SUNDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 2009
http://caroolkersten.blogspot.com/2009/02/another-chance-for-isim.html
Another Chance for ISIM? by CAROOL KERSTEN
The decision of the Netherlands’ Ministry of Education to close down the world-renowned Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) has resulted in hundreds of petitioners writing to Education Minister Ronald Plasterk to reconsider his decision (see also the post of 22 December 2008).
In its most recent issue, a Dutch-language magazine on the Middle East, North Africa and Islam, Zemzem, reports that options are under consideration to continue ISIM’s activities in one form or another. The article provides also interesting background information on the decision-making process leading to the institute’s closure.
Annelies Moors, incumbent of the ISIM Chair at the University of Amsterdam, published an edgy ‘letter to the editor’ in the reputable Dutch Newspaper NRC-Handelsblad, in which she expressed her irritation over the attitude of the Rector of Leiden University (one of the ISIM partners), who appeared to treat the whole issue as a political game. She was also very critical of the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University, who had been charged with developing a salvage plan for ISIM. Instead of presenting the minister with a financially viable plan to continue ISIM as semi-autonomous entity, he approached the ministry with an alternative Centre for Islamic Studies at Leiden University, staffed by university faculty working on ‘things Islamic’. There would be no place for academic staff of the other ISIM universities – thereby effectively scrapping two-third of all ISIM-led research. In spite of Leiden’s lobbying, the plan was not accepted.
( læs videre via linket)
ISIM er blevet nedlagt, men man kan med held søge dets tidligere publikationer via navnet.
Carool Kersten is Research Professor in Islamic Studies at KU Leuven (Catholic University Leuven) and Emeritus Reader in the Study of Islam & the Muslim World at King’s College London