Conferences to be announced in 2021
Faith, Community and Culture
This 3-day conference, sponsored by ICMES with the collaboration of the of University of British Columbia, Okanagan, took place on September 9-11, 2019 at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel at Kalowna Airport in British Columbia, Canada.
This 3-day conference, sponsored by ICMES with the collaboration of the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel at Kelowna Airport in British Columbia, Canada.
The conference featured sessions on History and Cultural Traditions, Religious Identities and Modern States/Communities, Faith and Community Narratives, and atheological understandings of religious imagination. Speakers included ICMES members Issam Saliba (Secretary), Professor Gloria Morán (University of Coruña, Spain), Don Wallace (Board Chair), and Dr. Norton Mezvinsky (President), as well as important scholars in the area of critical religion studies, including Professors David Goa (University of Alberta), Emilio González Ferrín (University of Seville, Spain), Francisco Peña (University of British Columbia), Hussein Keshani (University of British Columbia), Professor Jessica Stites More (University of British Columbai), and Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro (New York City).
World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES) - July 2018
WOCMES – Seville, Spain, July 2018
Conflicts between Religious Identities & Individual Liberties: The Colonial Empire’s Complex Legacy in the Middle East
On July 19, 2018, ICMES Board member, Gloria Morán, chaired a panel session entitled “Identities and Individual Liberties: The Colonial Empire’s Complex Legacy in the Middle East,” at the 2018 World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES), held in Seville, Spain on July 16-22, 2018. The panel focused on the ossification of Shari’a and the simplification of plural juridical systems under European colonial rule in the Middle Eastern nation-states. Participating on the panel was ICMES Secretary, Issam Saliba, who spoke on “The Relationship between Religious Belief and Personal Liberty in Islamic Traditions”; Robert Destra (Catholic University of America), who focused on “Abrahamic Dialogue in a Time of Conflict: Interfaith Collaboration as a means of Predicting and Preventing Genocide”; Kristina Arriaga (U.S. International Religious Commission), who presented on “Patriarchal Communal Religious Groups and the Rights of Women: Legal Challenges”; and Alaa Ebrahim, whose talk concerned “Sharia and Civil Law in Syria: Contradictions and Paradoxes in Time of War.”
WOCMES – Seville, Spain, July 2018
Why a Jewish State in the Middle East? Challenges & Objections
On July 18, 2018, ICMES President, Norton Mezvinsky, and ICMES Board member, Ghada Karmi, participated in a panel session entitled “Why a Jewish State in the Middle East? Challenges and Objections,” at the 2018 World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES), held in Seville, Spain on July 16-22, 2018. Also participating on the panel was Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro of New York City and Yakov Rabkin, Professor of History at Université de Montréal. The panel focused upon Israel’s existence as a Jewish state in the Middle East. The discussion considered and questioned Zionism, the reigning philosophy of the state of Israel, and scrutinized Israeli Zionist policies that affect Jews, Palestinians and others. Dr. Karmi’s presentation, titled “An Arab View,” considered the Zionist proposition to establish an exclusive state for Jews in an already inhabited country, Palestine. Her paper reviewed the history and analyzed the consequences for the indigenous, Palestinian population and the Middle East region. Rabbi Shapiro’s presentation, titled “Why a Jewish State in Israel?” questioned Israel’s referring to itself as the nation-state of the Jewish people and will explore how Zionism incorrectly arrogated to itself the authority to represent the Jewish people. Prof. Rabkin’s presentation, titled “The State in Judaic and Christian Theologies,” examined some of the effects of Zionism on Judaism and Christianity. His presentation also looked at the opposition the political movement evoked in different intellectual, social and religious circles, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Dr. Mezvinsky’s presentation, titled “Definitions of and Reactions to a Jewish State,” considered varying definitions of the Jewish state and specified certain objections to Israel from other parts of the Middle East and the wider world.
Christian Zionism and Islamaphobia
On January 30, 2013, ICMES co-hosted a session on the issue of Christian Zionism and its relationship to Islamophobia, at The National Press Club in Washington, DC.
