Please join the Atlantic Council on Wednesday, Sept. 21st from 12:00-1:30 pm for a conversation with a panel of experts to discuss findings and recommendations from the Middle East Strategy Task Force (MEST) Working Group on Religion, Identity, and Countering Violent Extremism.
Islam and politics in the age of ISIS: A smarter strategy for countering violent extremism – Launch of MEST Religion Working Group Report
A conversation with
Geneive Abdo
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East
Atlantic Council
Nathan J. Brown
Professor of Political Science and International Affairs;
Director, Institute for Middle East Studies
The George Washington University
Introduced and moderated by
Frederic C. Hof
Director, Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East
Atlantic Council
In recent decades, Muslims have been debating political and social aspects of their religious teachings in new ways. The religious debates are connected to and sometimes stem in considerable part from underlying political and social trends—demographic shifts; rising education; unaccountable and authoritarian governance; stuttering economic and governmental performance; and corruption. They cannot, however, be wholly reduced to those trends. Religion is not an isolated field, but neither is it simply a mask for other struggles; the terms and outcomes of religious debates matter in their own right.
Please join us for a conversation with the authors of the newly published Middle East Strategy Task Force (MEST) Working Group on Religion, Identity, and Countering Violent Extremism report to discuss these issues and more.
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Through our Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, the Atlantic Council works with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.
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