Can Islam and Modernity be Reconciled?

The Rumi Forum presented “Can Islam and Modernity be Reconciled?” with Dr. Shireen T. Hunter, Visiting Professor at the ACMCU at Georgetown University.

 

This question has preoccupied both Muslims and non-Muslims for more than a century, and has elicited sharply contradictory responses.The  editor and contributing authors to the book Reformist Voices of Islam : Mediating Islam and Modernity argue that the two are not irreconcilable, and that a Reformist reading of Islamic sources provides the right medium to satisfy Muslim societies need to accomodate modernity while retaining their cultural identity and values.

Shireen T. Hunter is Visiting Professor at the Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. From September 2005 until February 2007 she was a Visiting Fellow at the center where she conducted research on reformist Islam, a project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. She is also Distinguished Scholar( Non –Resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., with which she has been associated since 1983 (Director of the Islam Program, 1998-2005; Senior Associate, 1993-97; and Deputy Director of the Middle East Program, 1983-92).  She is Consultant to the RAND Corporation; and she was Academic Fellow at Carnegie Corporation (2000-2002). From 1993-97, Dr. Hunter was Visiting Senior Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels, and also directed CEPS’ Mediterranean Program.   While at CSIS in the 1980s, she also taught courses as Professorial Lecturer at Georgetown University, Adjunct Professor at George Mason University, and holder of the Louis L. Goldstein Chair at Washington College (1989). Prior to joining CSIS, Dr. Hunter was a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution(1979-1980)  Research Fellow at the Harvard University Center for International Affairs (CFIA).  From 1966-1978, she was a member of the Iranian Foreign Service, serving abroad in London and Geneva. Dr. Hunter was educated at Teheran University (BA and all-but-thesis for a doctorate in international law), the London School of Economics (MSc in international relations), and the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva (PhD in international relations).