Omar Sadr and Herschel Hepler discuss Afghanistan's Liturgical Quire, the oldest Hebrew and Judeo-Persian prayer manuscript in the world.This remarkable manuscript compiles three prayer genres into a single bounded book which in Judaism is called codex: morning prayers for the Sabbath, poetry for Sukkot, and a Passover Haggadah mysteriously written upside down. But beyond its religious significance, this book represents something rare—a tangible bridge between Persian/Afghan/Afghanistani and Jewish cultural heritage.Readings: Afghanistan Liturgical Quire, Museum of the Bible.War Papers: A trove of medieval scrolls, smuggled out of Afghanistan into the hands of London art dealers, could shed new light on a once-vibrant Jewish heritage by Jonathan LeeThe Afghanistan Liturgical Quire: Its Codicology, Texts and History Series: Études sur le judaïsme médiéval, Volume: 103. Volume Editor: Rahel FrondaThe UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, and the mandate to advance the “human rights-based approach to cultural heritage.”Connect with us!YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Instagram, and FacebookX/ Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadrWebsite: https://negotiatingideas.com/Email: info@negotiatingideas.com
Omar Sadr and Ahmet Kuru discuss the role of ulama in reinforcing authoritarianism in the Muslim world, the complex and often ambivalent relationship between religious scholars and state, models for governance in the religious sphere, and alternatives for state-ulama relations in modern Muslim societies.Kuru is the director of the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies and professor of political science at San Diego State University. He is the author of Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey and co-editor (with Alfred Stepan) of Democracy, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey. His most recent book is Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019.Connect with us!Google, Apple, Spotify, AnchorTwitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadrWebsite: https://negotiatingideas.com/Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Abdullahi An-Naim and Omar Sadr discuss why and how Muslims should embrace universal values of human rights and constitutionalism. They also talk about how a secular state creates a neutral public space where multiple religious and philosophical perspectives can coexist peacefully. This model prevents religious tyranny by ensuring that no single religious group can use and misuse the state to marginalize or oppress others. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im is an Emeritus Professor of Law at Emory Law and senior fellow of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. An internationally recognized scholar of Islam and human rights and human rights in cross-cultural perspectives, An-Na’im teaches courses in international law, comparative law, human rights, and Islamic law. His research interests include constitutionalism in Islamic and African countries, secularism, and Islam and politics. You can visit his website at https://evolutionofsharia.org/ Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Website: https://negotiatingideas.com/ Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr discusses how refugee academics navigated the American academia with Halil Yenigun and Alfred Babo. Alfred is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Fairfield University, Connecticut. Halil is the Associate Director of the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University. Reading: Alfred Babo. 38 Paradise Road, Being an African Francophone Refugee Scholar in American Academia, Journal of International Mobility 2021 Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr discusses the status of Afghanistan's academia under the Taliban with Haroon Mutasem and Qasim Wafayezada. Haroon Mutasem is a Philip Schwartz Initiative fellow at the Law School of Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. Qasim Wafayezada is a specially appointed professor of peace and conflict studies at Kanazawa University, Japan. Readings: Haroon Mutasem, PhD Dissertation and Legal Education in Afghanistan Qasim Wafayezada Google Scholar Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr discusses the status of scholars in exile with Dr Mirwais Balkhi and Dr Bashir Mobasher. As we are getting close to the second anniversary of the Negotiating Ideas Podcast in July and the third anniversary of the return of the totalitarian Taliban in Afghanistan, the podcast aims to initiate a second season with a focus on the state of Afghanistan in-exile scholars in the US. Since the fall of the Republic of Afghanistan, numerous academics have fled the country in fear of persecution. Most of these scholars are welcomed in the US academia in the framework of a two-year fellowship funded by either the Scholars Rescue Fund or Scholars at Risk or independent initiatives of universities. In a new academic environment, they not only find opportunities but also several challenges in terms of their career. The second season of the podcast will provide them the opportunity to speak about academic persecution in Afghanistan and their status in the US academia. Mirwais Balkhi is a Wilson Center fellow. He is a former Afghanistan minister of education, a former Afghanistan diplomat, and a scholar of international relations. He was a Visiting Scholar