Islam and International Relations

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Posted on 11 March 2011

As the only foreign speaker, SPIRE lecturer Naveed Sheikh was invited to speak at a conference on Islam and International Relations at the University of Guilan in Rasht, Iran, attended by the local dignitaries, including the Governor, national politicians, bureaucrats and diplomats (March 2011).

In a special English-language session, he delivered a wide-ranging paper, entitled "Towards an Emancipatory Islamic International Relations, Or: Why Islamism Went Wrong and How to Rectify It," combining a reading of Plato, Thucydides, Alfarabi and Algazel with postcolonial, critical and mimetic theory to re-read the intellectual history of contemporary political Islam and suggest pathways for a reorientation of Muslim political practice in alignment with an authentic 'Prophetic paradigm'.

The paper led to a prolonged epistemological debate and was warmly received, even as it challenged key principles of the Iranian system of governance and foreign policy.

A British Academy Overseas Conference Grant, together with funds from the Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice, enabled this trip.

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