Understanding 'Sectarianism': Sunni-Shi'a Rel...

The LSE Middle East Centre hosted the launch of Richard Barltrop’s paper, 'Sudan’s Current War: A Longer View on Peacemaking and Prospects'. This hybrid event launched a new paper examining the ongoing war in Sudan, which broke out in 2023. Drawing on lessons from the history of ...  Show more

This webinar examines perceptions of social protection and conflict prevention in Lebanon and Jordan among policymakers and household recipients of state-provided cash transfers. Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork conducted between October 2022 and March 2024, Rana Jawad ...  Show more

The philosophical concepts at the heart of this presentation include Wujud, the Plural, and Ambiguity. I begin by examining Ibn Arabi's notion of belief as 'tying knots in the heart,' parallel to his understanding of the nature of Wujud and Barzakh. The aim is a fresh thinking ab ...  Show more

In many popular accounts of contemporary “Western” society there is an inherent contradiction between the principles underlying liberal secularism and Islam. This type of binary discourse about “religion” and “secular” naturalizes these differences and promotes the seeming rigidi ...  Show more

Why has secularism faced such challenges in the Middle East and in Lebanon in particular? In light of dominating headlines about the spread of sectarianism and the so-called death of Arab secularism, Mark Farha addresses the need for a thorough examination of the history of secul ...  Show more

The "Arab Spring" shook the world in 2011, revealing profound dissatisfaction throughout the Middle East and North Africa, as people throughout the region took to the streets demanding dramatic political change. The uprisings have been analyzed by scholars, journalists, and other ...  Show more