The Discontent of the East

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Five panel members, chaired by publicist Michaël Zeeman, discuss the situation of mutual distrust between East and West. From where does this distrust arise? Are the anti Western sentiments that are now felt, specifically of these times, or do they go much further back in history? How does the Eurpean Islam evolve?

Including Tariq Ramadan, philosopher, now living in Switzerland, author of To be a European Muslim, who enjoys a great deal of support amongst young Muslims living in the French suburbs; Paul Scheffer, professor in the field of urban issues and publicist in the field of multicultural society in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe; the Malaysian writer, poet and editor Eddin Khoo; Farid Esack, Muslim scientist from South Africa and former apartheid fighter, and Olivier Roy from France, an expert on the Islam and author of the recently published book The globalisation of the Islam.

The afternoon will be openend with an introduction by Michaël Zeeman, and finishes with a discussion amongst the audience.

English spoken.

On these pages, you can listen to the first or second part of the debate.

Information

Date and time Friday 21 January 2005 from 14:00 to 17:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui - grote zaal

Line-up

Michaël Zeeman

(Marken, 1958-2009) was a poet, a writer and a commentator, with a regular column on the Forum page and the book pages of the Volkskrant. Zeeman was the editor of the arts section of the Volkskrant and from 2006-2007 its Rome correspondent. In 2006 he and the writer Abdelkader Benali published an exchange of letters, exchanging ideas on politics, life, love and literature. In 2002 Zeeman received the Gouden Ganzenveer (Golden Goose Quill) for his merits for Dutch literature. Zeeman became well-known in the 1990s as the host of his monthly book programme 'Late at night after a short walk', later to be renamed 'Zeeman with books'. In 1991 he published his first volume of poetry, Beeldenstorm (Iconoclasm), winning him the C. Buddingh Prize. His second volume Verhoudingen (Relationships) appeared in 1995. In the same year he published short stories entitled De Verduistering (The Darkening). He died in 2009.
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Eddin Khoo

(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1969) is writer, poet and translator. He studied political science and Islamic philosophy at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, and Asian Arts and archeology at the University of London. Khoo is very interested in the traditional Malaysian culture. He is the founder and director of Kala, a publishing house that specialises in foreign literature translated into Malaysian. Alongside this he is also founder and director of Pusaka, a study and documentation centre for Malaysian theatre, a traditional art form that is in danger of disappearing from North East Malaysia, since it has been banned by the Islamic party of Malaysia.
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Paul Scheffer

(1954) worked as a correspondent in Paris and Warsaw before becoming a research assistant at the Wiardi Beckman Foundation. Since 1978 he has written about 200 essays for NRC Handelsblad and Volkskrant newspapers and De Groene Amsterdammer magazine, gaining particular notice in 2000 for The Multicultural Fiasco. In 2007 he published Het land van aankomst (Immigrant Nations), a book that seeks out what really goes on under the surface of multiculturalism. He held the position of Professor of Metropolitan Issues at the University of Amsterdam from 2003 to 2011. Since 2011 he has been professor of European Studies at the Universities of Tilburg and Amsterdam. In 2013 he published Alles doet mee aan de werkelijkheid. Herman de Wolf (1893-1942), his grandfather's biography followed by the essay De grens van de vrijheid (The border's freedom, 2016) in which he states that an open society can only exist by a certain spatial demarcation.
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Tariq Ramadan

(Switserland, 1962) was put forward by Time Magazine tobe included on a list of 100 people that were judged to become important innovators for the 21th century. Ramadan has written more than twenty books, the most recent ones being To be a European Muslim and Western Muslims and the Future of Islam. Ramadan is controversial. Some people look upon him as a bridge builder between East and West, but others see him as a dangerous preacher who incites young muslims form the French suburbs to embrace fundamentalism. He denies these allegations vehemently. However, the fact that his grandfather was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood and that he does not categorically condemn the stoning of women, but merely pleads for a moratorium does not help his cause. Recently he was refused a visa for the United States.
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Farid Esack

(Cape Town, South Africa, 1959) is a Muslim-theologian, presently attached to the Xavier University in Ohio where he holds an Endowed Chair in Ethics, Religion and Society. He grew up in South Africa in great poverty in a Muslim single parent family, an experience that has had great influence on his vision of the world. He received a grant to study at a madrassa in Karachi in Pakistan, took his doctoral degree in Birmingham and followed a
postdoctoral program in Germany. Esack lectured at the University of the Western Cape, Hamburg and at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. In 1997 he was appointed by Nelson Mandela as Commissioner for Gender Equality. Esack is the author of Qur’an, Liberation & Pluralism (1996), On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today (1999) and An Introduction to the Qur’an (2002).
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Olivier Roy

(France, 1949) is an authority on the Islam. In his latest book De globalisering van de islam (The globalisation of the Islam) Olivier Roy researches the consequences for the Islam of globalisation. His work is supported by a vast amount of factual material. From The Twin Towers to the French suburbs and from the trainings camps in Afganistan to the Dutch integration policies; in a convincing manner Roy manages to place the Islamic world in a new perspective. Olivier Roy is one of the most outstanding authorities on the Islam at this moment. He is attached to the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Centre of Scientific Research). Other titles written by him are: Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan; The Failure of Political Islam; The New Central Asia: The Creation of Nations, en Vers un islam européen (Towards an European Islam).
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