Visiting Fellows Research Seminar Series

Abstract:

 Pakistan was founded in 1947 as a homeland for the Muslims of post-imperial India. This lecture will trace the ebb and flow of Islam in domestic and foreign affairs during six decades of Pakistani history. What appears is a rather complex picture in which Pakistan, as the founding place of al-Qaida, remains on the one hand the epicenter for global Muslim radicalism and on the other the most  prominent banner carrier for conservative Muslim democracy. President Obama's new Pakistan policy too seem to rest on a well-considered conclusion: Pakistan may well be the very battleground for the future of Islam.

 Biography:

Prof. Naveed Sheikh is a Lecturer in International Relations at the School of Politics, International Relations, and Philosophy at Keele University in the UK.  Prof. Sheikh earned his M.A. in International Relations from the University of Durham, UK and enrolled in a Ph.D. program in International Relations at the University of Cambridge, UK.  While at the Center, Prof. Sheikh will be researching a book on Islam and political reforms in Pakistan.  His work will include an analysis of the impact of Islam on the formation of the Pakistani state, reform movements throughout Pakistan’s history, major political parties, sectarian organizations, and jihadist groups, and an analysis of Pakistan in the post-9/11 world.