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Home > Themes > Religion in Politics |
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Transcripts
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Mark A. Noll,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/29/08
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"The reason that Barack Obama's candidacy is such an important matter for the American history of race, religion, and politics goes back to the 1830s."
"To be a moderate in the Arab world today," says Jordanian diplomat Marwan Muasher, "is to be a very, very tiny minority." The reason is that all the Arab center's energy has been focused on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
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Sir Lawrence Freedman,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/22/08
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Looking back over the last 30 years, historian Sir Lawrence Freedman analyzes the complex politics of the Middle East and shows how America's policy choices in previous crises have led to the current dilemmas
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Noah Feldman,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/16/08
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In the West the idea of governance by Sharia law is radioactive, says Noah Feldman, yet for many in the Muslim world it represents their aspirations for rule of law. Can Islamic States succeed?
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Bernard Haykel,
Joanne J. Myers
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02/21/08
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Bernard Haykel sheds light on the inner workings of Saudi Arabia, from the relationship between the government and various Islamic groups, to the position of women and the Kingdom's relationship with the U.S.
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Ahmed Rashid,
Joanne J. Myers
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12/12/07
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Created as a Muslim state 60 years ago this August, Pakistan is in crisis, wrestling with Draconian laws, the conflict between secularism and Islam, and an increasing terrorist threat. Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban," analyses the situation.
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Olivier Roy,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/05/07
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What we are witnessing in Europe," says Roy, "is a transformation from an ethnic
minority into a faith community. These people want to be considered as citizens
and Muslims. They don't consider themselves as a diaspora."
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Walter Russell Mead,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/31/07
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Walter Russell Mead wittily explains how the individualistic faiths of Britain and America lent themselves so well to the creation of the modern economic and political order.
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Garry Wills,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/11/07
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The U.S. separation of church and state both unleashed evangelical feelings and tempered them with reason and rationality, says Wills. "Putting together the head and the heart is not easy, but we have been most successful as a country when that has happened."
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Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/02/07
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The 57-member OIC has embarked on an ambitious 10-year plan, which includes setting up a 10-billion-dollar fund for poverty alleviation and eventually establishing an independent body on human rights.
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Mark Lilla,
Joanne J. Myers
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09/26/07
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"It's not contemporary Islam that's the exception," says Mark Lilla. "We are the exception. We live on the other shore from those who see political theology as the only way of life, and we need to drop the illusion that we share a common vocabulary."
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D. Michael Lindsay,
Joanne J. Myers
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09/20/07
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Evangelicals have become the new internationalists, says Lindsay, working for more American engagement abroad at both policy and grassroot levels. How does this affect America and the rest of the world?
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Muhammad Qasim Zaman
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09/18/07
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Transcript coming soon.
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Martha Nussbaum,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/03/07
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The Hindu right poses a threat to India's secular democracy, says Martha Nussbaum, and this example of the impact of religious nationalism is relevant to democracies everywhere.
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Sari Nusseibeh,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/24/07
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In spite of the hatred and frustration on the surface, Palestinian activist and scholar Sari Nusseibeh optimistically believes that deep down there is readiness on the part of both Israelis and Palestinians to make peace.
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Zahid Hussain,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/12/07
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This is a tense time in Pakistan and Afghanistan, says Zahid Hussain. The Pakistan intelligence service and militant Islam are connected, Musharraf is walking a tightrope, and the Taliban is back in force in Afghanistan.
Jonathan Clarke argues that the Clash of Civilizations theory is largely based on mistaken conclusions about the meaning of the end of the Cold War, and could easily become a self-fulfilling prophesy.
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Ian Buruma,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/20/06
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What happens when political Islam collides with a secular Western European nation? Ian Buruma discusses the events that led to the brutal murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.
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Vali Nasr,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/18/06
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Vali Nasr argues that the Shia Crescent—stretching from Lebanon and Syria through the Gulf to Iraq and Iran, finally terminating in Pakistan and India—is gathering strength in the aftermath of Saddam's fall.
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Philip Jenkins,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/11/06
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By 2025, Africa and Latin America will have the largest number of Christians in the world, says Philip Jenkins, and theirs is a different Christianity from that commonly found in the Global North.
