Civil Islam - Beyond the Headlines     

A lecture and three seminars by Robert W. Hefner, 2008 NUS-Stanford Lee Kong Chian Distinguished Fellow, Shorenstein APARC and Professor of Anthropology, Boston University 

April 28 - May 1, 2008 

Media coverage of Islam and Muslims, especially since 9/11, has featured violence and the threat of violence.  In his opening lecture and three seminars to follow, Prof. Hefner will explore a different reality "beyond the headlines."  Is there a "civil Islam"?  Are Islam and democracy compatible?  Is "Islamism" always radical, or can it be democratic?  How does Muslim schooling affect the answers to these questions?  Prof. Hefner will also look beyond the media's focus on the Middle East to examine the interactions between Islam, Muslims, and democracy in Southeast Asia.  

This is the first of the three seminars scheduled with Dr. Hefner.  

The second seminar of this series is on Wednesday, April 30 and is titled Schooling Islam: Madrasas and the Remaking of Muslim Modernity. 

The third seminar will be on Thursday, May 1 and is titled Muslim Politics in Southeast Asia: Democratic Islam Hijacked? or Re-invigorated? 

Robert W. Hefner's latest books include Schooling Islam (co-ed., 2007); Remaking Muslim Politics (ed., 2005); and Civil Islam (2000). He is the invited editor of the sixth volume of the forthcoming New Cambridge History of Islam, Muslims and Modernity: Society and Culture since 1800.  He directs the program on Islam and civil society at Boston University since 1991. 

All four events are co-sponsored by the the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the Southeast Asia Forum in the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University.