The Centre for Turkey Studies (CEFTUS) is delighted to invite you to a public forum titled ‘The nine factors behind the rise of ISIS: from the USA to Saudi Arabia’ with keynote speaker American-Turkish-Kurdish intellectual and professor of philosophy, Edip Yuksel.
This event is kindly hosted by Sharon Hodgson, Labour MP for Washington and Sunderland West.
The event will take place between 7-9PM on Monday, 27 November 2017 in Committee Room 12, the House of Commons.
Please note that as security checks are required to enter House of Commons, we kindly ask you to arrive at 6.30PM, allowing the event to start and end on time.
In this public forum, Professor Yuksel will share his analysis regarding the birth of terrorist group known as ISIS, dynamics between the East and the West, and potential solutions for world peace.
A prominent anti-extremist activist, Professor Yuksel’s numerous books, lectures, TV debates, and youtube videos challenge the radical narrative used by Islamist terrorist groups. He argues that all nations contribute to the ecology that produces terrorism and that we must therefore seek global solutions. Instead of devoting time, effort, and resources to further militarising conflict, Professor Yuksel’s work seeks peaceful alternatives, setting out what he believes to be the nine key factors that underlie the challenges facing the international community.
We look forward to welcoming you to this event.
Speaker Biography
Edip Yuksel is the author of over twenty books and hundreds of articles on religion, politics, philosophy and law in Turkish and English. Edip organizes international Critical Thinkers for Islamic Reform conferences; so far in Atlanta, Oxford, Los Angeles, Almaty, and Istanbul and is the co-editor of the annual anthology carrying the same name. He has given lectures at various universities, including University of Arizona, Emory Law, Oxford University, Middle East Technical University, TU Dortmund University International and Princeton University.
After receiving his bachelor degree from the University of Arizona in Philosophy and Near Eastern Studies, Edip received his law degree from the same university. Besides activism, writing and lecturing, Edip works as an Adjunct Philosophy professor at Pima Community College. Edip is fluent in Turkish, English and Classic Arabic; proficient in Persian, and barely conversant in Kurdish, his mother tongue. To promote rational monotheism and peace Edip founded Islamic Reform, 114 Organizations, and co-founded MPJP. Edip shares his documentaries and home-made videos at his youtube channel. His online books and articles are published at numerous Internet sites, including www.19.org.
While a popular Islamist youth leader, Edip adopted the Quran Alone philosophy after corresponding with Rashad Khalifa and reading his landmark book, Quran, Hadith and Islam. This led him to experience a paradigm change in 1986. He parted ways from his comrades, including Tayyip Erdoğan and Ahmed Davudoğlu, who have been leading Turkish politics for over a decade. As a consequence, he was declared to be a heretic. In 1989, he was sponsored for immigration to the USA by Rashad Khalifa and worked together in Masjid Tucson until his mentor’s assassination in 1990.
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