The SEPAD project and the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) are delighted to announce the Faith and State conference to be held on Tuesday 12th July in London.

This conference will examine the importance of religious identities within the fabric of states in the Middle East. While a great deal of work has been undertaken looking at sectarian differences, comparatively little discussion of the ways in which people have rejected such identities, in a process we call desectarianisation. It will bring together scholars working on Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Lebanon and Yemen to reflect on the salience of religious identities in political projects.

The conference will be taking place in London. You can register to attend here: events@fpc.org.uk. Space to attend will be limited so please get in touch asap.

Conference outline:

OPENING PANEL: This session will explore the importance of religious identities within the fabric of states in the Middle East. It will examine why in the discussion on sectarian differences comparatively little is highlighted about the ways in which people have rejected such identities, in a process that we call desectarianisation.

Speakers: Professor Simon Mabon (Director of SEPAD and Professor of International Relations, Lancaster University); Ruba Ali Al-Hassani (Postdoctoral Research Associate, Lancaster University); Dr Ibrahim Halawi (Teaching Fellow, Royal Holloway University); and The Rt Hon Alistair Burt (Pro-Chancellor, Lancaster University)

THE STATE: This session will explore the role of the state in the process of desectarianisation. It will examine how the state can be a mechanism for challenging sectarianism, working towards desectarianisation, as well as a manipulator of religious identities. Through this lens, the session will look at the positives, pitfalls and limitations of the state’s role in this process.

Speakers: Dr Ibrahim Halawi (Teaching Fellow, Royal Holloway University); Professor Sana Al Sarghali (Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law, An-Najah University); Professor Toby Dodge (Professor of International Relations, LSE); and Adam Hug (Director of the FPC)

PROTEST: This session will examine the implications, and what part protests have in the process of desectarianisation. It will explore the integrality of this bottom-up driver for desectarianisation to occur. Panelists will also touch on the limits of the act of protesting, as well as the risks in the process of re-imagining a sectarian system.

Speakers: Dr Hadeel Abdelhameed (Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung Research Fellow); Ruba Ali Al-Hassani (Postdoctoral Research Associate, Lancaster University); Anne Kirstine Rønn (PhD Student, Aarhus University); and Drewery Dyke (Chairperson, Rights Realization Centre)

THE LEGACY OF SECTARIANISM: This session will explore the impacts of sectarianism on current political projects, as well as the interplay between sectarianisation and desectarianisation. It will examine what approaches are needed to counteract the legacy of sectarianism.

Speakers: Dr Mustafa Menshawy (Post Doctoral Researcher at SEPAD, Lancaster University); Professor Staci Strobl (Professor of Criminal Justice at Shenandoah University); and more TBA.

CLOSING PANEL – DESECTARIANISATION: LESSONS LEARNED: This session will discuss what lessons can be learned from across the Middle East on this process of desectarianisation. It will examine how different states have constructed specific meanings on desectarianisation and how they can be used to reinforce religious identities in political projects, as well as reject such identities.

Speakers: Dr Hadeel Abdelhameed (Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung Research Fellow); Professor Staci Strobl (Professor of Criminal Justice at Shenandoah University);; Professor Simon Mabon (Director of SEPAD and Professor of International Relations, Lancaster University); and more TBA.

See all panelist discussions below: