Islamic Ethics and Diversity Network

The Islamic Ethics and Diversity Network (IED Network) aims to advance and discuss research investigating Islamic ethics in relation to diversity in terms of ethnicity, culture, religion, class or gender. We understand diversity in its broadest sense as an umbrella term for the social production of difference. Diversity is a result of social practices, structures, interactions or individual actions that mark boundaries between communities and individuals. Fields and categories of differentiation such as race, class or religion are not considered as homogenous, fixed and stable but mutable. Concrete lifeworlds today across the globe are marked by varying forms of superdiversity and experiences of intersectionality as the interplay of multiple variables together contribute to shaping life experiences. 

Islamic ethics is understood as the area of intimate thought, decision-making and reasoning inspired by or based on Islamic frames of references, such as textual references but also social norms, values, aesthetics, and approaches to knowledge. This area includes intellectual reasoning and debate drawing from classical Islamic theological and legal scholarship, the cultivation of the relation to God through rituals or artistic practices, as well as individual thought and decision-making in everyday life. The Network is particularly interested in work on the various ways Muslims relate to Islam in the everyday and how new syntheses of diverse realms of knowledge emerge under a religious umbrella.

The Network aims to offer a platform for interdisciplinary research engaging with these themes in academic work or in civil society contexts. It aims to be inclusive in terms of geographical scope and is interested in understanding Islamic ethics in contexts of diversity across the globe, in both Muslim majority or Muslim minority environments. We hope to connect scholars, students and those employed outside of academia with a keen interest in Islamic ethics and diversity. The Network aspires to be an inclusive community that advances our current insights, highlights current research and scholarship, and inspires future research agendas.

An Van Raemdonck (Ghent University)
Dominik Müller (Zurich University)
Iman Lechkar (Free University of Brussels – VUB)
Aymon Kreil (Ghent University)