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John Danforth,
Joanne J. Myers
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09/20/06
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Religious people should engage in politics, argues Senator John Danforth, "but there is a difference between engaging in politics and transforming politics and government into an extension or an enforcer of your religious point of view."
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Milton Viorst,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/09/06
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In order to understand the Arab mistrust of the United States and of the West in general, we must examine the turbulent history of the relations between the Christian and Muslim world, particularly the clashes and betrayals since World War I.
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Jere Van Dyk,
Milton Viorst
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05/09/06
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"This is not a new war," says Viorst. "It’s the latest chapter in a war that has been going on between two great cultures, Islamic Eastern and the Christian West, for 1,400 years."
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Shirin Ebadi,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/01/06
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Dr. Ebadi discusses Iran's human rights situation, including gender and religious discrimination, and restrictions on freedom of expression. While democracy is incomplete, she says, it cannot be imposed from without, but must develop from within.
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Philip Jenkins,
Jere Van Dyk
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04/20/06
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"What happens between 1974 and 1980?" asks Jenkins. "I argue that there is a shift in political culture, political rhetoric, which is in a generally conservative direction, although sometimes the people who are pushing that conservatism might label themselves liberals or Democrats."
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Philip Jenkins,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/20/06
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In a wide-ranging talk, Professor Jenkins argues that the mid-to-late 1970s were a crucial turning point in religious and political landscapes around the world.
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Jytte Klausen,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/06/06
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Based on her interviews with over 300 Muslim leaders in Europe, Klausen argues that European Muslims are overwhelmingly liberal in outlook. Their essential goal, she says, is to build a European Islam independent of the Islamic countries.
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Olivier Roy,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/30/06
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The spread of Islam around the globe has blurred the connection between a
religion, a specific society, and a territory, says Roy. Accordingly
neofundamentalism has been gaining ground among rootless Muslim youth,
particularly among the 2nd and 3rd generation migrants in the West.
This phenomenon is feeding new forms of radicalism.
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Gershom Gorenberg,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/20/06
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Gershom Gorenberg discusses the history of the Israeli settlements and examines the roadblocks that continue to frustrate the establishment of peaceful relations with the Palestinians.
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Michael J. Sandel,
Shashi Tharoor,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/08/06
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"There is an allergy among liberals and progressives to using substantive moral, and even religious, arguments in politics," says Dr. Sandel. "Yet it's often not possible, and in any case not desirable, to separate political argument from moral and religious argument."
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Yitzhak Nakash,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/06/06
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Professor Yitzhak Nakash presents in great detail the history of the Shi'a branch of Islam, including an analysis of the tenuous political process in post-Saddam Iraq.
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Steven Waldman,
Joanne J. Myers
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02/15/06
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Steven Waldman, founder of the website belief.net.com, presents some surprising conclusions about how beliefs affect voting in the United States.
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John L. Allen,
Joanne J. Myers
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12/14/05
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Author John Allen debunks some of the myths that surround Opus Dei, the prelature of the Roman Catholic Church that promotes the sanctity of ordinary daily work. Allen also explains Opus Dei's history, goals, and practices.
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Robert Wuthnow,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/11/05
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Are we willing to do the hard work required to achieve genuine religious pluralism?
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Elisabeth Sifton,
Joel H. Rosenthal
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09/20/05
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Reinhold Niebuhr's daughter reviews her father's legacy and concludes that many of today's Christian leaders are ignoring the radical truths he espoused.
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Luis Lugo,
Allen Hertzke,
Richard Cizik,
Joel H. Rosenthal
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09/15/05
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A discussion of the growing importance of religious groups in advancing international human rights causes, from the Sudan to Korea.
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George Weigel,
Joanne J. Myers
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09/15/05
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George Weigel ponders the growing—and to him acutely disturbing—secularity of Europe, which he believes raises urgent questions about the future of democracy worldwide.
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Michael Novak,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/06/04
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Novak insists that concepts of political, economic, and religious liberty can be found in the Qur'an.
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Gilles Kepel,
Joanne J. Myers
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09/22/04
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Kepel argues that Americans have committed a fundamental error in assuming that the followers of Osama bin Laden are waging a war on the American state.
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Ian Buruma,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/08/04
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Buruma points out that the hatred animating Islamic radicals conforms to the classic counter-Enlightenment vision of Western society as rootless, timid, and soulless.
