International scholars see Muslim solidarity as reaction to chilly reception in host countries
TORONTO, May 31, 2007 – Many of the world’s leading scholars of Islam will speak at a York University conference on Muslim diasporas this weekend about the social, cultural and economic factors that encourage Muslims to form a collective religious identity when faced with inhospitable Western host societies.
The international conference, “Muslim Diasporas: religious and national identity, gender, cultural resistance,” takes place June 1 to 3 at the Delta-Chelsea Hotel in downtown Toronto. It is part of a new Ford Foundation project that is an international, comparative and collaborative study of relations between Muslim diasporas and host societies in selected Western countries. The project is co-directed by Professors Haideh Moghissi and Saeed Rahnema of the School of Social Sciences, Atkinson Faculty, at York University.
Rahnema, director of York’s School of Public Policy and Administration, will present a paper which argues that by ignoring the vast diversity of the Muslim population and making concessions to the conservative religious leaders, the government is changing the nature of Canadian multiculturalism. Ratiba Hadj-Moussa and Karine Côté-Boucher, of York’s Department of Sociology will speak about the Quebec National Assembly’s motion against shari’a. Canadian scholars from the University of Calgary, Queen’s University and the University of Toronto will also be speaking.
One of the highlights of the conference will be a presentation by Tariq Ramadan, a Professor of Islamic Studies doing research at Oxford, Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, at the Lakahi Foundation in London and at Erasmus University in The Netherlands. Ramadan will ask a provocative question in his presentation, “Do We Have a Muslim Diaspora: Multiculturalism, Integration and Media.”
The conference features 26 speakers, from France, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, the US and Canada, all leading experts in the field, including:
Haleh Afshar, (OBE), Professor of Politics and Women’s Studies at the University of York (U.K.) and Chair of United Nation Association's International Services and its Honorary President who will report on a year-long government-funded discussion between Muslim women in the U.K. about their rights entitlement and their demands.
F.J. Buijs, from the Institute of Migration and Ethnic Studies, University of Amsterdam and scientific director of the inter university Centre for Radicalism and Extremism Studies (CRES), advisor of the Ministry of Justice on extremism and terrorism, and advisor of Forum, institute for multicultural development, who will speak on Muslim Politics in Western Europe.
Maliheh Razazan, from Voices of the Middle East and North Africa on KPFA Radio in Berkeley, and a daily public affairs program on National Public Radio, whose presentation “Big Media, 9/11 and the war on journalism” will examine how major media outlets and neoconservatives failed to raise serious questions about U.S. foreign policy in the wake of the 9/11 events.
Dr. Tareq Y. Ismael, professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Secretary General of the International Association of Middle Eastern Studies, and editor of the International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies, whose topic is “Between Iraq and a Hard Place: Iraqis in Diaspora.”
Sepideh Farkhondeh, from Sciences-Po, Paris, who looks at how young French women of Muslim descent, and the Islamic headscarf, became the focus of a political debate about secularism at school.
Farhan Ahmad Nizami, founding director of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and editor of the Journal of Islamic Studies, who will speak on the topic “Being British, Feeling Muslim.”
For a complete list of speakers and the workshop schedule, click here.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 190,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 24 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
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Media contact (before 5 p.m. on June 1)
Janice Walls, Media Relations, York University, 416-736-2100 x22101/ wallsj@yorku.ca
