Newsletter — January/February 2021
Dear friends, On February 3ʳᵈ and 4ᵗʰ, al-Azhar celebrated the second anniversary of the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi, a declaration signed by the Great Imam of al-Azhar, Aḥmad al-Ṭayyib and Pope Francis, by organizing a two-day online conference headed by Dr. Muḥammad al-Ḍuwaynī, Vice-Great Imam of al-Azhar (photo). Unfortunately, […]
Newsletter —December 2020
Dear friends, As the pandemic continues to take its toll everywhere in the world, Egypt is currently being hit by a second wave of contamination. It is impossible to know the exact number of patients suffering of Covid-19 because, the cost of a PCR test being almost 150 euros, only a tiny percentage of Egyptians […]
Newsletter — November 2020
Dear friends, As the sanitary situation is still lasting, this is a good time for strategic thinking. On November 26ᵗʰ, the IDEO was invited to participate in a meeting of the Egyptian members of the GIS MOMM. Behind this code name hides a Scientific Interest Groupment of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), […]
Newsletter — October 2020
Dear friends, Current events and international tensions remind us that there is a difference between rights and friendship. Yes, we all have the right to be mocking, sarcastic, or even hateful, but no, this is not the desirable mode of our relationships with each other. There is no inalienable right to ridicule the sensibility of […]
Newsletter — September 2020
Dear friends, We hope that the developments of the health crisis do not disrupt your activities too much. Circumstances force us to organize our next conference online. Dedicated to recitation (among Copts, Syriacs and Muslims), it will take place on October 16ᵗʰ, 17ᵗʰ and 18ᵗʰ. Please contact us to register and receive the links for […]
Newsletter — August 2020
Dear friends, For many of us, the new academic year may be further disrupted by the Covid-19 epidemic. However, I hope you had a good summer, in Dahab (photo) or elsewhere. Here is a quick overview of the latest news of the IDEO, for those who may have missed some episodes: Emmanuel Pisani, OP was […]
Newsletter — June 2020
Dear friends, We are happy to announce the appointment of Emmanuel Pisani, OP as the new director of the IDEO. Emmanuel is a specialist in the theological thought of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ġazālī (d. 505/1111), and he is interested in the interactions between Muslims of different currents of Islam as well as between believers of different […]
Newsletter — March 2020
Dear friends, this epidemic that has so much overturned our lives in recent weeks is unfortunately an indicator that much more work remains to be done to better integrate religion and human sciences. Many believers, Christians and Muslims alike, continue to oppose science and faith, as if they were talking of the same thing. Or […]
Newsletter — February 2020
Dear friends, one of the books we acquired at the Book Fair this year deserves a special mention. It is an edition of Ansāb al-ašrāf of al-Balāḏurī (d. 279/892?), a biographical dictionary of the Prophet and the first Muslim generations. There are other editions of this book but this one symbolizes both the tragedy of […]
Newsletter — January 2020
Dear friends, we had the opportunity with the participants of the intensive Arabic course (see below), to visit Al-Sheikh Zayed Center for Teaching Arabic for non-natives (photo). Located on the campus of al-Azhar University, this center that was founded in 2011 welcomes 3,000 foreign students to prepare them to study in one of al-Azhar’s faculties. […]