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Graham Fuller,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/22/03
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Fuller predicts that although unlikely to disappear altogether, radical Islamist groups will eventually learn to compromise as more modest groups spring up to compete with them.
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Rabbi Jonathan Sacks,
Joel H. Rosenthal
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05/01/03
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Rabbi Jonathan Sacks hopes that mankind can develop a doctrine of peaceful coexistence grounded in religious texts common to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
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Paul Berman,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/15/03
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Paul Berman discusses the common ideological underpinnings of totalitarian movements, from fascism and communism to the radical Islamist movement. He observes that in every case it is liberal naïveté that allows totalitarianism to progress.
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Geneive Abdo,
Jonathan Lyons,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/18/03
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The national struggle underway in modern Iran is indicative of the theological debates in the Middle East today. At the heart of the turmoils in the region is not a clash between civilizations but "a clash of Islam against Islam," argue Geneive Abdo and Jonathan Lyons.
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Yossi Klein Halevi
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10/31/02
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Muslim countries have historically made space for Jewish minority groups, but Islam must evolve to accept a more modern notion of pluralism if there is to be peace in the Middle East, says Yossi Klein Halevi.
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Ashutosh Varshney,
Joanne J. Myers
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09/24/02
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Why are some cities in India rife with ethnic conflict whereas others are not? According to Varshney, a city's proneness to violence is directly linked to its level of civic integration.
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John Esposito,
Joanne J. Myers
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05/07/02
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The communications revolution of the late 20th century made Muslims around the world aware that they were part of a global community, a development that helped to "globalize" the idea of jihad, says John Esposito.
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Gilles Kepel,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/17/02
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Today, Islamist movements in the Middle East are fragmented, according to Gilles
Kepel, and no longer have the capacity to mobilize different social groups
simultaneously as they did in the 1970s and 1980s. Yet they remain dangerous
because they believe jihad is "the other superpower."
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Philip Jenkins,
Joanne J. Myers
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04/17/02
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Christian influence on world events is less likely to originate in the United States or Europe than in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where a version of Pentecostalism has been spreading, says Philip Jenkins.
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Bernard Lewis,
Joanne J. Myers
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03/26/02
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In the Middle East today, there are two prevailing opinions about why the Islamic world now lags behind the West, according to Bernard Lewis. The first is the Islamic world has simply failed to keep up with modernity. The second is almost the exact opposite: it has become too much "like the infidels" and abandoned its own heritage, tradition, and faith.
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Ahmed Rashid,
Joanne J. Myers
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12/17/01
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Central Asia will remain precariously unstable until the repressive governments are forced to reform, asserts Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. There is reason for optimism, he says, but also a need for vigilance -- especially as the U.S. war on Afghanistan has further embittered Islamic extremists.
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Shashi Tharoor,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/28/01
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In this talk, Shashi Tharoor discusses his latest novel, based on a series of religious riots in India in the late 1980s and addressing issues of communal tension in that country.
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Peter Bergen,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/19/01
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Who is bin Laden? What drives him? Peter Bergen is one of the few Westerners who has interviewed bin Laden face to face. He has also interviewed his family and done extensive background research. Thus he gives us valuable insights into what makes bin Laden tick.
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Michael Ignatieff,
Joanne J. Myers
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11/02/01
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Human rights scholar Michael Ignatieff happened to be in Kabul when the Taliban came to power. He has never forgotten his conversations with Afghan women during that time, who, he says, "taught me more about human rights than I have ever learned before or since." In this talk, Ignatieff discusses the poor human rights records in many Islamic countries and possible remedies.
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Fawaz A. Gerges,
Joanne J. Myers
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10/29/01
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Fifty years ago, the entire Middle East used to admire the United States, viewing it as an island of progressivism in a Europe-centric world. Today there are no major political groups in the Arab world that are pro-American. What went wrong? Gerges examines the trajectory of recent U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East for some answers.
Though they lacked any state or territory of their own, Jews nevertheless created a distinctive political philosophy, one that deserves systematic scholarly attention.
Audios
Kepel offers alternatives to the American "war on terror" that he believes will help to transcend terror and martyrdom and also to ensure the decisive marginalization of jihadist radicalism.
