During the three days of the Conference, many lectures were given and many discussion groups were held, which covered a large number of politics, religious, philosophical and linguistic issues. In the first day plenary session, under the title of "North Africa," speeches were given on Libya, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.
The speaker on Libya was the known expert on Middle Eastern affairs, George Joffe, of the Royal Institute for International Relations. The speaker on Algeria was Dr. Michael Willis, who is a lecturer at Al-Akhawayn University and the speaker on Morocco was St. John Gould from the School of Oriental and African Studies, while the speaker on Mauritania was Dr. Stone. Unable to attend, for unfortunate reasons, Dr. Emma Murphy, who is a lecturer at Durham University could not present her speech on Tunisia.
In the discussion groups, which were held on the same day, the topics of the research work papers were of a broad variety of contents, on subjects from "Islam and Pluralism," "Religion and Human Rights," to "The Gulf" and "Culture in Iran" as well. The title of one of these research papers was "Islam and Europe: learning to accept each other". The title of another research paper was "Concept of conflict resolution in Islamic law." The researcher Declan O'Sullivan presented a paper entitled "Al-Islam: An Alternative approach to the universal protection of human rights," which is related to his doctoral research at Durham University. All of the research papers presented on the first day totalled fourteen, and were presented through four working and discussion groups. At the end of that day, which was full of scientific discussions, Dr. Mahmoud Ayoub, the Professor at Temple University, gave a lecture entitled "Pluralism in the Qur'an" which was received very positively by all those who attended. It was followed by an extended discussion with the participants.
The second day of the Conference in the morning session there were five working and discussion groups. Also, a general lecture was given under the title "The Varieties of Pluralism," given by Professor Keith Ward of Oxford University. The title of the discussion groups were as follows, "The Possibilities of Pluralism," "Problems and Tension." "Conflict Resolution," "The Contemporary Middle East" and "Development in the Arab World." In the afternoon session, five working groups were held. The first was entitled "The Foundations of Islam." The second was "Islamic Pluralism," and the third was "Middle East Pariah States." The fourth was " Principles and Pragmatism in Islamic Politics" and the fifth was "Close Cultural Encounters," while the general plenary gathering was a talk about "The work of the British Council" in three Middle Eastern countries. Anthony Lewis presented a paper on Saudi Arabia, John Mackenzie presented a research paper on Tunisia while Ann Malamah-Thomas presented a paper on the British Council work in Lebanon.
The discussion group about the Middle East pariah states was one of the most important of all the groups, which focused on contemporary Middle East issues, as it covered the subject of those countries which are treated by the west as if they work outside international law (pariah). The west is imposing different kinds of international sanctions such as embargoes, blockades and freezing assets et cetera.
Professor Tim Niblock, the director of the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Durham University, spoke first about the humanitarian aspects of the international embargo imposed on Iraq, while Dr. Amal Obeidi spoke of the effects the embargo on Libya. Dr. Abdulsalam Sayed Ahmed spoke about the joint impact of the international sanctions which resulted in considering Sudan as a pariah state, in addition to the Sudanese civil war, while Dr. Anoushiravan Ehteshami was unable to make the Conference for personal reasons, so he could not present his paper on Iran.
The title of the paper presented by Professor Raymond Hinnebusch, a lecturer in St. Andrews University in Scotland, was "Syria: the escape from pariahhood?" as he discussed the factors which enabled Syria to adjust with the New World Order and maintaining a good relationship with the United States and western countries, despite it remaining technically on the list of states sponsoring state terrorism.
On the third day, five discussion groups were held in the morning session. The first on "Turkey", the second on "Muslims in Britain" and the third on "Religious figures in Islam," the fourth on "Secularisation and Pluralism," and the fifth on "Philosophy in Islam." More than fifteen research papers were presented, ranging from " Privatisation in Turkey" to 2Ibn al-Muqri - Life and Achievements." One of these important and interesting papers was given by Cosima Eggers a PhD students at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies of Durham University entitled "The integration of Muslims into British Society: a struggle for identity." The lecture of the plenary session was presented by Professor Douglas Johnston from the Centre of International and Strategic Studies, in Washington, under the title "Religion and Statecraft." He spoke of the new methodology of conflict resolution through focusing on the religious dimension. He spoke extensively about the book published by the Centre. The book adopted this methodology, as entitled "Religion - the missing dimension of Statecraft." The lecture emphasised that religion was largely ignored as a factor in international affairs and because of the important role played by religion in many of the international conflicts, it is necessary to restore that missing dimension into its right place, in managing international diplomacy.
Professor Johnston - who, on addition to his academic activities is considered a participant in making American policy - sees that religion is intertwined with politics in the culture of many peoples and nations throughout the world and that the secular nature of the American policy is unable to realise that the two are intertwined. Thus, it lacks success in dealing with some international conflicts and crisis. In a direct question to the lecturer about the hypothesis of this book is contradictory with some of Samuel Huntington's hypothesis of clash of civilisations, Professor Johnston answered positively, emphasising that the Centre of International and Strategic Studies, in Washington, which he represent and the mentioned book in particular, did not agree with Huntington's vision of clash of civilisation.
In the evening session more than twelve papers were presented in five discussion groups. Between those papers one was entitled "Religious pluralism: is it challenge to Islam?" and another one was entitled "Possibilities for Pluralism in Islam" while the topic of the general plenary session was "Religion and Cyberspace," where the two lecturers, Dr. Gary Bunt from Wales University and Dr. Mark Fraser from Oxford University, talked about how to search on issues related to religion using the information technology and the Internet. At the end of the third day the guest speaker at the Conference dinner, was Sir Marrak Goulding, from St. Anthony's College, Oxford University. The fourth day of the Conference was given to the Annual General Meeting of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.
In General, the Conference, which had over hundred participants and in which more than eighty research papers were presented, had great importance for historical and contemporary issues. The last comment, which is worth mentioning, was the weakness, if not the semi-total absence of Arabs' participation in the Conference.
Saad A. Elshelmani
Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic
Studies
University Of Durham
United Kingdom
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