This all-day event took place on April 22, 2005 in the Lipman Room, Barrows Hall UC Berkeley.

Panel 1: Globalization and Its Impact on Muslim Practices
Chair: Nezar Alsayyad, Chair of the Center of Middle Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley

• Olivier Roy, Research Associate, Humanities & Social Sciences, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
• Mark LeVine, Professor of History, UC Irvine; expert on Middle East and Islamic history, theology, globalization, and political economy
• Saba Mahmood, Professor, Department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley; expert on postcolonial secularism, with attention to issues of subject formation, religiosity, embodiment, and gender
• Ahmed Alibasic, Deputy President of the Society of Ulama of Bosnia-Herzogovina

Panel 2: Globalization and Its Impact on Islamic Doctrine
Chair: Steven Fish, Professor, Political Science, UC Berkeley

• Marc Sageman, Adjunct Professor of Psychology, Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, University of Pennsylvania; ex-CIA; author of Understanding Terror Networks
• Abdoulaye Kane, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Florida; specialist on transnational networks of Senegalese migrants living in diaspora
• Jocelyne Cesari, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Divinity School, Harvard University; author of Islam, Globalization, and the West

Panel 3: Islam and the Values of Democracy
Chair: John Lie, Dean of the Institute of International and Area Studies, UC Berkeley

• Khaled Abou El Fadl, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law; expert on Islamic law, immigration, human rights, international and national security law
• Justo Lacunza Balda, Catholic priest; head of the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Rome, Italy
• Dale Eickelman, Professor of Anthropology, Dartmouth College; specialist on the new media in the Arab world

Roundtable: Islam and Conflict
Chair: Bruce Cain, Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley

• Olivier Roy, Research Associate, Humanities & Social Sciences, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
• Nadia Yassine, Spokesperson, al-Adl wal-Ihsan (Justice and Charity) Islamist Movement
• Gunter Mulack, Ambassador at the German Foreign Office in Berlin and the Minister's Commissioner for Germany's Dialogue with the Islamic World
• Ali Ferdowsi, Professor of History and Political Science, Notre Dame de Namur University
• Hatem Bazian, Lecturer in Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley; specialist on Muslim immigration and settlements in the Bay Area

Until now, most academic studies focusing on Islam fall into one of two categories: Area Studies (Middle East, Central Asia etc.) or "Islamology," that is, the study of Islamic religion and history. The resulting patchwork of microcosmic field studies on the one hand, and a purely culturalist and holistic approach of Islam on the other, does not take into account the effect of globalization on Islam. Contemporary radical Islam, for example, is transnational and increasingly rooted in the West itself; it is less a legacy of traditional Islam than a product of globalization. As we have seen with particular urgency since 9/11, when the academic community fails to deal with Islam on these terms, the field is relegated to journalists or security experts. The goal of the conference is to go beyond the boundaries of existing academic fields to understand the new phenomenon of transnational Islam and to address the following issues: the globalization of Islam; the relationship between Islam as a universal religion and the specific cultures of the Middle East; the feasibility of democratization of Muslim countries; and the relationship between Islam and democracy.

The conference is sponsored by CIG and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The Center for Southeast Asia Studies, French Department, Graduate Theological Union, Institute of European Studies, Townsend Center, and International and Area Studies are also supporting the conference. For a detailed description of the conference, click here.