Religion has been a powerful political force throughout American history. When race enters the mix, the results have been some of our greatest triumphs as a nation—and some of our most shameful failures. What have been the political effects of religion intermingling with race?
"To be a moderate in the Arab world today," says Jordanian diplomat Marwan Muasher, "is to be a very, very tiny minority." The reason is that all the Arab Center's energies have been focused on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
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Sir Lawrence Freedman
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05/20/08
|
Looking back over the last 30 years, historian Sir Lawrence Freedman analyzes the complex politics of the Middle East. He shows how America's policy choices in previous crises have led to the current dilemmas.
In the West the idea of governance by Sharia law is radioactive, says Noah Feldman, yet for many in the Muslim world it represents their aspirations for rule of law. Can Islamic States succeed?
Bernard Haykel sheds light on the inner workings of Saudi Arabia, from the relationship between the government and various Islamic groups, to the position of women and the Kingdom's relationship with the U.S.
Created as a Muslim state 60 years ago this August, Pakistan is in crisis, wrestling with Draconian laws, the conflict between secularism and Islam, and an increasing terrorist threat. Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban," analyses the situation.
|
Walter Russell Mead
|
10/31/07
|
Walter Russell Mead wittily explains how the individualistic faiths of Britain and America lent themselves so well to the creation of the modern economic and political order.
The U.S. separation of church and state both unleashed evangelical feelings and tempered them with reason and rationality, says Wills. "Putting together the head and the heart is not easy, but we have been most successful as a country when that has happened."
It's not contemporary Islam that's the exception," says Mark Lilla. "We are the exception. We live on the other shore from those who see political theology as the only way of life, and we need to drop the illusion that we share a common vocabulary."
|
D. Michael Lindsay
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09/20/07
|
Evangelicals have become the new internationalists, says Lindsay, working at both policy and grassroot levels for more American engagement abroad. How does this affect America and the rest of the world?
Who is bin Laden? What drives him? Peter Bergen is one of the few Westerners who has interviewed bin Laden face to face. In this November 2001 talk, he gives valuable insights into what makes bin Laden tick.
"If we really want to understand the impact of religious nationalism on democratic values, India currently provides a troubling example, and one without which any more general understanding of the phenomenon is dangerously incomplete."
In spite of the hatred and frustration on the surface, Palestinian activist and scholar Sari Nusseibeh optimistically believes that deep down there is readiness on the part of both Israelis and Palestinians to make peace.
Over six million Muslims of different backgrounds live in the United States, and for the most part, says Paul Barrett, they are highly assimilated. But in certain areas this group has very different views of the world, and we need to understand their complexity.
What happens when political Islam collides with a secular Western European nation?
By the year 2025, Africa and Latin America will have the largest number of Christians in the world, says Philip Jenkins, and this is a different kind of Christianity from that which we are used to in the Global North.
Based on years of political experience and a life of religious service, former senator John Danforth calls for ways in which to focus on common ground.
In order to understand the Arab mistrust of the United States and of the West in general , we must study the turbulent history of the relations between the Christian and Muslim world, particularly the clashes and betrayals since World War I.
|
Milton Viorst,
Jere Van Dyk
|
05/09/06
|
"This is not a new war," says Viorst. "It’s the latest chapter in a war that has been going on between two great cultures, Islamic Eastern and the Christian West, for 1,400 years."
In a wide-ranging talk, Professor Jenkins argues that the mid-to-late 1970s were a crucial turning point in religious and political landscapes around the world.
|
Philip Jenkins,
Jere Van Dyk
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04/20/06
|
"What happens between 1974 and 1980?" asks Jenkins. "I argue that there is a shift in political culture, political rhetoric, which is in a generally conservative direction, although sometimes the people who are pushing that conservatism might label themselves liberals or Democrats."
Based on her interviews with over 300 Muslim leaders in Europe, Jytte Klausen argues that European Muslims are overwhelmingly liberal in outlook. She says that for Muslims in Europe the biggest priority is to build a European Islam, independent of the Islamic countries.
Roy looks at how Islam is becoming a globalized religion, less linked to culture than many in the West presume. This shift in identity is important to understand if governments are to be effective and just in setting immigration and integration policies, and in combatting terrorists.
