Hi everyone,
Please remember that tomorrow, tuesday (Sept 4), we are meeting at 4:30pm in the JC's Dewberry Hall. we will move back to our classroom around 5:45 pm. you will be responsible for writing a one-page reflection paper, so do take notes. the guidelines for the reflection paper are on the course website, under Assignments.
The Ali Vural Ak Islamic Studies Center will be hosting Dr. Jasser Auda for a guest lecture examining the various debates currently occurring among scholars and public intellectuals in Egypt and Tunisia around the question of Islam, equal citizenship, and democracy in the Arab world in the aftermath of the recent revolutions. Given the classes you are teaching this semester we thought the event might be of particular interest to your students and would be grateful if you could circulate the appended event description and/or attached flyer to your classes.
See you there!
bassam
DOWNLOAD FLYER HERE
The Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies
presents
The Arab Uprisings, Islam, and Equal Citizenship: Current Debates
Jasser Auda
Center of Islamic Legislation and Ethics,
Qatar Foundation
Tuesday, September 4, 4:30pm
Dewberry Hall, Johnson Center
Fairfax Campus, George Mason University
The phenomenal political success of Islamic groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis in Egypt and Tunisia has prompted a vigorous discussion about the role and limits of religion in politics in the Arab world. Secular groups and religious minorities in particular have expressed concern about the impact on personal and religious freedoms of a renewed emphasis on the need to implement shari'ah law. For their own part, Islamists have expressed commitment to the idea of a "civil state with an Islamic reference"--but what does this actually entail in practice? In this talk, Jasser Auda will provide an overview of the current debates in Egypt and broader Islamic circles with respect to this question, with a focus on the question of ensuring equal citizenship. He will tease out the often subtle but important distinctions between Muslim Brotherhood thinkers, proponents of Salafism, and traditional religious institutions such as Al-Azhar.
Jasser Auda is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Center of Islamic Legislation and Ethics, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Qatar Foundation. He is a founding member and member of the Executive Board of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, former founding director of the Maqasid Research Center in the Philosophy of Islamic Law in London, fellow of the International Institute of Advanced Systems Research in Canada, member of the UK Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism, and a visiting lecturer to universities and institutes in Egypt, Canada, USA, UK, Malaysia, and India. His latest books printed this year are Maqasid Al-Shariah as Philosophy of Islamic Law: A Systems Approach, and Between Shariah and Politics: Questions in the Post-Revolutions Era