In coordination with the Council for the National Interest (CNI), the event offered three intersecting perspectives on the role, function, and meaning of U.S. Christian support for Zionism and the pro-Israel Lobby. Speakers were: Jon Basil Utley, Associate Publisher of The American Conservative and Robert A. Taft Fellow for International and Constitutional Studies at the Ludwig von Mises Institute; ICMES President Norton Mezvinsky, Professor Emeritus of History at Central Connecticut State University and co-author of Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel; and Fuad Sha’ban, Vice President of Yarmouk Private University in Jbab, Syria, Professor of Literature and Translation in the Department of English at the University of Petra in Amman, Jordon, and author of For Zion’s Sake: The Judeo-Christian Tradition in American Culture. The session was moderated by Dr. Philip Giraldi, CNI Executive Director and former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer.
8 DC thinktanks offer program on Christian Zionism & Islamophobia
On Wednesday, October 24, 2012, the International Council for Middle East Studies, a three-year-old Washington think tank, will co-host a session on the seldom discussed, often misunderstood issue of Christian Zionism and its relationship to Islamophobia, at the House of Representatives Visitors Center on Capitol Hill. In coordination with the Council for the National Interest, the event, entitled “Christian Zionism Views Islam: Cultural, Theological, and Political Perspectives,” will offer three intersecting perspectives on the role, function, and meaning of U.S. Christian support for Zionism and the pro-Israel Lobby.
World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES) - July 2010
WOCMES – Barcelona, Spain, July 2010
Religion & the State
This panel reflected some of the religion and state emphases of ICMES. ICMES Board member Ibrahim Abu-Rabi‘ gave a paper which considered Islamism as a multifaceted phenomenon in the contemporary Arab world intent on challenging the post-World War Two political order. Abu-Rabi‘ argued that Islamism is anti-imperialist in nature and utilizes terminology and concepts of the radical Left. ICMES Secretary Issam M. Saliba gave a paper discussing the legal foundations of constitutional theory articulated by certain scholars in support of the Islamic State, reviewed some historical evidence, and pinpointed minority views that do not subscribe to the integral connection between political governance and divine dictates. ICMES President Norton Mezvinsky gave a paper which presented an overview and analysis of differing positions within traditional Judaism regarding belief in a biblical promise of land to the Jews. Mezvinsky related these differing emphases to the current State of Israel and the Palestinian–Israeli conflict.
Ending an Iraqi State
This panel, chaired by Tareq Ismael, provided a critical assessment in both theoretical and policy terms of the U.S. objective of “state-ending” in Iraq. The panel focused on this concept and its unforeseen but foreseeable consequences for Iraqis and the region. Attention was given to the ways “state-ending” challenges standard ways of understanding foreign policy and provides a reasonable metric for ascribing responsibility for the high human and cultural costs of the American-led invasion. The invasion and toppling of Saddam Hussein is now routinely spoken of as a U.S. foreign policy success that provides a model for action elsewhere in the region. The panel assessed the costs and consequences of a policy of state-ending. The first paper, “State-Ending: What the Iraqi ‘Success’ Really Means,” by ICMES Board member Raymond W. Baker, aimed to bring this animating concept of “state-ending” into full view and to use this clearly articulated U.S. war aim as a measure for the “success” of the U.S.-led Iraqi invasion. Particular attention is paid to the human and cultural consequences of the invasion and post-invasion remaking of Iraq, alongside the standard geopolitical assessment. The second paper, “Ruination: Cultivating Sectarianism in the Ruins of Iraq,” by Tareq Ismael, explored a major consequence of the U.S. invasion and devastation of Iraq: the rise of militant sectarianism. The implications of the new sectarianism were explored in its Iraqi, regional, and global implications. What exactly has U.S. policy wrought and with what implications for Iraqis and the region? This paper aimed to critically examine the standard account of Iraqi political culture and to distinguish differing forms of sectarianism in Iraqi political history, separating the phenomenon of social or folkloric sectarianism from political sectarianism.