Engaging Islamic Radicalisation through Education. Challenge and Promise of Teaching Muslim Public Law

Transcription

1 Engaging Islamic Radicalisation through Education Challenge and Promise of Teaching Muslim Public Law Dr. Ebrahim Afsah Associate Professor of Public International Law Centre for Comparative and European Constitutional Studies Faculty of Law University of Copenhagen coursera.org/course/muslimworld

2 Profound Crisis of Governance 1. Barbarians within our Gates 2. Well-intentioned but dishonest denial of problem s religious nature. 3. We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea. Values Symbol of Identity

3 Constitutional Struggles in the Muslim World Function of any constitutional order: Rules of the Game Values Symbol of Identity

4 Constitutional Struggles in the Muslim World Focus of this Course: Legal and social reality, rather than dogmatic ideal Practical tensions from insufficient capacity Popular dissatisfaction with bad governance

5 Don t mention the War Centre for Comparative and European Constitutional Studies

6 Don t mention the Reports Centre for Comparative and European Constitutional Studies

7 Constitutional Struggles in the Muslim World Inherent audience dynamics: Extremely divisive issues Extremely invested participants Extremely complex and contested histories Extremely tied up with identity, faith, perception

8 How to Teach a Controversial Topic? Max Weber, Science as a Vocation, 1918: the true teacher will beware of imposing from the platform any political position upon the student, whether it is expressed or suggested Why should we abstain from doing this? the answer is: because the prophet and the demagogue do not belong on the academic platform. To the prophet and the demagogue, it is said: Go your ways out into the streets and speak openly to the world, that is, speak were criticism is possible. In the lecture-room we stand opposite our audience, and it has to remain silent. The primary task of a useful teacher is to teach his students to recognise 'inconvenient' facts - I mean facts that are inconvenient for their party opinions.

9 Addressing the Inconvenient Facts The list is long: child marriage, slavery, role of women, role of religion and religious law, military capability, revenue collection, autocracy, inequality, underdevelopment, hypocrisy, moral deviancy, etc. etc. etc. Objectivity Honesty Evidence

10 Global Audience, Global Challenge Language English ability of audience extremely diverse Reaching beyond the echo-chamber Sub-titles, local study groups, translated material Culture Teacher s background makes a difference Be respectful, but firm and clear Dialogue of Civilisations or of the Deaf? Geography Technical issues: broadband access Local issues: animosities and narrow knowledge Political issues: sanctions

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12 Searching for MOOC Best Practice Rigour What is an adequate academic level? How important are enrolment and completion rates? How much work/commitment can we expect? Integrity How important is reputation, institutional and personal? How closely should instructors interact with the class? How important is transparency for establishing trust? Safety Students: how to deal with trolls and aggressors? Avoid conspiracy theories by acting openly Show actual or potential victims that you care Pour encourager les autres: credible sanctions Teacher: how to avoid getting fired, or incarcerated? Institution: how to deal with/use publicity?

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