Secularism, Islam, and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West

http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4725/prmID/172

When: Thursday April 8, 2010
Where: The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, New York City
What time: 7:30 p.m.

With Ian Buruma, Dalia Mogahed, Tariq Ramadan, Joan Wallach Scott, and Jacob
Weisberg

Tickets: $15/$10 for PEN/ACLU Members and students with valid ID. Tickets
available through www.smarttix.com

or (212) 868-4444. They may also be purchased at the door. Seating is by
general admission, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Co-sponsored by Cooper Union, AAUP, ACLU, and Slate

PEN, the ACLU, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and
Slate will join forces to present Tariq Ramadan¹s first public appearance in
the United States since he was barred from entering the country in 2004.
PEN, the ACLU, and the AAUP won a Supreme Court case against this instance
of intellectual exclusionism to allow Ramadan‹one of Europe¹s most respected
Islamic scholars and chair of Oxford University¹s Islamic Department‹back
into the U.S. The April 8 event will offer a unique opportunity to hear
Professor Ramadan talk about issues relating to secularism, Islam, and
democracy, along with author Ian Buruma, and author/Obama advisor Dalia
Mogahed.

³Switzerland votes to prohibit the construction of minarets²; ³France
debates barring women from wearing the niqab and burqa²; ³The United States
seizes the assets of the largest American Muslim charities²‹such headlines
suggest an increasingly polarized relationship between Islam and liberal,
secular democracies, especially in Europe. Is this the full story? Is there
a fundamental clash of values between secularism and Islam and between
freedom of expression and freedom of religion? In what ways are Muslims
living in the West contributing to democratic societies? Can Islam exist as
a Western religion? Is it a Western religion already? How do we better
understand the life of the Muslim community within various Western
societies? Ian Buruma and Dalia Mogahed will join Tariq Ramadan to discuss
all this and more.

The author of more than 20 books, including Western Muslims and the Future
of Islam, Islam, the West, and the Challenges of Modernity, and To Be a
European Muslim, Tariq Ramadan was Professor of Islamic Studies and Luce
Professor of Religion Conflict and Peacebuilding (Kroc Institute) at the
University of Notre Dame. In 2004, the Bush administration revoked his visa
just days before he was scheduled to begin teaching. PEN, the American
Academy of Religion, and the AAUP joined a lawsuit brought by the ACLU to
challenge Professor Ramadan¹s exclusion, and late last year an appeals court
in New York ruled that the government had failed to provide a sufficient
legal basis for its action. In the wake of that ruling, in January 2010,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued an order that effectively ended
Professor Ramadan¹s exclusion.

This event is presented as part of an initiative to promote national
reflection and accountability in the United States. It also celebrates a
victory of important principle‹that American audiences should be able to
hear directly from important figures such as Professor Ramadan.