The Anawati Chair
Introduction
The Anawati Chair (2023-2027) is part of Idéo’s programme to promote the excellence of its researchers’ research and training. Supported by the Human Rights Section of the European Union Delegation, its mission is to help deconstruct extremist and exclusivist discourse and build a world that promotes dialogue between religions and universal brotherhood.
Father Georges C. Anawati
Born in Alexandria in 1905, Father Georges Chehata Anawati joined the Dominicans in 1934. Trained as a pharmacist, he became a world-renowned specialist in medieval Arab philosophy, the field that helped bridge the gap between the Greek heritage and medieval thought. His work on Avicenna and Averroes is still as authoritative as his Introduction to Muslim Theology or his translation of Avicenna’s Shifāʾ. Having spent his life building bridges between the Christian and Muslim worlds, he was also a decisive player in the advances made by the Second Vatican Council on dialogue with Islam. He died in 1994, on St Thomas Aquinas Day, and is still a point of reference for Idéo members who wish to combine expertise and friendship in their approach to the Muslim world (for more information, see the book by Jean-Jacques Pérennès, Georges Anawati (1905-1994), un chrétien égyptien devant le mystère de l’islam, Paris, Ed. du Cerf, 2008).
Supporting the fight against extremism
The deconstruction of violent extremist discourses cannot be limited to the production of a theological counter-discourse or by the production of an alternative discourse. It also involves the development and dissemination of critical reading methods: text without context is only the ruin of man, to paraphrase a famous aphorism. The action will therefore aim to promote seminars and meetings between young people and teachers within their institutions in order to contribute to giving keys to reading. In other words, the challenge is not to oppose one discourse to another, to oppose a discourse that promotes dialogue, equality, and openness to a discourse that justifies discrimination, hostility to minorities, and justifies violence, but rather to promote a critical methodology that makes it possible to deconstruct the discourses of violent extremism in an axial and profound manner. The action will contribute to strengthen the promotion of diversity and the values of humanism (human dignity), through the publication and broadcasting of videos on internet.
The chair’s mission and projects
The Chair supports the work of Egyptian institutions, in particular al-Azhar University, in their fight against extremism and contributes through its research and training to creating a network of young people involved in the social and political world in order to promote the values of openness, respect and equal citizenship.
The Chair continues and develops the work covered by the two previous programmes supported by the Delegation of the European Union to Egypt: The 200 Project and Adawāt. The work will be based on the established network of partners, in particular with al-Azhar University, but will also be open to other partners who are in line with the Chair’s perspective.
Promoting interreligious dialogue
The Chair is in line with the philosophy and initiatives covered as part of interreligious dialogue in al-Azhar for the past ten years and which led the Great Imam to sign with Pope Francis a document on human fraternity in order to promote the deconstruction of violent ideologies, deconstruct mutual prejudices between the East and the West, support the fight against discrimination and promote equality between men and women. It is in this context and in this line drawn in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2019, a day that has since been proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations as the International Day of Fraternity, that the action of the Chair is part of.
Chair's Events
May 2025
Conference “The Authority of Silence”
May 2025
Certificate “Islam and Other Religions”
July 2025
Summer School – Citizenship
February 2024
Congress “Impact and perspectives of the Document on Human Fraternity”