One year after the Hamas massacre on October 7th, the war has expanded into a regional conflict, involving Lebanon and later Iran. In Gaza, the death toll has reached nearly 42,000. Most of Hamas’ leadership – except for Yahya Sinwar – has been killed, as well as Hasan Nasrallah and much of Hezbollah’s leadership. Meanwhile, 97 Israeli hostages remain in Hamas’ hands, and violence in the West Bank has become increasingly frequent, with many analysts warning of a potential “Gaza-fication” of the area. Reset DOC reached Prof. Olivier Roy, Professor of Political Science at the European University Institute (Florence).
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- 11 May 2011The announcement of Bin Laden’s death signaled another step forward for relations between Muslims and the West. Feelings of relief were widespread, and even in the Arab world there was no sign of the violent reactions that some expected. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood declared that Bin Laden should have been tried in a court of law, but also specified that the former leader of al Qaeda did not represent Islam. ResetDoC has analyzed the consequences of Bin Laden’s death with Olivier Roy, the great sociologist of religion and the author of Reset’s book entitled Islam alla sfida della laicità, 2008 (in English, Secularism Confronts Islam, Columbia, 2007). In his opinion, the Muslim Brotherhood’s position is coherent: “They do consider Bin Laden as an evil man, but by calling for a trial, they play on international law and can maintain a critical attitude toward the heavy-handed U.S. political practices in the area.”
- 24 May 2010«Islam is being integrated into the West, but just as religion, not as a different culture,» says Olivier Roy, French scholar of Islam, in this Resetdoc interview. «Each country has to recognize Islam just like other religions. We need to integrate Islam within the existing framework and we should have a more open view of the relations between the state, the public sphere and religion. This, precisely because the new religious movements are first of all the expression of individual beliefs and not those of institutions.»