Professor Peter Mandaville, Director of the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies, has recently returned from Doha, Qatar, where he participated in the annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum.
This year’s forum, held between May 29 and May 31, was themed “New Voices, New Directions” to address the challenges facing Muslim communities around the world currently undergoing political transformations, and the impact of these changing dynamics on American policy.
Professor Mandaville co-moderated and authored the working paper for the 2012 forum’s signature event, titled “The Long Conversation", a town-hall style discussion about the “relationship between citizen, religion, and the state” which allowed all forum attendees to share their thoughts on the question of faith and civility. He led the conversation alongside Tamara Cofman Wittes, Senior Fellow and Director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings-United States, and Salman Sheikh, Fellow and Director of the Brookings Doha Center-Qatar.
Additionally, Mandaville offered his analysis and insight while participating in a working group focused on the current transitions to democratic governance in the Middle East, where representatives from emerging political parties and movements in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya engaged directly with American and European government officials to discuss the international community's role in sustaining these transitions.
The yearly gathering, organized by the Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World (housed within the Saban Center for Middle East Policy) in partnership with the State of Qatar, brings together hundreds of international government officials, prominent intellectuals and journalists, activists, and entrepreneurs to discuss the dynamics of American relations with the global Muslim community.
Other participants in this year’s forum included Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Nobel Peace Laureate Tawakkul Karman, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, and author-historian Karen Armstrong.
June 13, 2012
