Prof. Robert Hefner on “The Islamic Case for Religious Freedom”
The question of whether religious freedom is an exclusively Western and “liberal” value or one that has resonances in Islamic civilization and modernity has been fiercely debated in recent years, in policy circles as well as by anthropologists like Saba Mahmood and Talal Asad. On November 11 and 12, the Department’s Bob Hefner attended an international conference on “The Islamic Case for Religious Freedom,” in Jakarta, Indonesia. Sponsored by the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (Malaysia), the Fatayat Nahdlatul Ulama Indonesia (the women’s wing of the 70 million strong Nahdulatul Ulama), and the Religious Freedom Institute (Washington DC), the conference brought together 80 Muslim and non-Muslim scholars from some 20 countries to explore religious and legal supports for an Islamic approach to freedom and religious diversity.