Online
Speaker: Ussama Makdisi (History, Rice University), Discussant: Mona Damluji (Film and Media Studies, UC Santa Barbara)
Today’s headlines paint the Middle East as a collection of war-torn countries and extremist groups consumed by sectarian rage. Professor Makdisi provides a historical perspective to the contemporary sectarian tragedy that is unfolding in the Middle East. He delves into the complex, and now obscured, modern culture of coexistence in a region rich in religious diversity. In particular, Makdisi disputes two narratives that have traditionally dominated the story of diversity in the Middle East. The first stresses a continuous history of latent or actual sectarian strife between allegedly antagonistic religious communities; the second idealizes coexistence and communal harmony between Muslims and non-Muslims.