Gilles Kepel asks the most burning questions about jihad and its followers.
Wednesday, 18. May 2016, 18:30 – 20:00 h
At the University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zurich, KOL-G-201 (Aula)
For years, jihad, the so-called holy war against the infidels, has also been exported to Europe. Brutal attacks in Madrid, London or Paris testify to the determination of Islamists to carry terror into the centres of Western civilisation. In this respect, the date of 11 September 2001 marks a turning point for the age of globalisation. For since then, security systems have been under pressure to prevent bad things from happening, without ever succeeding in fundamentally undoing our vulnerabilities. What are the motives of jihad? How does it recruit its followers? What can we do, even in our own cultures, to curb this activity? These are the burning questions of today and tomorrow.
Gilles Kepel, born in Paris in 1955, is a professor of sociology and one of the most profound experts on political Islam and radical Islamism. Kepel studied sociology, English and Arabic studies and earned two doctoral degrees in social and political science. In 1994 he was a visiting professor at New York University, and from 1995 to 1996 a visiting professor at Columbia University. Currently, Kepel is a professor at the Institut d'études politique de Paris, where he holds the chair for the Middle East and the Near East. He is also Visiting Professor of History and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. For over three decades, Gilles Kepel has observed and explored the development of Muslim societies in the Middle East and Europe. He has published numerous books on religion and society, Islam and Europe, holy war and the radicalisation of Islam. His 2012 book "Les Banlieues de la République", based on a field study, shows the hopeless situation of young people in the banlieues of Paris, where the mass riots began in 2005. Gilles Kepel lives in Paris.