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Conference Announcement "Citizenship, Security and Democracy" International Conference Association of Muslim Social Scientists Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research International Institute of Islamic Thought Istanbul (Turkey) 1-3 September 2006 __________________________________________________ The time for an international gathering of Muslim social scientists is at present a necessity. Global political upheavals have created an insatiable demand for studies, information and analysis of Islam and Muslims. The Muslim social scientist is not only being asked to be academic, objective and dispassionate about critical issues related to the Muslim experience, faith, culture and philosophy, but is also being called upon to "represent" a community misrepresented in monolithic terms. The inherent diversity of the Muslim experience across regional, national, ethnic, theological and social divides defies the homogenising logic of mass media, popular culture, and governmental politics. The events of 9/11 in the US and 7/7 in the UK have created within circles of Muslim social scientists, especially in North America and Europe, an opportunity for research to explore the Muslim experience in multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary ways. We need now to create overlapping, synergistic discourse that will both examine the Muslim experience, and provide the necessary research, analysis and understanding to those who wish to enact social change. Social scientists must be acutely aware of the role they play in the future development of Muslim communities in the West and beyond. In this conference, we will begin to build a network of and importance of such research. The notion of citizenship and security as they relate to democracy and freedom lie at the heart of discourses centred around the presence of significant Muslim communities in the West. In addressing these themes, we will consider these terms in their broadest way. The issue of 'citizenship' can represent a confluence of identities-legal, political, social, religious and spiritual. 'Security', in comparison, has legislative, policy, political, economic, theological and social implications, but can also be used to examine human rights, trust relations, community cohesion, social exclusion, and marginalization. The new critical tendencies on the capacity of 'democracy' to safeguard the human rights of minorities and collective identities give us a framework for understanding and gauging the status of a pluralistic cultural identity. Further, if anything, the presence of significant Muslim minorities and the emergence of new Islamic discourses regarding modernity have begun to challenge the restrictive and exclusive notions of culture. We need to question 'for whom' these rights are. Themes: 1) Citizenship: New Paradigms and Challenges 2) Security, Violence and Peace 3) Democracy, democratisation: Prospects for Civil Society Contact: >>From Turkey: [email protected] >>From the Arab World: [email protected] >>From North and South America: [email protected] >>From Europe and the Rest of the World: [email protected] Web: http://www.amss.net/intlconf2006.html __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org/ Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://agd.polylog.org/cal/
