WHEN: 5.45pm for a 6pm Start
WHERE: The Chamber, Oxford Union

Though popularly portrayed today in the media as inextricably entwined with extremism and terror, classical understandings of Jihad among Muslim scholars have been antithetical to such sensationalist depictions. Despite its unprecedented ubiquity in contemporary discourse, then, a clear understanding of the concept of Jihad remains worryingly absent. In what promises to be a timely and engaging lecture, Professor Tariq Ramadan will guide us through the concept of Jihad, its origins, usages in history, and also the manner in which the term is deployed today. Can Jihad be seen as a parallel to Just War theory, or does extremism and intolerance inhere within its philosophical underpinnings? In the context of the nuclear and chemical age, can the rules of Jihad still have any purchase on contemporary forms of warfare? Ultimately, when is War the answer, and what are its rules?

Speaker Bio: Tariq Ramadan is one of the world’s foremost and renowned intellectuals in Islamic scholarship today. He has an MA in philosophy and French literature and a PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. In Cairo, Egypt, he received one-on-one intensive training in classic Islamic scholarship from Al-Azhar University scholars. He is currently Professor of Islamic Studies and Senior Research Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford University and holds posts at Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan) and at the Lokahi Foundation (London).

Ramadan's books include Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation (2009), and Western Muslims and the future of Islam (2004).