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Fundamentalism and Secularization

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Fundamentalism and Secularization

A Conversation with Dr. Robert K. Beshara and Zeyad el Nabolsy

 

Friday

February 11th, 2022

4PM

 

Register to attend this online Zoom event at https://tinyurl.com/DRBeshara

 

In Fundamentalism and Secularization, Egyptian philosopher Mourad Wahba traces the historical origins of fundamentalism and secularization as ideas and practices in order to theorize their symbiotic relationship, and how it is impacted by global capitalism and, more recently, postmodernism.

This gives voice to an argument from within the Islamic world that is very different to that given platform in the mainstream, showing that fundamentalism does not arise normally and naturally from Islam but is a complex phenomenon linked to modernization and the development of capitalism in dependent countries, that is, tied to imperialism.

Wahba’s central argument concerns the organic relationship between fundamentalism and parasitic capitalism. Wahba is equally critical of religious fundamentalism and global capitalism, which for him are obstructions to secularization and democracy. While the three Abrahamic religions are examined when it comes to fundamentalism, Wahba deconstructs Islamic fundamentalism in particular and in the process reconstructs an Islamic humanism.

Including a new preface by the author and translator, Fundamentalism and Secularism provides invaluable insights into how Middle Eastern philosophies open up new lines of thought in thinking through contemporary crises.

 

Robert K. Beshara is the author of Decolonial Psychoanalysis: Towards Critical Islamophobia Studies (Routledge, 2019) as well as Freud and Said: Contrapuntal Psychoanalysis as Liberation Praxis (Palgrave, 2021). He is also the editor of A Critical Introduction to Psychology (Nova, 2019) and Critical Psychology Praxis: Psychosocial Non-Alignment to Modernity/Coloniality (Routledge, 2021). Further, he is the translator of Mourad Wahba’s (1995) Fundamentalism and Secularization (Bloomsbury, forthcoming). He is the founder of the Critical Psychology website: www.criticalpsychology.org, and the director of the Critical Psychology certificate programme at the Center for Global Advanced Studies. Finally, he works as an Assistant Professor & Director of Integrated Studies at Northern New Mexico College. 

For more information, please visit www.robertbeshara.com

 

Zeyad el Nabolsy is a PhD candidate in Africana Studies at Cornell University. He works on African philosophy of culture, African Marxism, the history and philosophy of science in the context of modern African intellectual history, and the history and sociology of philosophy in the context of global intellectual history. His work has appeared in Science & Society, The Journal of African Cultural Studies, The Journal of Historical Sociology, Problemata: Revista Internacional de Filosofía, Kant Studies Online, Jadaliyya, the Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, and Liberated Texts among others.

 

PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN NEED OF ACCOMMODATIONS, CONTACT THE LIBRARY AT 505-955-6788, FIVE (5) WORKING DAYS PRIOR TO MEETING DATE.

 

Sponsored by Friends of The Santa Fe Public Library

 

Santa Fe Public Library

Community Services Department, City of Santa Fe, New Mexico

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