The Rise of Sectarianism in the Middle East in an Age of Western Hegemony: 1860-2014 with Professor Ussama Makdisi – Oct 2 at 5 PM
The LBJ School of Public Affairs will present “The Rise of Sectarianism in the Middle East in an Age of Western Hegemony: 1860-2014, ” a lecture with Rice University Professor of History Ussama Makdisi, the first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice University, on Oct. 2 at 5 PM at the LBJ School’s Bass Lecture Hall.
The conventional view of sectarianism in the Middle East is that it reflects age-old, endemic religious tensions, and that it reflects a problem in the region’s adaptation to a secular Western modernity. Sectarianism has often been depicted as a holdover of primordial religious divisions that make up the Middle East. In contrast, this talk suggests that the sectarian crisis in the Middle East has its roots in the nineteenth century Ottoman Empire that sought to adapt to European power and to introduce political equality, and in the post-Ottoman Middle East that has seen a series of Western powers, most recently the United States, dominate the region.
This event is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required.