Reformism Bernard Lewis 26 May 2005

Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -3-

To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Reformism Bernard Lewis 26 May 2005

Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -2-

To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Reformism Bernard Lewis 26 May 2005

Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -1-

To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Themes Kamel Labidi 13 May 2005

Stifled Tunisia gets a UN reward

No Arab ruler pays more lip service to democracy and press freedom, while simultaneously silencing critics and independent journalists, than Tunisian President Zein al-Abedin ben Ali. Addressing the state-run Tunisian Association of Newspapers Editors (TANE) and the Association of Journalists (AJ) recently on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, Ben Ali cla […].
Themes Nawaat 03 May 2005

The Press in the Maghrib

Between a Rock (Censorship) and a Hard Place (Prison) By Hamid Skif From Mauritania to Egypt, which borders with the Maghrib, not a day goes by without journalists being harassed because of their work. To mark the International Day of the Freedom of the Press, the Algerian journalist and author Hamid Skif sums up the situation. Without a doubt, the Kaf […].
Themes Nawaat 29 April 2005

Tunisia jails lawyer for Internet writings

April 29, 2005 9:21 AM TUNIS (Reuters) – A Tunisian court jailed lawyer and human rights activist Mohamed Abbou for three-and-half years for charges stemming from articles he published on the Internet, lawyers said on Friday. He went on trial on Thursday on charges of “his incitement of the population to infringe the laws”, “spreading false information […].
Reformism Fareena Alam 23 April 2005

A humane Muslim future

Islam can move beyond its association with oppression and violence by being true to itself and its past, says Fareena Alam. “Islam means peace”, they exclaim. “Islam condemns terrorism”, they insist. “The vast majority of Muslims reject violence”, they wail. Even before 11 September 2001, Muslim leaderships in Britain and elsewhere went to great pains to […].
Themes Gilles Kepel 22 April 2005

The trail of political Islam

Gilles Kepel, one of the world’s foremost experts on the modern Middle East, has written Jihad : the Trail of Political Islam, the first comprehensive attempt to follow the history and spread of Islamist political movements. In a talk given at the Institut Français in London as part of a collaboration between European cultural institutes on the relationshi […].
Reformism Burhan Ghalioun 19 April 2005

Islam et terrorisme

1- Du Texte à l’Histoire Comme dans tous les pays non-occidentaux, l’engagement des sociétés dans la voie de la modernité a posé beaucoup de défis et provoqué beaucoup de contradictions. L’une de ces dernières concerne la manière dont il faut s’approprier les valeurs de la modernité et accéder à la nouvelle civilisation. Face aux courants nationalistes e […].
Reformism Shirin Ebadi 07 April 2005

Human Rights, Women and Islam

The ISIM invited 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi for her first formal visit to the Netherlands where she met with members of NGOs, government officials, scholars, students, and activists from 15-17 April 2004. On 16 April she gave a lecture at the Nieuwe of Littéraire Sociëteit de Witte in The Hague entitled, Human Rights, Women and Islam which […].
Reformism Quintan Wiktorowicz 03 April 2005

Conceptualizing Islamic Activism

Since the late 1990s, a number of Islamic movement specialists have begun to bridge the gap between the study of Islamic activism and social science theories of collective action. The underlying premise is that Islamic activism is not sui generis. Since the late 1990s, a number of Islamic movement specialists have begun to bridge the gap between the stud […].
Reformism Ibrahim Abu-Rabi 01 April 2005

Sayyid Qutb and his influence

Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi is professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary (Hartford, Connecticut). He is also co-editor of The Muslim World. Among his publications : Intellectual Origins of Islamic Resurgence in the Modern Arab World (Al […].
Reformism Massoud Romdhani 31 March 2005

Islam and politics don’t mix

From the end of the 19th century, pan–Arabic and pan–Islamic movements have vied for influence in countries like ours. The Islamic movement developed in the 1950s in Egypt and spread to various countries. In Tunisia, it arose, particularly in the 1970s, as a sort of riposte to the leftist ideas that were prevalent at the time. Many people are convinced that the then regime of Habib Bourguiba helped the Islamic movement establish itself.

Reformism Omid Safi 29 March 2005

What is Progressive Islam?

The various understandings of Islam which fall under the rubric of ‘progressive’ are both continuations of, and radical departures from, the hundred and fifty year old tradition of liberal Islam. (1) Liberal advocates of Islam generally display an uncritical, almost devotional identification with modernity, and often (but do not always) by-pass discussions […].