bassam tibi (), born 1944 in damascus, moved to germany in 1962, becoming a citizen in 1976. he is a political scientist and professor of international relations. in academia, he is known for his analysis of international relations and the introduction of islam to the study of international conflict and of civilization. tibi is perhaps best known for introducing the controversial concept of european leitkultur as well as the concept of euroislam for the integration of muslim immigrants in europe.as paul berman in his book "the flight of the intellectuals" (melville house 2010, p. 150) notes, "bassam tibi, the liberal, means by euro-islam a westernized islam. in contrast, tariq ramadan means a salafi reformism, and not a westernized islam". he is also the founder of islamology as a social-scientific study of islam and conflict in post-bipolar politics. tibi has done research in asian and african countries. he publishes in english, german and arabic. == academic career == he studied in frankfurt am main under max horkheimer, obtaining his ph.d. there in 1971, and later habilitated in hamburg, germany. from 1973 until his retirement in 2009, he was professor for international relations at gÃ¶ttingen university. parallel to this appointment he was, from 1982 to 2000, at harvard university in a variety of affiliations, the latest being a 1998 to 2000 stint as the bosch fellow. currently, he is an a.d. white professor-at-large at cornell university. tibi had eighteen visiting professorships in all continents including fellowships in princeton university, uc berkeley, university of michigan-ann arbor, and most recently (2010) at the center for advanced holocaust studies, washington d.c. tibi was also a visiting senior fellow at yale university. after his retirement in 2009, he published "islam's predicament with cultural modernity", a book embodying his life's work. ==views== ===on islam=== tibi is a muslim,antisemitism | voices on antisemitism | transcript but criticizes islamism and advocates "reforming" islam.interview with german islam expert bassam tibi: "europeans have stopped defending their values" - international - spiegel online - news tibi also suggests that muslim immigrants should refrain from engaging in religious missionary activities, dawa. ===on europe=== when it comes to europe, tibi distinguishes positive and negative elements of european culture. the positive ones are, according to tibi, [[age of 
1944_births Cornell_University_faculty German_Muslims German_political_scientists Harvard_Fellows Living_people Members_of_the_European_Academy_of_Sciences_and_Arts Middle_Eastern_studies_in_the_United_States Muslim_reformers Muslim_scholars_of_Islam Officers_Crosses_of_the_Order_of_Merit_of_the_Federal_Republic_of_Germany People_from_Damascus Syrian_emigrants_to_Germany