Globalization, Identity and the Transformation of Islamic Activism

A Lecture by Dr. Peter Mandaville

Thursday, June 17, 2010 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM EDT
Rumi Forum 1150 17th St. N.W., Suite 408 Washington, DC 20036

Discussions of globalization and identity have focused on the renewed relevance of various post-national frameworks of belonging, including the Muslim umma. The research to be presented in this talk argues against the idea that the umma has come to constitute a primary referent in contemporary Muslim debates about identity or as a form of globalized political consciousness. This does not mean, however, that we are seeing a reaffirmation of the nation in Muslim contexts today. Rather, transnational Muslim solidarities represent an intermediate space of affiliation and socio-political mobilization that exists alongside and in an ambivalent relationship with the nation-state.

Dr. Peter Mandaville is Associate Professor of Government and Islamic Studies and founding Director of the Center for Global Studies at George Mason University, with past affiliations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the University of Kent at Canterbury in the UK. He is the author of Global Political Islam (2007; 2nd edition forthcoming 2011) and Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma (2001), editor of several volumes of essays such as Globalizing Religions (2009), Meaning and International Relations (2003), and The Zen of International Relations (2001). As a Visiting Senior Fellow, he is currently completing a project at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life on Muslim movements and networks in Europe. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and consulted widely for government agencies and the media.

Hosted by The Rumi Forum.