Book Talk: On Muslim Democracy Refreshments will be served from 2:30pm GMT outside the venue for those attending in-person. You can join this event online via Zoom here: https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/84613520874 Zoom passcode: alwaleed24 Overview In May 2016, two years after the adoption of a democratic constitution, forged through almost three years of painstaking deliberation and bargaining in a national constituent assembly, the historically Islamist Tunisian party Ennahda formally declared at their annual Party Congress to have gone beyond the label of “political Islam” and identified themselves as “Muslim Democrats”. The Concluding Statement of the Congress declared that “that the Ennahda Party has in practice gone beyond all the justifications that may be used to consider it part of what is called ‘political Islam,’ and that this common label does not express the essence of its current identity nor reflect the substance of its future vision. Ennahda believes its work to be within an authentic endeavor to form a broad trend of Muslim democrats who reject any contradiction between the values of Islam and those of modernity”. As noted by many both within and without the party, this was both an abrupt break given the realities of open political competition and also something of a ratification of long-term elements of the party’s ideology and political culture. How should scholars understand the ideology and phenomenon of “Muslim Democracy”? How does it differ from Islamism or previous theories of “Islamic Democracy”? How does it differ from non-Muslim theories of pluralist parliamentay democracy? On Muslim Democracy is a unique effort to explain this phenomenon ideologically through the translation of ten central essays by Rached Ghannouchi that elaborate a distinct approach to politics, democracy, and disagreement along with a lengthy philosophical dialogue between Ghannouchi and political philosopher Andrew March. Speaker Biography Andrew F. March is Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He is the author of Islam and Liberal Citizenship (OUP, 2009) and The Caliphate of Man: Popular Sovereignty in Modern Islamic Thought (Harvard, 2019). Along with Rached Ghannouchi, he is also the author of On Muslim Democracy: Essays and Dialogues (Oxford, 2023). Chaired by Dr Mira Al Hussein Mira Al Hussein is Alwaleed Early Career Fellow in Authority in the Globalised Muslim World. She researches and writes extensively on topics related to state-society relations, citizenship, women and migrants in the Arab states of the Gulf. Mira’s research interests and area expertise broadly covers the Middle East, with a focus on the Arabian Peninsula. She is currently researching the migratory patterns and experiences of Arab Gulf citizens, and the formation of diasporic political agency in host countries. She will be teaching a course on Gulf histories, cultures and societies. Feb 23 2024 15.00 - 17.00 Book Talk: On Muslim Democracy Join us for a Book Talk: 'On Muslim Democracy' - a lecture that will explain the current realities of modernity, democracy, and ideology using Tunisia as a case study. Online and In Person Room G06, 50 George Square Location Register Here
Book Talk: On Muslim Democracy Refreshments will be served from 2:30pm GMT outside the venue for those attending in-person. You can join this event online via Zoom here: https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/84613520874 Zoom passcode: alwaleed24 Overview In May 2016, two years after the adoption of a democratic constitution, forged through almost three years of painstaking deliberation and bargaining in a national constituent assembly, the historically Islamist Tunisian party Ennahda formally declared at their annual Party Congress to have gone beyond the label of “political Islam” and identified themselves as “Muslim Democrats”. The Concluding Statement of the Congress declared that “that the Ennahda Party has in practice gone beyond all the justifications that may be used to consider it part of what is called ‘political Islam,’ and that this common label does not express the essence of its current identity nor reflect the substance of its future vision. Ennahda believes its work to be within an authentic endeavor to form a broad trend of Muslim democrats who reject any contradiction between the values of Islam and those of modernity”. As noted by many both within and without the party, this was both an abrupt break given the realities of open political competition and also something of a ratification of long-term elements of the party’s ideology and political culture. How should scholars understand the ideology and phenomenon of “Muslim Democracy”? How does it differ from Islamism or previous theories of “Islamic Democracy”? How does it differ from non-Muslim theories of pluralist parliamentay democracy? On Muslim Democracy is a unique effort to explain this phenomenon ideologically through the translation of ten central essays by Rached Ghannouchi that elaborate a distinct approach to politics, democracy, and disagreement along with a lengthy philosophical dialogue between Ghannouchi and political philosopher Andrew March. Speaker Biography Andrew F. March is Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He is the author of Islam and Liberal Citizenship (OUP, 2009) and The Caliphate of Man: Popular Sovereignty in Modern Islamic Thought (Harvard, 2019). Along with Rached Ghannouchi, he is also the author of On Muslim Democracy: Essays and Dialogues (Oxford, 2023). Chaired by Dr Mira Al Hussein Mira Al Hussein is Alwaleed Early Career Fellow in Authority in the Globalised Muslim World. She researches and writes extensively on topics related to state-society relations, citizenship, women and migrants in the Arab states of the Gulf. Mira’s research interests and area expertise broadly covers the Middle East, with a focus on the Arabian Peninsula. She is currently researching the migratory patterns and experiences of Arab Gulf citizens, and the formation of diasporic political agency in host countries. She will be teaching a course on Gulf histories, cultures and societies. Feb 23 2024 15.00 - 17.00 Book Talk: On Muslim Democracy Join us for a Book Talk: 'On Muslim Democracy' - a lecture that will explain the current realities of modernity, democracy, and ideology using Tunisia as a case study. Online and In Person Room G06, 50 George Square Location Register Here
Feb 23 2024 15.00 - 17.00 Book Talk: On Muslim Democracy Join us for a Book Talk: 'On Muslim Democracy' - a lecture that will explain the current realities of modernity, democracy, and ideology using Tunisia as a case study.
