Integrating Islamic Positions into European Public Discourse: The Paradigmatic Example of Tariq Ramadan

As the continuing relevance of religion to secular European societies garners increasing recognition, the question remains of which religious positions may assume a public role, with Islam at the center of many debates. This article complements the ongoing theoretical debate with a detailed case study analyzing the major works of Islamic scholar and public intellectual Tariq Ramadan. I show that in the last two decades Ramadan significantly modified his views on Islam and European societies. I argue that these adjustments were interdependent, and as such paradigmatically illustrate that the integration of Islamic positions into public discourse depends on shifts in the understanding of both concepts.

Cleverer than we thought: the change in discourse of the Georgian Orthodox Church

This paper will focus on three episodes of contemporary church-state relations in Georgia, in particular, the conflicting interaction between law and religion in the public space. The first episode will be an open confrontation between the church and the state over the law on Registration of Religious Minority organizations (2011) which allowed the religious minorities to freely register; second: the Law on Self-governance (2013) which Georgian Orthodox Church considered “a threat to territorial integrity of Georgia”; and lastly: the Law on Anti-discrimination (2014) which was deemed “legitimization of Sodomic sin”. By reflecting on the three examples where for the first time after the collapse of Soviet Union, the Georgian state openly confronted the church and made a decision notwithstanding its position, I will attempt to argue that the role of the Orthodox Church in influencing the law making process is in gradual decline. However, on the other hand, by presenting the results of an ethnographic study conducted in 23 eparchies and perishes in 7 regions of Georgia in 2014, I will also show that church has adapted to its declining role over policy making, and to regain its political influence it gradually started to employ a civic rather than ethno nationalist discourse on matters of religious freedom while engaging with government. The paper will suggest that both unilateral decision-making of the state and civic shift in the discourse of the church constitute an important change in understanding church-state dynamics in the post-communist Orthodox Christianity dominated society.

Kriegsverbrechen – Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit – Völkermord? Zeitgenössische Völkerrechtler und die Deportation der christlichen Minderheiten in Anatolien während des Ersten Weltkrieges

This presentation concentrates on the role that the deportation of Christian minorities in Anatolia during the First World War played in the context of the history of law. Terminologies and the use of legal notions by contemporaries will be a special focus, because this is still helpful in the context of present-day discussions. Therefore a contextualisation as precise as possible is important, when the topic of deportation and genocide is addressed. At the same time it is important not to confuse historical and legal appraisals. In this presentation the general discussion as to the prospects and potential of a judicial punishment of violations of international legal norms before as well as during the First World War will therefore be included as much as the attitude of jurists in regard to the position of the Ottoman Empire within the international community of law abiding states. Finally this presentation will also focus on discussions at the end of the war around the trials in Istanbul and the purpose of the Paris Peace Conference. In this context and following ideas of Mahmood Mamdani the discourse on law can be shown to have served not only as a way of giving victims a voice, but also as a language of power already at the beginning of the 20th century.