WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Thursday, October 18, the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Middle East Program and the Muslim World Initiative of the United States Institute of Peace will host a talk by Dr. Abdou Filali Ansari, one of the Arab world’s most prominent — and in some ways controversial — advocates of Islamic liberalism.
Commenting on Dr. Ansari’s presentation will be Dr. Daniel Brumberg, a scholar of political reform in the Muslim world and Acting Director of the Muslim World Initiative. Chaired by Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Middle East Program, this promises to be a fascinating discussion.
Many thinkers and activists in the Middle East assert that a fundamental reinterpretation of Islamic values is a necessary precondition for real and sustained political reform. Such a transformation has long been advocated by a diverse group of Islamic modernists or Islamic liberals, some of whom have made the case for a veritable reformation of Islam. Today, however, Islamic liberals find themselves isolated between the hammer of state enforced autocracy and the anvil of Islamist radicalism. Moreover, they suffer from a regional and international context that is increasingly defined by escalating concerns — a context that is hardly propitious to their efforts.
Dr. Abdou Filali Ansari serves as the Director of the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations (AKU-ISMC), at the Aga Khan University in the United Kingdom. Previously, he was the Director of King Abdul-Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences in Casablanca, and Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Faculte des Lettres, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco. He has held various administrative positions. He was editor of Prologues: Revue Maghrebine du Livre, and has published various articles and book reviews on contemporary Islamic thought.
What: Challenges and Dilemmas Facing Liberal Muslim Thinkers
Who: Abdou Filali Ansari, Director of the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations (AKU-ISMC), Aga Khan University, United Kingdom and discussant Daniel Brumberg, Acting Director, Muslim World Initiative, United States Institute of Peace
When: Thursday, October 18, 2007, 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Where: Woodrow Wilson Center, 5th floor Conference Room. The Woodrow Wilson Center is located in the Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20004-3027
Media planning to cover the event should contact Sharon McCarter at (202) 691-4016 or sharon.mccarter@wilsoncenter.org.
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the living, national memorial to President Wilson established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a nonpartisan institution, supported by public and private funds, engaged in the study of national and world affairs. The Center establishes and maintains a neutral forum for free, open, and informed dialogue.
SOURCE Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,
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