Catholicism and Islam: Equally Compatible with Democracy? March 17, 2010

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/03/08/The_Great_Issues_Forum_Immigration_and_Islam

Are Catholicism and Islam both equally compatible with democracy? Sociology professor Jose Casanova thinks so. He says the arguments made against Islam's compatibly with democracy are almost identical to those made against Catholicism in the 19th Century.

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Featuring Jose Casanova, professor of sociology at Georgetown University and a Senior Fellow in Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; Tariq Modood, professor of sociology at the University of Bristol and Director of the Universitys Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship; and Aristide Zolberg, Walter P. Eberstadt Professor of Political Science at The New School University.

Chase Robinson, Provost of the Graduate Center, moderates a discussion including questions such as: What impact do Muslim immigrants and Islamic practices have on the societies they join? What unique challenges do Muslim immigrants face? In both America and Europe, which have welcomed greater numbers of Muslim immigrants than ever before, how is the Enlightenment ideal of tolerance balanced against the realities of vast cultural and religious differences? How do Western nations promote self-perceived openness in the face of anti-Muslim sentiment in their countries? - CUNY

José Casanova is a prominent scholar in the sociology of religion. He is a Professor at the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University, and heads the Berkley Center's Program on Globalization, Religion and the Secular.

He has published works in a broad range of subjects, including religion and globalization, migration and religious pluralism, transnational religions, and sociological theory. His best-known work, Public Religions in the Modern World (1994), has become a modern classic in the field and been translated into five languages, including Arabic and Indonesian.