Islam in the Public Sphere and Deliberative Democracy

Abstract

The closed panel is linked to the research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), namely ‘Public Deliberation, Network Analysis and the Political Inclusion of Muslims Living in Switzerland, France and Britain”. This project aims at assessing the way Muslim actors are included in the political life of countries where they live. In this sense, the panel will permit panellists to propose an overview of the preliminary results and function as a venue for a wider discussion. We would like to address patterns of the public debate on Islam since it is clear that Islam in general, in a wider context, is at the fore of the public space along different issues - minarets in Switzerland, Charlie Hebdo in France, or ‘Jihadi John’ in the UK. More specifically, this panel is in close relation with the subject of equality, since its focus is on the unequal opportunities that the current societies provide to include Muslim actors. A second aspect of our research project is on Deliberative Democracy. Indeed, it will investigate whether or not Deliberative Democracy represents a way out of the rooted inequality for the Muslim actors to take part in the public sphere. The objective that guides the preparation of the panel is to gather scholars interested with Islam in the public sphere as an issue and scholars interested in Deliberative Democracy.

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