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Gershom Gorenberg
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03/20/06
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Gershom Gorenberg discusses the history of the Israeli settlements and examines the roadblocks that continue to frustrate the establishment of peaceful relations with the Palestinians.
|
Michael J. Sandel
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03/08/06
|
"There is an allergy among liberals and progressives to using substantive moral, and even religious, arguments in politics," says Dr. Sandel. "Yet it's often not possible, and in any case not desirable, to separate political argument from moral and religious argument."
Steven Waldman, founder of the website beliefnet.com, presents some surprising conclusions about how beliefs affect voting in the United States.
Author John Allen debunks some of the myths that surround Opus Dei, the prelature of the Roman Catholic Church that promotes the sanctity of ordinary daily work. Allen also explains Opus Dei's history, goals, and practices.
Are we willing to do the hard work required to achieve genuine religious pluralism?
|
Elisabeth Sifton
|
09/20/05
|
Reinhold Niebuhr's daughter reviews her father's legacy and concludes that many of today's Christian leaders are ignoring the radical truths he espoused.
George Weigel ponders the growing—and to him acutely disturbing—secularity of Europe, which he believes raises urgent questions about the future of democracy worldwide.
Videos
Kepel offers alternatives to the American "war on terror" that he believes will help to transcend terror and martyrdom and also to ensure the decisive marginalization of jihadist radicalism.
Prominent Jordanian diplomat Muasher explains why moderates in the Arab world have made so little headway, and why current Western tactics for dealing with Islamic groups are doomed to fail.
|
Sir Lawrence Freedman
|
05/19/08
|
Looking back over the last 30 years, historian Sir Lawrence Freedman analyzes the complex politics of the Middle East and shows how America's policy choices in previous crises have led to the current dilemmas.
In the West the idea of governance by Sharia law is radioactive, says Noah Feldman, yet for many in the Muslim world it represents their aspirations for rule of law. Can Islamic States succeed?
Bernard Haykel sheds light on the inner workings of Saudi Arabia, from the relationship between the government and various Islamic groups, to the position of women and the Kingdom's relationship with the U.S.
|
D. Michael Lindsay
|
12/07/07
|
Evangelicals have become the new internationalists, says Lindsay, working at both policy and grassroot levels for more American engagement abroad. How does this affect America and the rest of the world?
Religious people should engage in politics, argues Senator John Danforth, "but there is a difference between engaging in politics and transforming politics and government into an extension or an enforcer of your religious point of view."
In order to understand the Arab mistrust of the United States and of the West in general, we must study the turbulent history of the relations between the Christian and Muslim world, particularly the clashes and betrayals since World War I.
|
Milton Viorst,
Jere Van Dyk
|
05/09/06
|
"This is not a new war," says Viorst. "It’s the latest chapter in a war that has been going on between two great cultures, Islamic Eastern and the Christian West, for 1,400 years."
In a wide-ranging talk, Professor Jenkins argues that the mid-to-late 1970s were a crucial turning point in religious and political landscapes around the world.
|
Philip Jenkins,
Jere Van Dyk
|
04/20/06
|
"What happens between 1974 and 1980?" asks Jenkins. "I argue that there is a shift in political culture, political rhetoric, which is in a generally conservative direction, although sometimes the people who are pushing that conservatism might label themselves liberals or Democrats."
Book Reviews
This is a collection of 13 essays, all but two of which are newly commissioned, covering Berlin's multifaceted oeuvre as much as a single book can. The authors are specialists in different fields who do not seem to have much in common except one belief: Berlin matters.
Nussbaum argues that her contribution is as that of a loudspeaker, since she feels that Indian developments are wrongly ignored in the United States and Europe.
This section contains a round-up of recent notable books in the field of international affairs.
Despite North Korea's antipathy to outside religious influence, it is primarily American NGOs with financial backing from religious organizations that have maintained development and exchange programs with the regime.
"Much of the disagreement and controversy over Ramadan's significance arguably stems not from a disagreement over what he is on record as having asserted or done but from unexamined or unarticulated assumptions about liberal principles and what they demand of Muslims."
This volume of collected essays by Michael Walzer seeks to bring a more concentrated focus on specifically Jewish outlooks regarding three key themes: "Political Order and Civil Society"; "Territory, Sovereignty, and International Society"; and "War and Peace."
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