of International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies at Georgetown University-Qatar. Dr. Bashir Mobasher is a postdoctoral fellow at the American University (DC), an adjunct at the American University of Afghanistan, and an affiliate with EBS Universität. He is the President of the Afghanistan Law and Political Science Association (in-exile) and leads its online education programs for female students in Afghanistan. Bashir is an expert in constitutional design in divided societies and human rights. He has authored, reviewed, and supervised numerous research projects on constitutional law, electoral systems, and identity politics. His recent research projects are centered around decentralization, social justice, and orientalism. Bashir obtained his B.A. (2007) from the School of Law and Political Science at Kabul University and his LLM (2010) and PhD (2017) from the University of Washington School of Law. Connect with us! Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBF1urEKXhU Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Website: https://negotiatingideas.com/ Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr talks to Julian F. Müller on Pluralism and polycentric democracy. Julian is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Hamburg. Prior to that Julian was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Political Theory Project at Brown University and research associate at the Peter Loescher Endowed Chair of Business Ethics at Technical University of Munich and a visiting scholar at the University of Arizona. His doctoral dissertation - published under the title Political Pluralism, Disagreement and Justice: The Case for a Polycentric Democracy won several research prizes. Suggested readings: Julian F. Müller: Political pluralism, disagreement and justice: the case for polycentric democracy, New York, NY: Routledge, 2019. Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr talks to Timor Sharan on his book Inside Afghanistan: Political Networks, Informal Order, and State Disruption. Dr Timor Sharan is a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford. His expertise is on the relationship between counterinsurgency efforts, transnational financial flows, and violence as well as organised crime, corruption, and the political economy of international state building with a particular focus on Afghanistan. He is a fellow at the Centre on Armed Groups and a Research Associate Fellow with Overseas Development Institute. He was an Associate Fellow at the London School of Economics, IDEAS foreign policy think tank, in 2021-2022. He holds a PhD from the University of Exeter and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge. Suggested readings: Sharan, Timor. 2023. Inside Afghanistan: Political Networks, Informal Order, and State Disruption. London: Routledge. Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr and Dahlia Abraham-Klein discuss Dahlia's grandfather, a Persian-speaking Central Asian Jewish merchant. The Stateless Central Asian Merchant: The Life of Haim Aghajan Abraham (1897-1986).Dahlia Abraham-Klein is a writer on Central Asian Jewish history and Jewish values. Her articles have appeared on Tablet, Chabad, Jewish Journal, and The Times of Israel. She is a teacher at Partners in Torah offering a personalized learning experience on the system of life through Jewish wisdom.Connect with us!Google, Apple, Spotify, AnchorTwitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadrWebsite: https://negotiatingideas.com/Email: info@negotiatingideas.com
Omar Sadr and Anna Larson discuss Power and Authority in Afghanistan. Published by I.B. Tauris in 2025, "Power and Authority in Afghanistan: Rethinking Politics, Intervention, and Rule" tackles some of the most compelling questions about politics in Afghanistan. The book is available hereAnna Larson is a writer and researcher who has worked in Afghanistan since 2004. She has taught at SOAS, the University of London, and Tufts University. Her PhD explored concepts and forms of democratization in Afghanistan.Connect with us!Google, Apple, Spotify, AnchorTwitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadrWebsite: https://negotiatingideas.com/Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr and Adam Baczko discuss the Taliban courts and how the group's legal outlook provided them a breakthrough in the conflict. Originally published in French and recently translated into English by Oxford University Press in 2023, "The Taliban Courts in Afghanistan" tackles some of the most compelling questions about justice and authority in conflict zones, particularly Afghanistan. Baczko, a Research Associate Professor at the Center for International Studies, Sciences Po Paris, delves deep into the complex relationship between judicial power and political legitimacy. At the heart of his research lie two crucial questions: How does an armed movement convince a population that its judicial decisions are legitimate rather than purely political? And how did Taliban judges, who simultaneously embodied both judicial and militant roles, establish their authority within communities? Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Website: https://negotiatingideas.com/ Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Samuel Moyn and Omar Sadr discuss failures of Cold War liberalism and the challenges of contemporary liberalism. Samuel Moyn is the Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University. Trained in modern European intellectual history, he works on political and legal thought in modern times and on constitutional and international law in historical and current perspective. Readings Liberalism against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times (Yale University Press, 2023) The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Harvard University Press, 2010) Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr and Nader Hashemi discuss Islam and democracy. Nader Hashemi is the Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Readings: ISLAM, SECULARISM, AND LIBERAL DEMOCRACY Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr and Barnett Rubin discuss Jewish history and antisemitism. Barnett R. Rubin is a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. He is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Quincy Institute Responsible Statecraft and at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, where he was Senior Fellow and Director of the Afghanistan Regional Program from 2000 to 2020. From April 2009 until October 2013, Rubin was senior adviser to the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2001 he served as senior advisor to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan. Connect with us!Google, Apple, Spotify, AnchorTwitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadrEmail: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Lior Sternfeld discusses the recent controversies on the American campusLIOR STERNFELD is a Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Penn State University. He is a social historian of the modern Middle East with particular interests in the histories of the Jewish people and other minorities of the region. His first book, titled “Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran,” examines the development and integration of Jewish communities in Iran into the nation-building projects of the last century. Connect with us!Google, Apple, Spotify, AnchorTwitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadrEmail: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr talks to Haqmal Daudzai on consociational democracy in Afghanistan Dr. Haqmal Daudzai is a researcher at the Dutch Royal Academy in Amsterdam, Netherlands. His book, The Statebuilding Dilemma in Afghanistan, the state governmental design at the national level and the Role of democratic provincial councils in Decentralization at the sub-national Level- was published reviews the US/NATO intervention and the subsequent state institutional design at Afghanistan's national and subnational levels since 2001. Dr. Daudzai has previously worked with USAID as a political advisor to the Afghanistan National Parliament in Kabul. Suggested readings: The State-Building Dilemma in Afghanistan: The State Governmental Design at the National Level and the Role of Democratic Provincial Councils in Decentralization at the Sub-National Level, Budrich Academic Press, 2021. Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr talks to Halima Kazem on "Bread, Work, Freedom" Movement of Afghanistan Women Halima is a lecturer, historian, and filmmaker whose work intersects in the areas of gender, empire, human rights, and media. Her primary research focuses on Afghanistan and other Muslim countries with long histories of conflict. Her work is deeply rooted in feminist methodologies and 20 years of working as a journalist and human rights researcher. Suggested readings: Human Rights Watch: Afghanistan: Taliban Deprive Women of Livelihoods, Identity Severe Restrictions, Harassment, Fear in Ghazni Province, Human Rights Watch Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr talks to Hassan Abbas on his book The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan After Americans Left Hassan Abbas is Distinguished Professor of International Relations at the Near East South Asia Strategic Studies Centre (NESA), National Defense University in Washington DC. Suggested readings: The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan After Americans Left The Taliban Revival: Violence and Extremism in Pakistan – Afghanistan Frontier published in 2015 by Yale University Press Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr talks to Charles Dunst on how to improve quality of democracies. Charles Dunst is deputy director of research & analytics at The Asia Group, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a contributing editor of American Purpose. Suggested readings: Defeating the Dictators: How Democracy Can Prevail in the Age of the Strongman (Hodder & Stoughton, February 2023). Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Omar Sadr talks to Michael Goodhart on human rights as a political contestation Michael Goodhart is Professor of Political Science and of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. His core research interests include democracy, human rights, (in)justice, and emancipatory political struggles. Suggested readings: Injustice: Political Theory for the Real World. Oxford University Press (2018). “Constructing dignity: Human rights as a praxis of egalitarian freedom,” Journal of Human Rights (2018). Connect with us! Google, Apple, Spotify, Anchor Twitter: @negotiateideas & @OmarSadr Email: negotiatingidea@gmail.com
Mahramali Sardari
There is a book by the name of Men in suits and Women in veils by Fatima Mernicy, very related and near this episode.