Transcript
STEPHEN R. GRAND: There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about Islamist groups, but the discussion has focused primarily on the religious/political aims of these groups. Much less attention has been paid to the broader agenda that these groups articulate or put forth publicly in their policy platforms. What we were interested in doing is looking at the full range of issues and the positions that Islamist groups take on these issues so that we broadened our understanding, broadened the discussion beyond the strictly religious, beyond the strict foreign policy lenses which we traditionally look at these groups.
For that we have a terrific panel today. We have the benefit of some very interesting, in-depth survey research that has been conducted by Hiam Nawas and Michel Zogby where they did a series of questionnaires of Islamist groups in Jordan, Egypt, and Yemen, and they are here today to present those results and give those results some context for us.
To moderate that discussion, I am pleased to introduce Professor Peter Mandaville, who is the Director of the Center of Global Studies, and Associate Professor of Government and Politics at George Mason University down the road, who has his Ph.D. at Kent University and has taught previously as well at Kent University, and who has a book coming out this spring, if I have it right, called "Beyond Islamism: Muslim Politics and Society in a Global World," which tries to put some of these issues in the context of globalization. Thank you everyone for coming.
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