Motabagani, Mazin - Department of Islamic
Studies, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
“Evaluation of Academic Conferences in
the West about Islam”
One of the main activities of European and
American universities has been to hold conferences and symposia on the issues pertaining to
Muslims and the Muslim world in different fields: political, social, cultural …etc. Attendees are usually specialists in these
fields from the Muslim/ Arab World or the West. Attendees include some representation from
European or U. S governments.
These conferences and symposia are originally
meant to build bridges and strengthen cultural ties between the West and Islam. They also seek to
tackle some of the problems or misunderstanding between the two Worlds.
Some conferences and symposia do live up to
the expectations and can be considered real success in the great results the true learning
experience the offer for both parties. There are numerous examples of such excellent conferences which I
personally attended where the organizers were open minded to all views and gave
a good
chance for balanced representation of different views and convictions. I
believe that some of the blame should go to the Arab and Muslim
researchers who do not venture to attend international conferences or even local
ones at Western universities. They either do not possess the needed proficiency
in the European languages
or lack the methodology of the ability to present a paper in a
conference.
However there are conferences that lack the
real academic standards. Some conferences are not well advertised, and therefore the
attendees are of one type or another. I monitored conferences held by the
B.B.C. in cooperation
with Royal Institute for International Affairs and found that most of the Arabs
represented in these
conferences are the pro western or western
educated. They would usually be an echo of the views of their western counterparts. A Moroccan
Scholar commented on some conferences commented on some conferences that
claim to be bridge builders while in fact the invitations are extended to a
certain types of Arab and Muslim
Scholars who are known to be critical of
Islam and Islamic faith and ready to relinquish their own faith for some trivial
gains.
This paper will attempt to present an
evaluation of a number of conferences according to the high standards
of the European and the American standards of
equal opportunity and representation.
I will tackle these issues in three sections:
The topics and themes of the conferences; Critical analysis of
examples of Conferences held in the West;
Basis for a true dialogue and guidelines for future conferences.
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