Stories Archive | Page 84 of 84

Analyses

The history of the Islamic Republic of Iran—established in 1979 following the revolution that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi—is marked by a dense sequence of developments that have progressively altered its political and institutional configuration. These changes, however, have only sporadically been recognized by Western analyses, which have instead tended to perpetuate a more functional and instrumental stereotype based on the image of a monolithic, highly verticalized religious autocracy. While such a characterization was broadly accurate during the first decade of the Islamic Republic, it has undergone a profound transformation since 1989.

Sociology
“Veltroni has ignored us, I choose the right-wing”
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Souad Sbai interviewed by Daniele Castellani Perelli 18 March 2008
Italian Islamic consultative council and President of the Association of Moroccan Women in Italy, comes onto the field with Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right party ‘People of Freedom’. Sbai attacks the ‘multiculturalist do-gooders’ of the centre-left while trying to win her 20th seat on the list with philosophy in Puglia, which puts her election in the balance. She thinks that immigrants should also be given the vote in political elections (“Citizenship is not necessarily required, having a stay permit should be enough”), and when we remind her that her ideas will have difficulty being accepted by the allied Northern League member Roberto Calderoli she replies: “It’s better to discuss with Calderoli than to receive indifference from Veltroni. In ten years the former mayor of Rome has never deigned to come and visit our centre”.
Dialogues
“A message to the Left: Israel has the right to exist”
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Mitchell Cohen (Dissent co-editor) interviewed by Elisabetta Ambrosi 11 March 2008
"You have to make a choice: does the state of Israel have the same right to exist as other states or is it to be demonized like none other? If you believe it has a right to exist, then it is perflectly legitimate to criticize this or that government policy. It is another matter if your goal is really Israel’s abolition rather than a real compromise between Israelis and Palestinians," says Mitchell Cohen, professor of political science at Bernard Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center and co-editor of "Dissent," in his comments on left-wing and Muslim criticism of the selection of Israel as guest of honour at this spring’s International Book Fair in Turin. In response to Ramadan’s call to boycott the event, Cohen adds, "I have the impression that too many people on the left have a romance with Ramadan. It reminds me a little too much of romances with Stalinism seventy years ago."
Sociology
”Haifa, my town, still a model for Middle East”
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Israeli writer Sami Michael with Daniele Castellani Perelli 27 October 2006
The recent Lebanon war didn’t change the soul of Haifa. "Muslims, Jews and Christians still live together in peace, and Hezbollah’s popularity is not growing among the Arabs" passionately explains Israeli writer Sami Michael, a symbol of the city. Born in Baghdad, he has lived in Haifa since 1949. He has received many international literary awards, including the Israel Prize for Literature and the President’s Prize. For his work for peace, he has been honoured by the UN-supported Society for International Development. Author of the novels All Men Are Equal, But Some Are More, Victoria and A Trumpet in the Wadi, he was against the war from the start, but he has always strongly criticized Hezbollah. And now he says: "There is no winner, there are only losers from both sides".
Religion
”The problem is not Islam. It’s politics”
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Hassan Hanafi with Giancarlo Bosetti 19 September 2006
"It’s because of political conservatism that our societies today are conservative, not because of Islam" according to Hassan Hanafi, Professor of Philosophy at Cairo University, representing a proud Arab and Muslim point of view. In this interview with Reset-Doc the Egyptian philosopher explains how Islam can (and should) be interpreted as a promoting factor for social change, liberalism and secularism: "Islam can be a plus to the Europeans" he asserts "And the Mediterranean can play a key role in going beyond Occidentalism and Orientalism". Hanafi is also a member of the scientific Committee of Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations.