The Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) organized a roundtable that addressed Middle Eastern geographical, historical, political and religious perspectives. Speakers included Javier Gil, who earned a PhD in history, and Mitra Naeimi, an Iranian PhD student is currently studying at Navarra's School of Communication. Both collaborate with ICS's Religion and Civil Society project. Montserrat Herrero, a professor of political philosophy and the principal investigator of the Religion and Civil Society project, moderated the event.

First, Mitra Naeimi explained the different religious branches found within the Muslim religion and identified the principles on which the Islamic State is based. She argued that the current problems in the Muslim world fall into three categories, including Islam's encounter with modernity, ethics and Islamic education, and Islamophobia.

Mitra Naeimi finds that the region's instability "is not a religious problem, but rather a political one because there are different visions and methodologies in the interpretation of the Koran." In her view, these interpretations must always be accompanied by man's reason.

A bridge between Europe and Asia

Javier Gil stressed that, "The Middle East is a construction that responds to an imaginary or ideological problem that is both political and religious. It is not geographically defined and is often considered a bridge between Europe and Asia." He went on to explain that it is used flexibly and the countries included in it depends on each study.

During his presentation, Javier Gil offered a brief summary of the Middle East's different historical stages. Among them, he highlighted the Caliphate, which is regarded as the Muslim world's golden age in which an ideal unity was reached." In less than a century Islam expanded across Arabia to Afghanistan and the Iberian Peninsula. Thus why Islamic fundamentalists appeal to this period today as the Islamic State or al Qaeda."

Finally, he pointed out that, in his opinion, the Middle East's main problem is due to the fact that, "while in the West, human beings grew at the pace of industrialization, the Muslim world grew out of a traditional society that, within a few years, has been exposed to the Enlightenment, communism, democracy, modernism, nihilism ... and this always creates serious tension and turmoil."