At a time when the mixture of politics and religion is often cited as the source of political catastrophe across the Middle East, Ahmed Dailami identifies a new strain of secularising political and religious thought in the contemporary states of the Arab Gulf.
Pundits, religious figures, politicians, rulers, literary figures and artists have begun to make unprecedented ideological statements that distinguish between political and religious authority not as a progressive ideal, but as a conservative pragmatic necessity. Commonly dismissed as either populist or 'merely rhetorical', Dailami examines this strain of non-moralising politics not as proof of a secular moment, but in order to ask whether rhetorical claims matter for the immediate political future of a region so dominated by the common-sense reading of 'interests'.
Event details
Speaker: Ahmed Dailami, Independent Researcher
Chair: Dr Courtney Freer, LSE Kuwait Programme
Date: Thursday 22 September 2016
Time: 16.30-18:00
Location: Thai theatre, New Academic Building, LSE
Event Hashtag: #LSEKuwait
Attendance: This event is free and open to all, however registration is necessary. Registration has now closed.
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