Book Talk: Reform and Its Perils in Contemporary Islam

The Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding is hosting Dr. Nadia Oweidat, Assistant Professor at Kansas State University, for a Book Talk on Reform and Its Perils in Contemporary Islam: The Case of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd on March 13th at Noon in the ACMCU Boardroom (ICC 270).

Description
Who has the right to speak in the name of Islam? Many scholars of Islam believed they did when they attempted to integrate liberal values, such as equality, freedom of thought, and freedom of conscience, with the Islamic tradition. Muslim modernists, in particular, argued that these ideals represent the most accurate expression of Islam when properly understood, even if traditional understandings of the sacred texts and historical realities of Muslim communities seem to contradict their claims. In 1995, the prominent Muslim scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was labeled an apostate by Egyptian courts for attempting such a feat. With Abu Zayd as a case study, Dr. Oweidat analyzes the intellectual trends that propose a reconciliation between liberal values and Islam. She examines in depth the roadblocks and challenges to liberalizing Islamic thought, both externally in the form of oppressive regimes and an intolerant religious arena, as well as internally at the level of intellectual arguments.

Speaker

Dr. Nadia Oweidat is an academic specializing in the religions, cultures, and politics of the Middle East and North Africa. An intellectual historian, she is an Assistant Professor at Kansas State University and was a 2021-22 Fellow at the Wilson Center. Dr. Oweidat holds a D.Phil. in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford (2014), an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Wyoming, and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Jordan.

Moderator:

Nader Hashemi is the Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies (Oxford University Press, 2009) and co-editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future (Melville House, 2011), The Syria Dilemma (MIT Press, 2013), Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2017) and a four-volume study on Islam and Human Rights: Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies (Routledge, 2023). He is frequently interviewed by PBS, NPR, CNN, Al Jazeera, Pacifica Radio, Alternative Radio and the BBC and his writings have appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, The Nation, Al Jazeera Online, CNN.com among other media outlets.