Islam and Democracy

23-25 March 2012

FEE: Including 5 meals is $150 and $30 for students. This international and interdisciplinary conference will be held at the University of Western Ontario and is designed to generate through intellectual exchange a set of core principles suited to democratic constitutions in Muslim-majority states. In plenary panels, presentations, and personal conversations, we bring together some of the world’s leading thinkers and emerging young scholars to work on the relationship between Islam, constitutional law, political theory, and democratic practices.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Author, journalist and photographer, Hadani Ditmars; Academic, author and leading expert on the Middle East, Nader Hashemi;
Professor of Islamic Studies, author, and former President of the ISNA, Ingrid Mattson; Senior journalist, author, and recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Haroon Siddiqui.

PRESENTERS: Fouad Ben Ahmed (Philosophy, Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania Institute, Morocco), Muhammad al-Atawneh (Middle East Studies, Ben Gurion University, Israel), Jon Armajani (Theology, St. John’s University, Minnesota), Gokhan Bacik (Political Science, Zirve University, Turkey), Nazli Cagin Bilgili (Political Science, Istanbul Kultur University, Turkey), Katherine Bullock (Political Science, University of Toronto), Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf (Islamic Studies, University of Bonn, Germany), Marco Demichelis (Language and Literature, University of Turin, Italy), Nevin El-Tahry (Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto), Yaghoob Foroutan (Social Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Iran), Gillian Kennedy (King's College London - London, UK), Javier Gil Perez (Political Science, Universidad Pontificia Comillas de Madrid, Spain), Humayan Kabir (Cultural and Religious Studies, Hiroshima University, Japan), Mohammad Rashid Rayyan (Faculty of Shariah, Jordan), Yasar Sari (International Relations, Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University, Kyrgyzstan), Daniel Stockemer (Political Studies, University of Ottawa), Davide Tacchini (Religious Studies, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy), Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko (Law, University of Montreal), Mostafa Younesie (Humanities, Tarbiat Modarres University, Iran), Amedee Turner (Barrister, QC)

HOTEL: Special rates to those who state that they are attending the Islam and Democracy conference, and who reserve before March 10, 2012.  Accommodations via:

For further information, please email us at islam-democracyhist@uwo.ca. 

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