Mediterranean Programme - [05/27/2008]

CIDOB Foundation to host a conference on Islamism and nationalism in 2009

The CIDOB Foundation - represented by Eduard Soler, Coordinator of its Mediterranean Programme - has participated in the research group "Religion, nation and state in the Muslim world". The group is made up of researchers from different disciplines and nationalities who examine the role of religion in the construction of a nation and the creation of nation-states in the countries of the Muslim world.

The group began its work at an initial meeting at the Swedish Institute in Istanbul in February 2007, and during 21-24 May 2008, it held its first international conference in the Swedish city of Lund. The seminar's theme was “Islam, the State and the search for community”, and it covered aspects of global scope, such as the crisis of public Islam (led by Dr. Reinhard Schulze from the University of Berne) and a discussion on whether Islamism and nationalism are sister ideologies (led by Dr. Elisabeth Özdalga from the Middle East Technical University of Ankara). The seminar - which was organised by the Centre for Middle East Studies at Lund University - also included presentations of case studies focusing on Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, Syria and Chechnya.

In his address, Eduard Soler, Coordinator of the Mediterranean Programme at the CIDOB Foundation, dealt with the EU’s policies and attitudes toward the religious factor, and particularly with respect to political Islam in its relations with Turkey, on one hand, and the Arab countries of the Mediterranean, on the other. These differences, Soler claims, are the result of both the different nature of the EU’s policies and instruments and of the different characteristics of these phenomena in Turkey and the rest of the region. Nevertheless, he pointed out that among political, diplomatic and expert sectors, there is a growing interest in the role that the sectors defined as "Islamo-democrats" could play in countries such as Morocco, Algeria and Egypt. These movements reject violence, they accept the rules of democracy and champion the idea of greater cooperation with Europe and with the West in general.

During the conference, the research group's upcoming activities were also announced. In spring 2009, the CIDOB Foundation will host an international seminar for this group which will analyse the relationship between Islamism and nationalism. Addresses will be presented that will analyse whether an increasing recourse to religious rhetoric can be observed among traditional nationalist sectors and whether, at the same time, the Islamist movements that espoused a discourse that went beyond state borders are strengthening their nationalistic side. The seminar will be organised by the CIDOB Foundation in collaboration with members of the research group, though it is hoped that Spanish academics and institutions with a particular interest in these issues will also involve themselves in the event.

At the meeting in Lund it was also announced that in 2010, the University of Copenhagen will be organising another seminar titled “The uses of history and the politics of memory in the Muslim world" at the Danish Institute in Damascus. Through this series of seminars, the research group hopes to build bridges between different disciplines and between academics from different origins, and to build a shared reflection on the subject - The religious factor in the Islamic world - which often falls victim to reductionist, stereotyped images.

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