event

Religious Authority in the Middle East: Implications for U.S. Policy

Tue. March 19th, 2019
Washington, DC

Online registration for this event is now closed. Watch the livestream at 9:00 A.M.

Religious authority is an increasingly influential but poorly understood source of power in governments throughout the Middle East. Who speaks for Islam in the region? How do Islamists and fundamentalists harness and exert religious authority, despite Islam’s largely decentralized power structure?

In a project supported by the Henry R. Luce Foundation, this study maps religious authority and the channels of influence between religious actors in the region and broader populations using a 12-country public opinion survey throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The survey data provides a snapshot of religious authority in various contexts, supplemented by fieldwork that examines specific mechanisms that build and maintain religious authority.

The Baker Institute Center for the Middle East and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace present a daylong conference during which leading Middle East and North Africa experts discuss the implications of the study’s findings.

This event is generously hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

Project Partners

Baker Institute Center for the Middle East

The Baker Institute Center for the Middle East provides policymakers, scholars and the public with comprehensive analyses of issues, events and trends across this critical region with important implications for U.S. policy and global stability. The center offers a nonpartisan voice relying on data-driven research and direct engagement with decision-makers in the United States and in the region. 

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a unique global network of policy research centers in Russia, China, Europe, the Middle East, India, and the United States. Working together, its centers bring the inestimable benefit of multiple national viewpoints to bilateral, regional, and global issues.

Henry R. Luce Foundation

The Henry R. Luce Foundation seeks to enrich public discourse by promoting innovative scholarship, cultivating new leaders, and fostering international understanding. The Foundation advances its mission through grantmaking and leadership programs in the fields of Asia, higher education, religion and theology, art, and public policy.

Conference Agenda

8:00 – 9:00 a.m.

Registration & Breakfast

9:00 – 9:10 a.m.

Welcome
Sarah Yerkes 

9:10 – 9:20 a.m.

Introduction
A.Kadir Yildirim

9:20 – 10:00 a.m.

Keynote Address
Shaun Casey

10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Panel I: The State, Religious Authority, and Legitimacy

Chair: 
Nathan Brown

Panelists:
Courtney Freer, Annelle Sheline, Scott Williamson 

11:00 – 11:10 a.m.

Break

11:10 a.m. – 12:25 p.m.

Panel II: Non-state Religious Actors and Authority

Chair: 
Sarah Yerkes

Panelists:
Sharan Grewal, Mirjam Künkler, Tarek Masoud, Yusuf Sarfati 

12:25 – 1:00 p.m.

Lunch 

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Keynote Address
Peter Mandaville

2:00 p.m.

Closing Remarks
A.Kadir Yildirim

Political ReformForeign PolicyMiddle EastNorth Africa
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Sarah Yerkes

Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Sarah Yerkes is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Middle East Program, where her research focuses on Tunisia’s political, economic, and security developments as well as state-society relations in the Middle East and North Africa.

A.Kadir Yildirim

Shaun Casey

Nathan J. Brown

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Nathan J. Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, is a distinguished scholar and author of nine books on Arab politics and governance, as well as editor of five books.

Courtney Freer

Annelle Sheline

Annelle Sheline is a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Her research focuses on the manipulation of religious authority by Arab monarchies.

Scott Williamson

Junior Fellow, Middle East Program

Sharan Grewal

Mirjam Künkler

Tarek Masoud

Yusuf Sarfati

Peter Mandaville

Moderator: Peter Mandaville is a professor of international affairs in the Schar School of Policy and Government and co-director of the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University.