Casablanca Seminars
International Conference & Summer School
July, 2018
Fondation du Roi Abdul-Aziz
Rue du Corail, Ain Diab – Casablanca, Morocco
Reset DOC in partnership with the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation and the Granada Institute for Higher Education and Research are pleased to present this international symposium that was made possible also thanks to the support of Henry Luce Foundation’s Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, Nomis Foundation and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As a global religion, Islam and its jurisprudence have offered heterogeneous responses to a range of questions facing different faiths and communities. Modernity imposed new questions upon religious scholars, theologians, and philosophers, demanding of them a new version of pluralism in the theological and political arenas. While doctrinal or philosophical exclusivism rejects “the other” in theory — and frequently in practice, too — inclusivism connotes the accommodation and toleration of difference. But if that means the reluctant acceptance of difference within a hierarchy of worldviews, inclusion may not be enough to create more egalitarianism within modern multicultural societies. Modern pluralism might come to mean, instead, a robust appreciation of human diversity and values.
Conference Program
Monday, July 9
2.30-3.00 PM: Registration and Welcome coffee
3.00-3.30 PM: Welcome Session
Ahmed Toufiq, Director, King Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences, Casablanca
Mohamed Bensalah, Director, Granada Institute
Giancarlo Bosetti, Director, Reset DOC
3.30-3.45 PM: Conference Introduction: On Pluralism and the Islamic Traditions
Mohammed Hashas, LUISS University, Rome
3.45-5.15 PM : Session 1 – Pluralism in the Quran and the Prophetic Tradition
Panel 1
Asma Afsaruddin (Indiana University), Valorizing Religious Dialogue and Pluralism within the Islamic Tradition
Mohsen Kadivar (Duke University), Genealogies of Pluralism in Islamic Thought: Shia Perspective
Shabbir Akhtar (Oxford University), Reading the Rival’s Scripture in the Open Society: Western Christians and the Quran
Chair: Fouad Ben Ahmed (Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania Institute for Higher Islamic Studies EDHH, Rabat)
5.15-5.30 PM: Coffee Break
5.30-6.30 PM: Roundtable 1 – Modernization of Civil Rights and Family Law in Islamic Contexts
Nouzha Guessous (Hassan II University, Casablanca), Fadma Ait Mous (Hassan II University, Casablanca), Giancarlo Bosetti (Reset DOC), Mohammed Hashas (LUISS, Rome), Abdou Filali-Ansary (Aga Khan University, London)
Chair: Armando Barucco, Head, Unit for Analysis and Planning, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Tuesday, July 10
10.00-11.30 AM : Session 2 – Pluralism and Universalism in Classical Islamic Scholarship
Panel 2
Mariam al-Attar (Sharjah University), Theories of Ethics in Islamic Thought and the Question Of Moral Pluralism
Oliver Leaman (University of Kentucky), Pluralism and Islamic Law: Why the Past is Better than the Present
Massimo Campanini (University of Trento), Universalism and Cosmopolitanism in Islam: The Idea of the Caliphate
Chair: Asma Afsaruddin (Indiana)
11.30-11.45 AM: Coffee Break
11.45 AM- 1.15 PM Panel 3
Mohammed Mahjoub (University of Tunis), On the Possible Hermeneutical Interpretation of Pluralism in Islamic Thought: From Truth to Meaning
Abdallah Seyid Ould Bah (University of Nouakchott), Religious Plurality and Kalam Perspective on Diversity of the Creed: al-Ash‘ari, al-Shahrastani, and al-Razi
Fouad Ben Ahmed (EDHH, Rabat), Philosophy in the Hanbali Contexts: Ibn Taymiyya as a Reader of Ibn Rushd
Chair: Mohamed Bensalah (Granada Institute)
1.15-2.15 PM: Lunch Break
2:15-3:45 PM : Session 3 – Insights from Multicultural Societies, Sufism and Politics
Panel 4
Amin Abdullah (State Islamic University, Indonesia), Islamic Political Theology for a Global Age: Indonesian Religious Experience in Reforming Islamic Political Thought
Imtiyaz Yusuf (Mahidol University, Bangkok), Islamic Theology of Religious Pluralism: Building Islam-Buddhism Understanding
Moin Nizami (Oxford University), The Limits of Pluralism in South Asian Sufism
Chair: Jonathan Laurence (Boston College)
3.45-4.00 PM: Coffee Break
4.00-5.00 PM: Roundtable 2 – Modern theologians and reforms | Book launch discussion
Abdallah Seyid Ould Bah (University of Nouakchott), Massimo Campanini (University of Trento), Mohamed Haddad (University of Carthage, Tunis)
Chair: Mohamed – Sghir Janjar (Casablanca)
Book: Mohamed Haddad, Le réformisme musulman: Une histoire critique (Mimesis, 2013)
Wednesday, July 11
10:00-11:30 AM: Session 4 – Political philosophy, politics, Sufism and education
Panel 5
Abdelwahab El-Affendi (Doha Institute), Tahkeem as an Islamic Democratic Precedent: Towards a New Look at One of Islam’s Formative Episodes
Anthony Booth (University of Sussex), Rawlsian Liberalism and Political Islam: Friends or Foes?
Emmanuel Karagiannis (King’s College), The Environmental Policy of the Muslim Brotherhood
Chair: Nouzha Guessous (Hassan II University, Casablanca)
11:30-11:45 AM: Coffee Break
11:45 AM -1:15 PM Panel 6
Ednan Aslan (University of Vienna), Educating Muslim Children Towards Plurality
Clinton Bennett (SUNY, New York), On Sufism and Politics
Meriem El-Haitami (International University of Rabat IUR, Rabat), Morocco’s Religious Policy: A Post-Sufi Turn?
Chair: Fadma Ait Mous (Hassan II University, Casablanca)
1:15-2:15 PM: Lunch Break
2:15-3:30 PM: Roundtable 3: Religious authority and education in plural societies |Book launch discussion
Ednan Aslan (University of Vienna), Mohammed Khalid Rhazzali (University of Padova), Jonathan Laurence (Boston College), Amin Abdullah (Islamic State University, Indonesia), Mohammed Hashas (LUISS, Rome)
Chair: Giancarlo Bosetti (Reset DOC)
Book: Mohammed Hashas, Jan Jaap de Ruiter, Niels Valdemar Vinding, eds., Imams in Western Europe: Developments, Transformations, and Institutional Challenges (Amsterdam UP, 2018)
3:30 – 6:00 PM: Group tour to the old medina of Casablanca
Scientific Committee
Fouad Ben Ahmed (Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania Institute for Higher Islamic Studies EDHH, Rabat)
Mohamed Bensalah (Granada Institute for Higher Education and Research, Granada)
Giancarlo Bosetti (Reset DOC, Milan)
Abdou Filali-Ansary (Aga Khan University, London)
Nouzha Guessous (Hassan II University, Casablanca)
Mohamed Haddad (University of Carthage, Tunis)
Mohammed Hashas (LUISS University, Rome)
Mohamed-Sghir Janjar (King Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences, Casablanca)
Jonathan Laurence (Boston College)
Conference Scientific Coordinator
Mohammed Hashas (LUISS University, Rome)