The labels "Global Islam" and "Political Islam" are often used interchangeably, but they may indicate very different social expressions. While the first evokes so-called "Jihadist" transnational networks, the second is more commonly associated with groups inspired by Islam that chose to become part of the political process in a certain (usually national) political arena. Leonardo Schiocchet’s lecture aims at exploring the differences between these two groups, focusing on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Palestine. The lecture will also discuss the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, especially its Egyptian branch. All of these, Schiocchet will argue, are today in logical and ideological opposition to transnational Islamist networks such as Al-Qaeda.

Leonardo Schiocchet is a postdoctoral researcher from CAPES/Brasilia, now based at the Institute for Social Anthropology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and currently working in Aarhus, where he is affiliated with the ICSRU. His fieldwork in Aarhus is among Palestinian refugees/immigrants and builds on previous fieldwork among Palestinian refugees in Brazil and in the Middle East, particularly in two refugee camps in Lebanon.