Religious Fundamentalism: A Clash of Civilizations or a Convergence of Religiosities?

TALK: Religious Fundamentalism: A Clash of Civilizations or a Convergence of Religiosities?Olivier Roy (CNRS)
Friday, November 14 / 12:30 PM
3824 Ellison Hall 1930 Buchanan

Olivier Roy is a research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a lecturer for both the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (IEP). Since 1984, he has acted as a consultant to the French Foreign Ministry. In 1988, Roy served as a United Nations Office for Coordinating Relief in Afghanistan (UNOCA) consultant. Beginning in August 1993, Roy served as special OSCE representative to Tajikistan until February 1994, at which time he was selected as head of the OSCE mission to Tajikistan, a position he held until October 1994.

Roy is the author of numerous books on subjects including Iran, Islam, and Asian politics. These works include Globalized Islam, Today’s Turkey: A European State? and The Illusions of September 11. His best-known book, L’Echec de l’Islam politique (1992) (The Failure of Political Islam) (1994), is a standard text for students of political Islam. His most recent work is Secularism Confronts Islam (Columbia, 2007). The book offers a perspective on the place of Islam in secular society and looks at the diverse experiences of Muslim immigrants in the West. Roy examines how Muslim intellectuals have made it possible for Muslims to live in a secularized world while maintaining the identity of a “true believer.”
Sponsored by the IHC’s Identity RFG, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the departments of History and Political Science.

hm 11/5, 11/13