When Terry Jones, a Florida pastor, announced his plan to burn Qurans on 9/11 with a tweet and an “International Burn a Koran Day” page on Facebook, he ignited an international conflagration of outrage. As news spread, worldwide condemnation and anxiety mounted. At least two people died in a demonstration in Afghanistan. It seemed this…
Professor Jocelyne Cesari, Director of Harvard’s Islam in the West Program discusses today’s most pressing integration issues in this interview. She explores how Muslims in America and Europe differ, Islam’s compatibility with democracy, homegrown radicalism in the West, Switzerland’s minaret ban, France’s national identity debate, and ways to build stronger bridges between our two worlds.
This Le Figaro report suggests that both moderate and radical Muslims in France seek support on the web, that the Imam is only one of many possible guides. While it offers a place for more fundamentalist interpretations like Salafism from Saudi Arabia, the internet is also revolutionizing Muslim thought. As Jocelyne Cesari, a scholar of…
French specialist of religion and Islam, Bruno Étienne has passed away in Aix-en-Provence, France. In 1980 Étienne became director of the CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research), holding the chair in the Muslim World and became Professor at the Institute of Political Studies in Aix-en-Provence. In 1985 he founded “Observatoire du fait religieux” (Observatory of…
Jocelyne Cesari – Associate, Middle East Center, Harvard University Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Harvard’s Jocelyne Cesari for a discussion of the subtle and complex changes transforming Islam practice and thinking as Muslims live and work in the West. Topics covered include: Muslim women, the changes in religious practices, sharia and Western courts, the emergence…
