- 12 Jul 2012
THE ARAB AWAKENING: ISLAM AND THE NEW MIDDLE EAST
Jointly organised by:
ABSTRACT
Across the Arab World, the power of the people has freed them from the grip of dictatorships and exposed them to the opportunities and challenges of open societies. In embracing democracy and pluralism, will these countries lose their identity, beliefs and way of life? Or will they thrive and reclaim their memory to reinvent education, women’s rights, social justice, economic growth and the fight against corruption? Dr Ramadan argues that the debate cannot be reduced to a confrontation between two approaches – the modern and secular versus the traditional and Islamic – and he demonstrates that not only are both of these routes in crisis, but that the Arab world has an historic opportunity to stop blaming the West, to jettison its victim status and to create a truly new dynamic. Tariq Ramadan offers up a challenge to the Middle East: what enduring legacy will you produce from the historic moment of the Arab Spring?
About the Speakers
Dr. Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University, UK and teaches at the Oxford Faculty of Theology. He is also a visiting professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies (Qatar) and Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan), and is Director of the Research Centre of Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE, in Doha, Qatar). He is active at both academic and grassroots levels, lecturing extensively throughout the world on theology, ethics, social justice, ecology and interfaith, as well intercultural dialogue. He is President of the European think-tank, European Muslim Network (EMN) in Brussels. Among his recent works are The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism (2010); What I Believe (2009); and Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation (2008).
