"Jürgen Habermas spotted in santralistanbul!
Jürgen Habermas spotted in santralistanbul!
ResetDoc meeting continue in santralistanbul. Here are some fragments of ideas from the panels I have attended...
Monday, June 2, 2008
3.30 p.m. – 6.00 p.m Lectures 1 and 2
Seyla Benhabib The Return of Political Theology under Conditions of Globalization
Abdou Filali-Ansary Playing Politics on the Field of Religion
Chair: Ferda Keskin
I don't remember by who or how but some reliable intellectuals take the "hidden agenda" idea seriously. As Göle says as a perception this is to be taken seriously though one doesn't believe believe in it. the perception itself is sociological...
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
11.30 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. Panel 2
David Rasmussen: Islam and Democracy
Benjamin Barber: Can Islam accommodate Democracy, can Democracy accommodate Islam?
Chair: Murat Borovalı
ideas triggered...by no means these are quotations from the speakers. as a notarious conference participant, i take these events for their triggering impact. i have real difficulty to listen to the speakers concentrated so misunderstandings are always possible..
Rasmussen:
in the past- sharia/islamic government was promoted as an alternative by islamic movements.
now- it is as if it will happen for sure and secular intellectuals are trying to articulate this becoming phenomenon.
Barber:
It is a shame. I did not know him before! Now he is noted. His website, his bio and his blog.
Simple answer is yes:)
polemics in fact productive. ideas reformulated. rhetoric counts. Too much rationality may not get the fact there.
civilizations not between but within societies.
Prof. Barber is great presenter.
neither data nor rational discourse form the public opinion
not islam but religion is in tension with secularism. these dualities inform both politics and theology. not imposed on politics...
those americans who are anxious about the impact of islam, should just look at their own society, which is as religiously saturated as islamic world....
faith is in fact needed in democracies. religion becomes the source of social capital. despotism can live but not democracy...
islam is practiced in many different ways like any other religions...
religion in the modern period should be personal- a belief held. but privatization of religion might be a perversion. see what happens in US...
to the degree Islam is fundamentalist, other religions are also fundamentalist. Hinduism that weakened Indian democracy, or Protestant fundamentalism in US...
"fundamentalism is the siege of ordinary religion"
we have associated democracy with materialism- markets etc and when there is opposition to latters, we think this is automatically being against democracy..
....
mcworld has become indifferent to democracy too...
incomplete understanding of democracy is the reason some belive that democracy cannot accommodate Islam...
"i wish i would call my book 'Strong democracies' NOT democracy as if there is one essentialist understanding of democracy..
democracy is not given. it has to be built, developed. dethroning the tyrant doesn't mean that democracy will emerge automatically. democracy needs patience.
democracy is living with tension and conflict. it is healthy.
