Hashas Gives the 14th Annual Pieter Gillis Lecture at Antwerp University
Centrum Pieter Gillis, Universiteit Antwerpen
Mohammed Hashas – European Islam: Possibilities and challenges
Respondent Prof. em. Guy Vanheeswijck
22 November 2021
The first Pieter Gillis lecture was given in 2008 by the Israeli author Amos Oz. Since that time 12 more authors, academics and policy makers have delivered a lecture at the Centre Pieter Gillis. We are delighted to announce now the 14th Pieter Gillis which Dr. Mohammed Hashas will devote to the topic of a European Islam.
Abstract:
This lecture introduces some main features of Islam’s inlandishness in Europe as well as the challenges that nurture its outlandishness. First, the lecture starts with contextualizing the issue of “Islam” and/in Europe, with reference to the far and recent past. Second, aspects of the plurality of Islam in Europe, which adopts the language, land and laws of the land, are outlined. The theological and philosophical input of the emerging European Islamic thought is sketched out here. Though heterogeneous and plural, the way Europe is, this thought seeks to remain within the classical Islamic paradigm of thinking, but seeks at the same time to be modern and contextualist; this makes it epistemologically hybrid. The theological-philosophical and political issues this adaptation brings about are examined as well. Overall, the diverse discourses of European Islam focalize ethics, social justice and peace. Third, despite this inlandishness of the Islamic thought of Europe, there are counter-narratives that seek to keep the Islamic tradition at large outlandish, foreign, different, and thus a source of fear, populism, and incompatibility theses. Finally, the lecture ends with focalizing the mutual fertilization there has historically been between “Europe” and “Islam,” and the need to scholarly invest in recognizing this shared past for a shared future. Neither Europe nor Islam speak; they are spoken about; it is their adherents that make history and the ideas that influence its course.
Practische informatie:
- Locatie:
Universiteit Antwerpen, Stadscampus, Promotiezaal Grauwzusters, Lange Sint-Annastraat 7, 2000 Antwerpen - Lezing:
22 November 2021 – 19:30 – 21:00 uur - Receptie:
21:00 – 22:00 uur
Mohammed Hashas
Scholar of Islam, contemporary Arab and Islamic philosophy and theology, Islam in Europe, European Islamic thought, Moroccan thought, and religion and politics in the Arab World.