29 de Novembro de 2007, 14.30h
Auditório Sedas Nunes, ICS/UL 

Programa 

14.30h - Welcome and Opening Remarks
Jorge Vala, President of the Scientific Council of ICS-UL
Nina Clara Tiesler, Co-ordinator of MEL-net, ICS-UL

15.00h - Muslim Communities and the Public Sphere: Reflections and Case Studies
Chair: Rabia Malik, Malborough Family Therapy Centre ( UK)

Where do Muslims Come from?
AbdoolKarim Vakil, King´s College London (UK)

«Taking a cue from the engagement with questions of identity in the artwork of Said Adrus  - that he is from Warhol, Rauschenberg and being Black at border controls; from the world systems that try to organise and disorganise him; and form the world as collage - this paper focuses on the obsession to con-figure Muslims (out) by reference to origins which double as projections into ethnicity and tradition. Beyond the production of the Muslim as object of State practices, policies, and media and securitising concerns, it explores postcolonial re-framings of the question of where and when "Muslims" come from to ask, with El Said: 'Seeing, Is it Believing?'»

The "Modernity" of Sacrifice: Qurbani, place and transnational migrations among Bangladeshis in Lisbon
José Mapril, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon

«Through an ethnography of Bangladeshi migrants in Lisbon, this presentation will argue that the qurbani, the sacrifice performed during eid-ul-ad'ha, is a way to domesticate modernity. Migration is a way to access consumption - associated with ideas of class, modernity (as a status and not a telos) and success. Nonetheless, the insertion of migrants in the global labour markets is accomplished in very marginal structural positions. Such ambivalence is controlled through religion, namely the islamization of places and their production as spaces of belonging. This process is clearly seen in the ritualization of the transnational space through which migrants (re)produce belongings, relatedness and sociabilities, thereby domesticating a modernity that led them to deterritorialization in the first place.»

Where do Young Portuguese Muslims go?
Nina Clara Tiesler, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon

«One important aspect characterising the recent history and current developments of Muslim life in Portugal is the maturing of the so-called "second generation" of Portuguese Muslims of Indian-Mozambican origin. While recent immigration from Muslim countries contributes to the diversification of Muslim communities, these postcolonial people and community founders continue playing a key role in Islamic associational work. One example is the Youth Association of the Islamic Community (CilJovem) in Lisbon, a group of young people with transnational horizons. The paper is based on a study which compares attitudes toward mobility of these young Portuguese Muslims, whose parents came from Mozambique, with those of their non-Muslim peers, whose family histories lack migration experience. In order to examine the young people's experiences, readiness and attitudes toward mobility, we also took cultural patterns, concepts of space and belonging, as well as socio-economic status and future aspirations into account. Primarily results reveal: Islam and Muslim-ness are important to them; they are deeply attached to their city and home country and are in many respects "mainstream Portuguese". Based on ethnographic fieldwork and quantitative data material, the paper discusses the eventual correlation between the family's (and community's) migration and minority experience on one hand, and the strong attachment of the young Portuguese Muslims to their homeland on the other, by putting the question: How far does migration experience of former generations have an impact on the geographic mobility of young people?»

16.50h - Keynote and Panel Discussion

Keynote address
Answering the Muslim Question: Euro-Islam and European Dreams 
S. Sayyid, Director, Centre of Ethnicity and Racism Studies, University of Leeds

«The metaphorical excess of 'Muslim' and 'European' points to the politicization of these labels since they operate as surface of inscription for a wide range of demands and mobilizations that are not reducible to the facticity of being European or being Muslim.  Islam and the West become the names of antagonistic global projects which increasingly polarize the world and its history. It is in this context in that the presence of populations in the European Union which increasingly define themselves and are defined by others as being Muslim assume a critical importance.  On the one hand it is assumed that the presence of so many Muslims in the urban heart of the European Union subverts the binary opposition between Islam and the West.  On other hand it is argued that persistence of Muslims in Europe constitutes one of the gravest threats to European societies and cultures. Thus, the presence of Muslims qua Muslims has a general resonance that goes beyond the actuality of the Muslims living in the European Union. One way proposed to resolve this dilemma has been to articulate a European Islam.  This approach has emerged from various points of the political spectrum and both from some  who are hostile to Islam as well as from Muslims who are not. So what could a European Islam look like?»

Panel Discussion
Chair and Opening Remarks: Tariq Ramadan, St. Antony´s College Oxford
Participants: AbdoolKarim Vakil, José Mapril, Nina Clara Tiesler, S. Sayyid

18.30h - Book Launch: Islam en lusophonies –  Islão nas lusofonias –  Islam in Portuguese-Speaking Areas
Special issue of the tri-lingual journal Lusotopie (Brill), ed. by Nina Clara Tiesler

Mais informação sobre este dossier disponível aqui.

Roundtable
Beyond Gharb Al-Andalus - Historical encounters and present-day realities in Portugal
Presentation & Chair: João de Pina Cabral, Director of Research, ICS-UL 

Participating authors:
Maria Abranches (IOM Lisbon)
Susana Bastos (CEMME-CRIA/UNL, Lisbon)
David Cairns (ICS-UL)
Eduardo Costa Dias (ISCTE, Lisbon, tbc)
Rita Gomes Faria (UAM, Madrid)
Eva-Maria von Kemnitz (UNL)
José Mapril (ICS-UL)
Nina Clara Tiesler (ICS-UL)

Mais informação disponível em http://www.mel-net.ics.ul.pt

Mais informação sobre o dossier "Islão nas Lusofonias" da revista revista Lusotopie disponível aqui.