Date: December 10, 2020 @ 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM

Facebook Live: @ReligiousFreedomInstitute

Youtube: Religious Freedom Institute

A spate of terrorist attacks by Muslim immigrants has again hit Europe. France and Austria have announced a set of severe measures aimed at preventing such attacks by criminalizing what they describe as “separatism,” “political Islam,” and “Islamism.” Supporters of these measures say they are needed to address a pressing threat. Opponents say they violate religious rights and are likely to make tensions worse.

What are the factors motivating those who commit these terrorist attacks? Are the measures announced by France and Austria well-designed to address these factors? Is Islamist extremist ideology the only relevant consideration, or do poverty, racism, and the intense secularism of the post-Enlightenment nation state play a role?

Join us live on December 10^th, 2020 at 12:00pm EST as we discuss these questions with our two guests, Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institution and Lorenzo Vidino of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

The Religious Freedom Institute is hosting a series of webinars as part of an initiative to explore the relationship between Islam and the state. This series is part of a broader inquiry into the scope of freedom of religion within Islam and the prospects for its realization in the Muslim-majority world.

Shadi Hamid is a senior fellow in the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World in the Center for Middle East Policy and the author of “Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World” (St. Martin’s Press), which was shortlisted for the 2017 Lionel Gelber Prize.

Dr. Lorenzo Vidino is the Director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

Source: Religious Freedom Institute