Jocelyne Cesari 1 March 2021
Prof. Jocelyne Cesari assesses the complex intertwining of nation and religion in the Jewish state and in the most prominent “Eurasian” Muslim country.
Analyses
Society
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Balsa Lubarda 9 February 2021Can the strongest beliefs in the enviromentalist cause and aggressive, far-right neonationalism coexist in today’s Europe? One Hungarian political movement shows how. - Nader Hammami 23 December 2020The terrorist murder of French professor Samuel Paty in the Paris suburb in autumn 2020 has re-opened a debate concerning the liberty of teaching, freedom of expression and the role of secularism in a pluralist society. What is the specific nature of French laïcité? To what extent is there a growing confrontation with a part of the Muslim world? Why has this provoked a diplomatic incident between France and Turkey, and more broadly the boycott of French products in many Muslim countries? The on-going ideological debate concerning the role of religion in a secular society, has shown both its local and international implications, where many different actors use it for various strategic purposes. This dossier on the one hand will discuss the boundaries, the origins and the contemporary effects of freedom of expression and laïcité comparing the French, the Western and the Muslim contexts. On the other hand, it will analyse the geopolitical, local and international stakes of this debate.
- Camilla Pagani 23 December 2020In our fast and consumerist digital way of life, we have forgotten how important it is to disagree. When we look at the world through the lenses of our mobile applications and social media, we only see a fictional image reflecting what we want to hear and to see. Cass Sunstein extensively analyzed this dangerous vicious circle in which people socialize and interact virtually with people that have similar thoughts and tastes, while sharply opposing anyone different. This widely debated and studied phenomenon of polarization is very much related to the contemporary tragic event of the terrorist attack on the French history and geography teacher, Samuel Paty in front of a school in the Parisian suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
- Gilles Kepel 22 December 2020
- Philippe Portier 22 December 2020France, just like the rest of Europe, has changed so much since 1905 that socio-political pressures to review the relation between State and religions has become a must. The bill recently put forward by its government aims at a global reform that would, if passed, directly impact freedom of worship, claims Philippe Portier.
- Maria Tavernini 4 December 2020An innocent kiss between a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy on the backdrop of a Hindu temple sparked controversy in India, and fury from the ruling BJP.
- Evan Pheiffer 27 November 2020Though beloved by Sufis and sultans, Üsküdar was not spared the ground-shaking reforms of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the second half of our history, we look at how Istanbul’s ‘holy land’ has fared in its two-century tryst with modernity.
- Jonathan Laurence 23 November 2020“It is possible for us to make some sort of change; I just don’t think that we should underestimate how difficult that is going to be.” Jelani Cobb, professor of Journalism at Columbia University and staff writer at the New Yorker, talks with Jonathan Laurence.
- Mark Lilla 20 November 2020The political consequences of increasingly divergent feelings, beliefs, lifestyles. A lesson from Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America”.
