SAT 29.5.2010 15:20-15:40, Amazon Stage, Railway Square, Programme in English

SUN 30.5.2010 13:20-13:40, Amazon Stage, Railway Square, Programme in English

Heba Raouf Ezzat is an Egyptian political scientist and writer, who has written several books on issues of Islam, modernity and human rights.

Islam and Democracy: Heba Raouf Ezzat believes the West tragically fails to understand that the danger of the “Islamic state", as pursued by Islam’s extremists, lies not in their faith, but in the idea of the “state" as a powerful central authority that controls all aspects of life of its citizens. Global North not only fails to see the potential for an Islamic democratic secularism, but directly jeopardises it through their governments’ domestic and foreign policies. According to Heba Raouf, renaissance man was liberated from religious authoritarianism in the west, only to fall under the Leviathan state or the inhumane machine of the market.

Islam and Equality: Heba Raouf Ezzat was amongst the founders of popular website IslamOnline, whose aim is to open up public debate across the Arab and Muslim world on a wide range of subjects. Its advocates claim that an accompanying emphasis on human rights is of greater historic importance. Half the letters the Islam Online receives are from women.

Heba Raouf regards openness as “deeply embedded in the Qu’ranic discourse". Far from feeling indebted to the modernising influence of western democracy, she is convinced that a “trans-Islamic dialogue" has much to offer a globalising world, not least Islam’s “high respect for the virtue of difference".