Olivier Roy (professor)

Olivier Roy is a French professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.^[1][2] He has published articles and books on secularisation^[3] and Islam ^[4] including "Global Islam",^[5] and The Failure of Political Islam. He is known to have "a different view of radical Islam" than many other experts (seeing it as periferal, Westernized and part of a radicalized and "virtual" rather than pious and "actual" Muslim community).^[6] More recently he has written on the Charlie Hebdo shooting,^[7] and the November 2015 Paris attacks.^[8]

Early life

Roy was born in 1949 in La Rochelle.^[9] Roy received an agrégation in philosophy and a master's degree in Persian language and civilization in 1972 from the French Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales. In 1996, he received his PhD in Political Science from the IEP. Olivier does not know Arabic.^[10]

Career

He was previously a research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a lecturer for both the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) and the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (IEP).

From 1984 to 2008, he consulted with the French Foreign Ministry. In 1988, Roy served as a United Nations Office for Coordinating Relief in Afghanistan (UNOCA) consultant. Beginning in August 1993, Roy served as special Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) representative to Tajikistan until February 1994, at which time he was selected as head of the OSCE mission to Tajikistan, a position he held until October 1994.^[11]

Roy is the author of books on Iran, Islam and Asian politics. These works include Globalized Islam: The search for a new ummah, Today's Turkey: A European State? and The Illusions of September 11. He also serves on the editorial board of the academic journal Central Asian Survey. His best-known book, L'Echec de l'Islam politique (1992) (The Failure of Political Islam) (1994), is a standard text for students of political Islam.

Roy wrote widely on the 2005 civil unrest in France, rebutting the suggestion that the violence was religiously inspired. He argues that Islamism is merely the rubric under which troubled youth enact their violent inclinations.^[10] A view adamantly opposed by Roy's intellectual rival, Giles Kepel.^[10]

His book Secularism Confronts Islam (Columbia, 2007) offers a perspective on the place of Islam in secular society and looks at the diverse experiences of Muslim immigrants in the West. Roy examines how Muslim intellectuals have made it possible for Muslims to live in a secularized world while maintaining the identity of a "true believer."

In 2010 he published Holy Ignorance, When Religion and Culture Part Ways, an analysis of religion, ethnicity and culture and the results when these part ways.

After the Charlie Hebdo shooting he argued that most French Muslims were committed to prevent violence,^[12] and after the November 2015 Paris attacks, he wrote a strategic analysis of ISIS and the fight against it, published in The New York Times.^[13]

Bibliography

• Leibniz et la Chine. Vrin. 1972. ISBN 978-2-7116-0670-2. 
• Afghanistan: Islam et modernité politique. Seuil. 1985. 
• L'échec de l'Islam politique. Édition du Seuil. 1992. ISBN 978-2-02-014153-6. 
• Roy, Olivier; Volk, Carol (1996). The Failure of Political Islam. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-29141-6. 
• Généalogie de l'islamisme, Paris Hachette, 1995
• Khosrokhavar, Farhad; Roy, Olivier (1999). Iran: comment sortir d'une révolution religieuse. Éd. du Seuil. ISBN 978-2-02-035891-0. 
• The New Central Asia: The Creation of Nations. I.B.Tauris. 2000. ISBN 978-1-86064-278-4. 
• Les illusions du 11 septembre: le débat stratégique face au terrorisme. Seuil. 2002. ISBN 978-2-02-055815-0. 
• La Turquie aujourd'hui: un pays européen?. Encyclopaedia universalis. 2004. ISBN 978-2-85229-783-8. 
• Zahab, Mariam Abou; Roy, Olivier (2004). Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection. Columbia University Press. pp. 3–. ISBN 978-0-231-13364-7. 
• Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. Columbia University Press. 2006. ISBN 978-0-231-13499-6. 
• Secularism Confronts Islam. Columbia University Press. 1 January 2007. ISBN 978-0-231-51179-7. 
• La Sainte Ignorance: Le temps de la religion sans culture. Seuil. 2013-03-18. ISBN 978-2-02-111494-2. 

Further reading

• Mathieu Perreault, February 2nd, Journal La Presse, Montreal

References

External links

• Website in French Link to English Language Website On Site
• Washington Post, PostGlobal Panelist
• Biography and Articles on Le Monde Diplomatique
• Interview with Olivier Roy: "Full Equality before the Law for All Religions"
• The Crisis of the Secular State and the New Forms of Religious Expression by Olivier Roy at France Diplomatie