Members of the Jury of Ibn Rushd Prize 2003
Prof. Ahmad El-Baqhdadi
The Kuwaiti scholar Dr. Ahmad Ali El-Baqhdadi, born in 1951, attained his PhD in “Islamic Thought” from The University of Edinburgh. He is a lecturer and head of the Department of Political Science in the University of Kuwait. Several translations and research studies in political thought and enlightenment are attributed to his name. His research include: The Political Understanding of the “nation” in Islam – The Individual and Society in Al-Maroudi’s Political Thought – the Experience of Democracy in Kuwait – Islamic State between Historic Theory and Reality (a study on the reasons that led to the downfall and finding ways for a rerival) – Islam, Intellectuals and Politics – Arab Thoughts and Human Rights.
Dr. Hayder Ibrahim Ali
Dr. Hayder Ibrahim Ali was born in Sudan. He attained a PhD in sociological Philosophy from Frankfurt University. He worked as a researcher in several academic organisations. Haydar I. Ali is the Director of the Centre for Sudanese Studies in Cairo and Khartoum. He is chief editor of the quarterly Kitabat sudaniyya (Sudanese Writings) which is published in London.
He published several books including: Social Change and Development; The Goddess of Liberation: Religion and Rebellion in the Third World; The Crisis of Political Islam; Islamic trends and Issues on Democracy; Globalization and Discussions on Identity; Traditional and Civil Society in Sudan, Civil Society and Democratic change in Sudan.
Dr. Hachem Saleh
The Syrian writer and translator, Dr. Hachem Saleh (born in Latakia in 1950), took his PhD in literature at the University of Sorbonne. Hachem Saleh has been residing in Paris since 23 years. He researches in Arab and Islamic thought as well as European thought. For the past twenty years he has been introducing the work of Mohammad Arkoun to Arab readers. The most prominent of his translations of Arkoun’s work include books on Islamic Thought such as: Critique and Prophecy – Where is the contemporary Islamic thinking? – Issues on the Critique of the Religious Mind – Fundamental Thinking and the Impossibility of founding a fundament. He has also written several articles on philosophers of European enlightenment versus fundamentalism which were serialised in Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, based in London.
Dr. Jenine Abboushi
Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, Middle Eastern Studies. Major Interests: 19th and 20th century Arabic, North African, French and American literature and cultures; colonial studies; feminism. Selected Works: “Hizballah’s Virtual Civil Society”, Television and New Media. vol.2, no.4. November 2001. “American Expansion UnManifest: Emerson’s ‘Inquest’ and Cultural Regeneration”, American Literature. 47-83. March 2001. “French Cultural Imperialism and the Aesthetics of Extinction”, The Yale Journal of Criticism. vol. 13, no. 2, 229-265. 2000. “The Perils of Occidentalism: How Arab Novelists are Driven to Write for Western Readers”, Times Literary Supplement. April 24, 1998.
