Apr 2024

Join us for the first virtual conference on Wednesday, October 14, 2020, from 9:30am to 11am EDT.

The conference will feature U.S. & Middle East experts and dignitaries, including a welcome by the Mayor of Pittsburgh, the Honorable William Peduto, and a special message from neurosurgeon and CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The discussion will focus on healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and robotics.

This October, join us virtually every Thursday at 3 pm EST for a deep dive into the research revealed in ISPU's fifth annual American Muslim Poll. Visit www.ispu.org/events for more information and to register!

*OCTOBER 15 @ 3pm EST* - Political Coalition Building with Asma Uddin and Margari Hill, moderated by Dr. Youssef Chouhoud
*OCTOBER 22 @ 3pm EST* - Discrimination and Bullying with Tahirah Amatul Wadud, Dr. Sonia Ghumman, and Manar Waheed, moderated by Dalia Mogahed

The 1979 Revolution gave birth to a political order that defined God as its greatest protector and Satan as its ultimate foe. While scholars have long grappled with the Islamic Republic’s theological master narratives, Satan’s multifaceted role in the Iranian political and religious landscape remains poorly understood. In this talk, I offer an analysis of a range of sources— textual, ethnographic, and audiovisu- al—to argue that in the past two decades, confrontations with the Accursed One have fragmented into contradictory, anxiety-ridden struggles for the soul of the Islamic Republic.

Courageous veterans of the Israeli military have come forward to testify to the violence that they were ordered to carry out against Palestinians living under occupation. House demolitions, night raids of Palestinian homes, arrest and detention of children, and other human rights abuses are routine. In 2004, Israeli Defense Forces veterans, who have seen and participated in these atrocities, formed Breaking the Silence, whose purpose is to bring these stories to the Israeli public. The film, based on a play, presents verbatim testimonies of former Israeli soldiers.