Samfundsmøte: Jihad

Welcome to the semester's first Samfundsmøte!

Jihadism is a violent movement within islamism, and has number of different interpretations. One of the most well known being armed combat as holy war: “Jihad”.

Jihadist groups have grown in several countries, and the international community has witnessed a number of merciless acts committed by followers of extremist Islam. The news has been characterized by terror attacks and beheadings, and several European countries have warned about the dangers concerning young, radicalised foreign fighters. Many are of the opinion that the danger of jihadist terror attacks directed at Norway never have been greater. But what is Jihadism built on? And how gradual is the transition from peaceful Islam to Islamism, and then to Jihad?

At this Samfundsmøte we wish to examine how jihadists think, act and are motivated. How have this extreme movement grown, and what challenges are we facing today and in the time to come? How does Jihadists use propaganda in order to radicalise and recruit foreign fighters? And last, but not least: How does this affect our society’s general attitude towards Islam and the great majority of muslims distancing themselves from jihadism?

Thomas Hegghammer will be one of the evening’s guests. He is a specialist studying violent islamism, and works as a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI). In 2012, he was named one of the most prominent Norwegian scientists under the age of 40 by Morgenbladet. In 2017 he edited and co-authored the book “Jihadi Culture”.

Bjørn Olav Utvik will also be there. His PhD was written on the topic of Islamism and he is the author of the book “Islamisme” (2011). He is currently a Professor of Middle East History at UiO and Head of the Centre for Islamic and Middle East Studies. His work includes the study of religious political movements, and will be speaking on the difference between islamism as a general phenomenon, and the kind we see in ISIS and al-Quida.

In addition to Thomas Hegghammer and Bjørn Olav Utvik, Fahad Qureshi will join us this evening. Qureshi is the leader of the organisation Islam Net, and will be speaking to us about radicalisation and the three groups; peaceful Islam, islamism and jihadism. He has a broad experience in talking to youths influenced by extremist ideas.

Tickets: 0,-/50,- (Member/Non-member) can be bought at the door.

The meeting will be streamed at: http://www.samfundet.no/live/

Agenda and protocol: https://www.samfundet.no/saksdokumenter

If you want to reserve a table, you can do this from thursday 07.09.2017 12:00. To book a table send an email to "styret-bordreservasjon@samfundet.no". There is only room for 6 people at a table and there is a set number of tables. The booking will stop at saturday 09.09.2017 at 14:00. This is a free offer for those who wants a reserved seat at a table. It is not neccesary if you want a seat during the meeting, only if you want a seat at a table.