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05/18/2010 - 05/18/2010 | Beirut

Orientalists, Islamists and the Global Public Sphere

Lecture by Prof. Dr. Dietrich Jung | University of Southern Denmark

In light of the ongoing public debate that focuses on differences between Islam and the West, this presentation suggests a change of perspective. Instead of explaining differences, it aims at understanding similarities.
Departing from the observation that both “Western Orientalists” and “Islamic Fundamentalists” conceptualize Islam as an “all-encompassing, determinant and unchanging” cultural entity, the presentation traces this image back to a process of the reinterpretation of Islamic traditions by Islamic reformers and Orientalist scholars in the nineteenth century. It identifies the origin of this image in the discursive and social interactions among Islamic Modernists and Orientalists providing the foundation for an essentialist interpretation of Islam that has developed through the twentieth century in a complex process of cross-cutting (self)-interpretations of Muslim and Western societies.

The presentation will substantiate this broader hypothesis by briefly examining the early phase of this process, in particular the relationship among scholars such as Ignaz Goldziher, C.H. Becker and Thomas W. Arnold, on the one hand, and Islamic reformers such as Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh or Muhammad Iqbal on the other.

Dr. Dietrich Jung is professor at the Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies of the University of Southern Denmark. His main fields of research comprise theories of world society, historical political sociology, modernization processes in the Muslim world, the relationship of religion and politics, as well as state formation, war and conflict in the Middle East.

Information on participating / attending:

Date:

05/18/2010 19:00 - 05/18/2010

Event venue:

Orient-Institut Beirut
Rue Hussein Beyhoum 44 (neighbouring City International School);
Zokak el-Blat;
P.O.B. 11-2988 Beirut
Lebanon

Target group:

Scientists and scholars, Students

Email address:

Relevance:

international

Subject areas:

Cultural sciences, Politics, Religion, Social studies

Types of events:

Entry:

05/11/2010

Sender/author:

Gesche Schifferdecker

Department:

Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit

Event is free:

yes

Language of the text:

English

URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event31374


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