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CSID Email Bulletin |
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CSID Monthly Lecture Series
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May 24: Rationality and the Muslim Mind (By Karim Douglas Crow)
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May 26: The Situation of Human Rights in Syria (By Radwan Ziadeh)
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3. June 8: Iraq and U.S. efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East (By Larry Diamond)
CSID Monthly Lecture Series
The Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID) cordially invites you to its upcoming THREE Brown Bag Lecture Series:
Rationality and the Muslim Mind
By Karim Douglas Crow
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
12:00 Noon 1:30 PM
Summary:
The question of Islam and Rationality has the greatest significance for revivifying Muslim societies to ensure their future relevance and viability as a world force for stability, peace, and material and spiritual growth. What are the epistemic and metaphysical bases of Islams religious, scientific and intellectual traditions and their consequences for rationality? What is the relation of these teachings to the rise of modernity, as well as the impact of the Islamic tradition upon the present? How may the new understandings and disciplines known today inform the Islamic tradition, and how may Muslims contribute to these new realizations?
These remarks grow out of our work on unraveling and explicating Muslim ideas concerning the understanding, scope, and functions of rationality with an eye to our contemporary reality. It aims to illuminate the continuing relevance of the Islamic critical-rational legacy as a key resource for contemporary Muslim cultural, intellectual and spiritual projects when meeting the challenges of our global age. Our remarks aim at an attempted overview and series of questions meant to arouse thought and convey the urgency of our situation, than a simplistic prescriptive remedy.
About the Speaker:
Professor Karim D. Crow teaches Islamic Thought (Philosophy, Theology & Intellectual Traditions) at ISTAC in Kuala Lumpur. Professor Crow serves as an Advisor & Consultant for several non-governmental programs and institutions dealing with Islamic Peace issues in the Arab world and Southeast Asia, and since 2002 as Consultant for the internationally-funded project Peace Education Curriculum: The Perspective of the Ulama of Aceh.
The Situation of Human Rights in Syria
By Radwan Ziadeh
Friday, May 26, 2006
12:00 Noon 1:30 PM
Summary:
Recent arrests of democracy and human rights activists in Syria have sent the message that political reforms in Syria have reached a dead-end. Are President Bashar al-Assad and the Baath regime in Syria interested in genuine political reforms and in respecting basic freedoms in Syria? We will hear from one of the leading voices for reforms, human rights, and democracy in Syria.
About the Speaker:
Radwan Ziadeh is editor of Tayyarat magazine, Director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies, and a member of several human rights associations in Syria. He wrote about 10 books on democracy, human rights, and modernizing Islamic thought, including "Islam in a Changing World". He also writes regularly for many Arabic publications, including the London-based Al-Hayat, the Lebanese dailies Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Balad and An-Nahar, the Daily Star, as well as Al-Ghad in Jordan.
This lecture will be in Arabic, but translation will be provided.
For more information, please visit: http://www.csid-online.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=178&Itemid=71
Iraq and U.S. efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East
By Larry Diamond
Thursday, June 8, 2006
12:00 Noon 1:30 PM
Summary:
The U.S. effort to promote democracy in Iraq has been severely hampered by strategic mistakes, a failure of planning, a failure to understand and secure the country, and a generally arrogant demeanor dating from the first days of the occupation. Although the Bush Administration has made many adjustments that have moved our policy in a more pragmatic direction, Iraq is becoming more polarized, violent, and unstable, and the urgent need now is to stabilize the country, while recognizing that real democratization will be a project for the long run.
At the same time, we must draw from the experience in Iraq, and recent political developments in Palestine and Egypt, lessons about how viable and sustainable democracies might be fostered in the Middle East. In most countries, it is going to require a multilateral effort in partnership with democratic reformers in civil society, party politics and (where they can be found) in the state and the regime as well. It must be a gradual effort that emphasizes negotiated agreements and allows time for moderate forces in civil society and political parties to develop their organizations, agendas, and support bases.
About the Speaker:
Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, co-editor of the Journal of Democracy, and co-director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. His books include Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq (2005). In addition, he has edited or co-edited 25 books on democratic development around the world, including Nigeria, Korea, Greater China, and the Middle East.
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Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID)
1625 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 601
Washington DC, 20036
This event will be available for viewing LIVE on the internet. If you would like to watch the lecture online, please send an e-mail to: sami@islam-democracy.org
Space is limited, please RSVP to: sami@islam-democracy.org
CSID invites applications for the part time position of IT Support Technician. The ideal candidate will assist CSID with website maintenance, workstation troubleshooting, web graphics and/or design, and network support. The ability to write and troubleshoot HTML without an HTML editor is required, as is experience managing and updating links for a sizable existing website.
Applicants must be able to work on site at the CSID office in downtown Washington, DC on Thursdays and Fridays.
Interested applicants should please send a resume and cover letter to aly@islam-democracy.org by May 31st.
For questions or comments about the information in this bulletin, contact
Sami Bawalsa at sami@islam-democracy.org.
Copyright 2005 Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID).
All Rights Reserved.
