The Background of Xenophobia
Increasing extremism is bubbling to the surface in nationalist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. A Resetdoc roundtable in New York examines the cultural and political roots of these fanaticisms as they affect public life from Europe to the United States.Discovering the sources of a murderer
Giancarlo Bosetti
Liberal élites, multiculturalism and the language of resentment
Ian Buruma
Constructing the Self, constructing the Other
Seyla Benhabib
Citizenship and civil religion
Benjamin Barber
Identities, stereotypes and shifting areas of consensus
Jytte Klausen
Istanbul Seminars 2012 - Roundtables
VIDEO: Populism and Technocracy: Twin Dangers for Democracy
Speakers: Asaf Akat, Albena Azmanova, Marina Calloni, Timur Kuran, Jim Sleeper
VIDEO: Are Democracies Still Sovereign? The Challenge of Transnational Institutions
Seyla Benhabib, Craig Calhoun, Fuat Keyman, David Rasmussen, Joseph LaPalombara
And more...
Human Rights
Biram Ould Abeid and Slavery in Mauritania
Brahim El Guabli
Mauritania is the only country in the world where slavery exists in the real sense of the word with the exception the loathsome sponsor regime in the Gulf. Slavery simply means “ownership of a human being by another human being”; this ownership entitles the owner to treat “the owned” as a commodity that can be sold, purchased and inherited with no qualms, and without the “owned” having any say on their destiny. This shameful practice turns human beings into saleable and pursuable objects, and it so far has managed to sustain itself in Mauritania for various factors. Political corruption, lack of political will, the tribal composition of society, social norms and the vastness of the Mauritanian territory might be cited among many other factors that might explain the continuity of such a practice. Therefore, fighting a socially accepted practice, like slavery, requires a multiform struggle at the human rights, educational and politico-religious levels to deconstruct the politico-religious and social infrastructures that perdure its existence. Read more
After the Arab Spring
Egypt, united we stand, divided we fall
Nawal El Saadawi, interviewed by Azzurra Meringolo
“We are building a country, but we haven’t laid its foundation. We still don’t have a constitution and at the moment we don’t know who will be in charge of writing it. How can we go to vote for a president without knowing what powers he will have?” asks Nawal El Saadawi, an Egyptian writer, activist, physician, psychiatrist and, above all, a pillar of feminist struggle. She has written many books translated into different languages on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the practice of female genital mutilation in her society. Resetdoc has interviewed her in Cairo. Read more
Russian Federation
Violence and instability shake Dagestan
Matteo Tacconi
To understand the current situation in Dagestan one must take a step back in time. Radical Islamism is nothing new in Makhachkala, and was already present in the early Nineties when militant Wahabism began to spread, gaining followers and becoming more organised. It was then that Shariat Jamaat was formed, the armed group devoted to expanding the influence of radicalism, without however wanting secession from Moscow as a priority. Read more
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