ISIM, in co-operation with Gerdien Jonker (Marburg University), held a workshop on 9 January 2004 to take stock of previous research on the Turkish religious movement Millî Görüs (“The National... Show moreISIM, in co-operation with Gerdien Jonker (Marburg University), held a workshop on 9 January 2004 to take stock of previous research on the Turkish religious movement Millî Görüs (“The National Vision”) in Western Europe. The workshop brought together scholars from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, whose research was at least in part concerned with this movement. Show less
The conference 'Sufism and the 'Modern' in Islam' was held in Bogor, Indonesia, on 4-6 September 2003 and was a collaborative effort of the ISIM, Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia) and the... Show moreThe conference 'Sufism and the 'Modern' in Islam' was held in Bogor, Indonesia, on 4-6 September 2003 and was a collaborative effort of the ISIM, Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia) and the Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) of Jakarta's State Islamic University. The aim of the conference was to explore current developments in Sufism and related movements over the globe. Show less
The Production of Islamic Knowledge in Western Europe', one of the twelve parallel workshops at the Fourth Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting of the Robert Schuman Centre, European... Show moreThe Production of Islamic Knowledge in Western Europe', one of the twelve parallel workshops at the Fourth Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting of the Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute's Mediterranean Program (Florence, 19-23 March 2003), was devoted to the theme of ISIM's research project under the same name (see www.isim.nl). The workshop, directed by Martin van Bruinessen and Stefano Allievi, brought together a group of mostly young scholars presently engaged in research on various aspects of religious knowledge and authority. Show less
The ISIM workshop on 'Islam, Women's Rights, and Islamic Feminism: Making Connections between Different Perspectives' (9-11 November 2001) took place under the shadow of the looming confrontation... Show moreThe ISIM workshop on 'Islam, Women's Rights, and Islamic Feminism: Making Connections between Different Perspectives' (9-11 November 2001) took place under the shadow of the looming confrontation between the West and the Muslim world, at a time when public interest was focused on the American offensive in Afghanistan and anti-American responses in countries as diverse as Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia. Most of the participants felt that precisely at this time one should not allow the agenda of intellectual debate to be completely determined by political issues and that the workshop should take place as planned. Show less
The 12 October bombing in Bali that killed more than 180 people seemed to vindicate the claims of those who had been accusing the Indonesian authorities of deliberately ignoring the presence on... Show moreThe 12 October bombing in Bali that killed more than 180 people seemed to vindicate the claims of those who had been accusing the Indonesian authorities of deliberately ignoring the presence on Indonesian soil of Islamic terrorists connected with al-Qacida network. More sober voices commented that domestic power struggles, rather than international terrorism, might be responsible for this outrage. It was the largest, but by no means the first major bomb explosion in Indonesia. Show less
On 21 November 2000, Martin van Bruinessen, ISIM Chair at Utrecht University, delivered his inaugural lecture entitled 'Muslims, Minorities and Modernity: The Restructuring of Heterodoxy in the... Show moreOn 21 November 2000, Martin van Bruinessen, ISIM Chair at Utrecht University, delivered his inaugural lecture entitled 'Muslims, Minorities and Modernity: The Restructuring of Heterodoxy in the Middle East and Southeast Asia'. The lecture compared Alevism in Turkey with kebatinan in Indonesia, where adherents of heterodox folk belief and practice - rather than gradually shifting towards scripturalist, sharica oriented Islam - were transformed into distinct religious minorities deliberately distancing themselves from orthodox Islam. The following is composed of excerpts from the lecture. Show less
The ISIM is setting up a research programme on 'The Production of Islamic Knowledge in Western Europe', coordinated by Professor Martin van Bruinessen in cooperation with Dr Nico Landman of Utrecht... Show moreThe ISIM is setting up a research programme on 'The Production of Islamic Knowledge in Western Europe', coordinated by Professor Martin van Bruinessen in cooperation with Dr Nico Landman of Utrecht University. The ISIM has organized a series of lectures (summer 2001 and forthcoming in autumn 2001) on the state of the art in this research area - to be published either in the ISIM Newsletter or separately as ISIM Papers. An annotated bibliography prepared through the concerted efforts of the ISIM, CNRSStrasbourg, the University of Louvain-la-Neuve and other institutions, will soon be made available online. Show less
ISIM's first international conference held in Leiden, 10-12 December 1999, concerned the role of Islam, Islamic political thought, Muslim parties and organizations, and the responses of secular or... Show moreISIM's first international conference held in Leiden, 10-12 December 1999, concerned the role of Islam, Islamic political thought, Muslim parties and organizations, and the responses of secular or non-Muslim circles to the resurgence of Islam in the electoral process. The stimuli for this conference were the fact that 1999 was witness to important elections in three major countries, Turkey, Indonesia and Nigeria, and that Islam had been a crucial factor in these events - although in a different way in each case. Show less
From 26-28 April 2000, twelve prominent Muslim thinkers from a wide range of regional backgrounds (Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Africa and the European diaspora) met at... Show moreFrom 26-28 April 2000, twelve prominent Muslim thinkers from a wide range of regional backgrounds (Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Africa and the European diaspora) met at an ISIM workshop to discuss some of the major intellectual and political challenges facing the Muslim world at present. Each of them presented a paper on an important aspect of the encounter with modernity, to which he or she had been devoting much thought recently. Several of the papers explicitly addressed the question of compatibility between Islam and modernity (or rather, as several participants emphasized, interpretations of Islam and conceptions of modernity). Some engaged in such sensitive issues as minority rights, women's rights and pluralism and called for the development of a contemporary religious discourse based on rights to balance the traditional emphasis on obligations or contributed to a theory of civil society. Others focused on (reformist revisions of) the relationship between the sacred texts, context and contemporary discourse. Show less
