La controverse

The philosophers Rémi Brague and Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Koran in hand, bring their points of view head to head. Is Islam different to other religions, shored up by a text dictated by God, a directly political theology that has not been tested by the Enlightenment and tolerates violence? Or have we simply become Islamophobic, unable to appreciate this religion's rationality and its freedom of thought and action? The authors, who are opposed on almost all these points, discuss extracts of the Koran, the acts of the Caliphs and Islam's arrival in the modern world. There is no issue they sidestep, from Islamism to a woman's place, via questions surrounding jihad and the relationship with other religions. An erudite debate that goes far beyond superficial arguments. Professor of philosophy at New York's Columbia University, Souleymane Bachier Diagne was himself taught by Jacques Derrida and Louis Althusser. He specialises in Islamic philosophy and the history of the sciences. Rémi Brague is a specialist in an ancient and medieval philosophy. He teaches at the Sorbonne and explores Arab, Jewish and Greco-Latin philosophical traditions. He challenges popular beliefs about religions and analyses the specificities of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.