BIODATA
Shafeeq Ghabra is the founder and CEO of Jusoor Arabiya (a cultural NGO), and he writes a weekly column for Kuwait's daily Al-Ra’i al-‘Am. A former professor of political science, Ghabra was the founding president of the American University of Kuwait, from 2003 to 2006, as well as the former director of the Kuwait Information Office in Washington, DC and the Center of Strategic and Future Studies at Kuwait University. His publications include اسرائيل والعرب: من صراع القضايا الى سلام المصالح (Israel and the Arabs: from the conflict of issues to the peace of interests), Beirut, Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, 1997; الكويت: دراسة في آليات الدولة القطرية والسلطة والمجتمع (Kuwait: a study of the dynamics of state and society), Cairo, Ibn Khaldun Research Center, 1995; تداعيات احتلال الكويت (Consequences of the occupation of Kuwait), Kuwait, Dar Qirtas, 1995; and Palestinians in Kuwait: The Family and the Politics of Survival, Boulder, Westview Press, 1987. Born in 1953 in Kuwait, Ghabra holds a B.A. in government from Georgetown University (1975), a M.A. in political science from Purdue University (1983) and a Ph.D. in government from Texas University (1987).
SYNOPSIS
A leading media and cultural personality who promotes the assimilation and appropriation of liberal democratic values, Shafeeq Ghabra has been particularly effective in engaging intellectuals across the ideological spectrum and in underlining the importance of equipping the next generation with the intellectual tools to transcend despotism.
EXCERPT (Translated)
How could today's Muslim world break from its past? When will being Muslim translate into an asset for a country's development, power and progress? When will human rights and liberties garner respect? Hitherto, every other world, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Jewish, has earned its spot under the sun except for the Muslim world, which remains internally weak and manipulated for the past four centuries by despotism.
Where is the Islamic summit for self-criticism, for introspective re-examination, for a Muslim renaissance and a contemporary interpretation of Islam to match this era's progress, labor, male-female equality, human rights, and liberties?
How could the Muslim Ummah's condition change in the absence of a change to the culture, reason, understanding and exercise of Islam in the contemporary era?
–Shafeeq Ghabra, "The Islamic Summit and the State of the Muslims," Al-Rai, March 16, 2008
EXCERPT (Original in Arabic- Link)
كيف يمكن للعالم الإسلامي أن يكون عالماً مختلفاً عن ماضيه، ومتى يمكن أن يكون الانتماء للإسلام عنصر تنمية وقوة وتطوراً لدوله؟ متى تكون حقوق الإنسان لها مكانتها في هذه الدول، والحريات لها منزلتها؟ حتى الآن العوالم الأخرى أكانت بوذية أم هندوسية أم مسيحية أم يهودية قد حققت لذاتها مكاناً تحت الشمس، أما العالم الإسلامي فمازال تحت نير الضعف الذاتي والكثير من الاستبداد الذي تحكّم به طوال القرون الأربعة الماضية.
هل من مؤتمر قمة إسلامية للنقد الذاتي، وهل من قمة إسلامية لإعادة النظر، هل من قمة إسلامية للنهضة الإسلامية ولتفسيرات جديدة وحديثة للإسلام تتناسب والعصر والتقدم والعمل والمساواة بين المرأة والرجل وحقوق الإنسان والحريات؟ كيف ينقلب حال الأمة الإسلامية من حال إلى آخر من دون تغيير في الثقافة وفي الفكر وفي طرق فهم وتطبيق الإسلام في العصر الحديث؟
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