theologian
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Giancarlo Bosetti 6 July 2010
Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid upheld the belief that the Koran is a book passed down through oral communication and one destined to poetic recitation. He was a believer and, as a Muslim, accusations of apostasy offended him profoundly. Should the conquering of democracy ever be achieved in the entire Muslim world, the history that will be written will have to linger at length on this small man with his frail health.
Gender
«Is the hijab debate similar to the one on abortion?»
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Nancy Fraser 3 June 2010
«Are we talking too much about Religion? I think rather that we should step back and think about why so many political questions are being framed in terms of religion. Controversies around the hijab, the headscarf, in Europe and in Turkey occupy an analogous position to the battles over abortion in the Unites States,» says American critical theorist Nancy Fraser in this Resetdoc video-interview. «In both cases you have a kind of media spectacles around these issues. They are framed in very polarizing ways, and they have a way of sucking up all the oxygen in the atmosphere. They obscurate for example the feminist questions on social rights and health care.»
Religion
Fear of others. When minarets become missiles
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20 May 2010
Racism, the symbols of Islam, the relationship between Europe and the Muslim community were at the centre of the first day of the third edition of the Istanbul Seminars, the yearly conference organised by Resetdoc at the Bilgi University. Giancarlo Bosetti, Reset’s editor-in-chief, opened the sessions, reminding everyone how fear has become the main instrument of governments in applying pressure on society’s weaker and more easily influenced groups to incite hostile sentiments such as xenophobia and racism. Nilüfer Göle, chair of the Faculty of Sociology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, instead analysed the perverse perspective according to which, for many westerners, minarets symbolically represent missiles and veiled women are an omen of the imposition of Shari’ a in Europe. An article by Marco Cesario.
Religion
«We need an alternative narrative to the narrative of violent extremism»
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Farah Pandith (US Department of State) talks to Elisa Pierandrei (Video) 29 April 2010
«There is a lot of diversity out there in the Muslim communities around the world.» explains Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities for the United States Department of State, in this Resetdoc interview, «Violent extremism is not confined to a particular region of the world, and we know for sure that the most credible voices able to push back against that violent ideology are those of Muslim themselves. We need to focus on local level.»