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Muslims in Europe: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

ILEM Istanbul Talks 6

ILEM Istanbul Talks continues with a new topic! In this talk, Umar Ryad (Speaker) and Leonard Faytre (Moderator) will discuss “Muslims in Europe: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives”.

In their political campaigns, radical right parties in Europe typically refer to the “Judeo-Christian” roots of European values that are threatened by particularly Islamic culture. But does Islam really historically belong to Western Europe as a religion? In this conversation, we speak about the historical presence of Islam and Muslims in Western Europe, especially in late nineteenth and early twentieth century. How did Muslims take part in European history before WWII? We then expand the discussion to the post-WWII period, when Muslim migrated to Western Europe in big numbers. Which religious dilemmas did Muslims face in the new European context? How do Islamic institutions and rites function within European secular societies? How do Muslims redefine their place in Europe as compared to the society of origin?

Featured Speaker

Umar Ryad 

Umar Ryad is currently a professor at the Arabic and Islamic Studies Program at the University of Leuven, and he is the director of the Leuven Centre for the Study of Islam Culture and Society (LCSICS). After completing his BA at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, he earned his MA and Ph.D. degrees at Leiden University. His awarded Ph.D. was on “Islamic Reformism and Christianity: A Critical Study of the Work of Muhammad Rashid Rida and His Associates (1898-1935).” Before his position at the University of Leuven, he also thought at the universities of Bern and Oslo. His fields of specialization include the dynamics of the networks of Pan-Islamist movements, Arab reception of Orientalism, Muslim polemics on Christianity, and transnational Islam in the modern world. He is the editor and co-editor of many books such as Transnational Islam in Interwar Europe: Muslim Activists and Thinkers (2014), The Hajj and Europe in the Age of Empire (2016), The Muslim Reception of European Orientalism (2019). Besides, he has many articles, book chapters, and reviews in various journals. He is a board member of the Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies (NISIS), and he led a European Research Council (ERC) project named “History of Muslims in Interwar Europe.”

Leonard Faytre

Léonard Faytre is an independent consultant and Ph.D. student at Ibn Haldun University (Istanbul). He graduated from Sciences Po Paris University with degrees in both political science (BA) and urban policy (MA). After moving to Istanbul in 2013, he continued his studies and completed a second MA in argumentation theories (münazara) at the Alliance of Civilization Institute (Ibn Khaldun University) in 2018. His research focuses on argumentation theory and French immigration policy. Besides French, he speaks English, Turkish, German, and Arabic.

Contact: For questions about the program, send an email to foreignrelations@ilem.org.tr

*This event will be available in English.

Program

ILEM Istanbul Talks; her ay gerçekleştirilmesi planlanan yeni bir program serisidir. Sosyal Bilimler alanında çalışmalarını sürdüren akademisyenler programda moderatör eşliğinde konuşmalarını gerçekleştirmektedirler. Serinin altıncı oturumunda Umar Ryad “Muslims in Europe: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives” Başlıklı bir konuşma gerçekleştirecek ve konuşmanın moderatörlüğünü Leonard Faytre yürütecektir.

*Program dili İngilizce’dir.