Charles Saint-Prot

Charles Saint-Prot (26 January 1951) is a French geopolitician and writer. He is a historian specializing in international relations and geopolitics, in particular, questions of the Middle East and the Islamic world. Saint-Prot is the director of the Observatoire d'études géopolitiques (Observatory of geopolitical studies) in Paris, a research center on the international relations, and is the director, with Zeina el Tibi, of the publication Études géopolitiques The Observatory of Geopolitical Studies (OEG) is a French institute, which has the aim of contributing to the promotion of scientific research in the various fields of geopolitics. A Council of orientation gathers a team of academics, researchers, specialists and diplomats. The Observatory of geopolitical studies has its seat in Paris, an office in Beirut and correspondents in many countries. Saint-Prot is doctor in political science and searcher at the Institute of International, European and Comparative Law (Faculté de droit de Paris Descartes), specializing in Islamic law. He has about 30 publications to his credit, some of which have been translated into English and Arabic. Saint-Prot published Islam. L'avenir de la Tradition entre révolution et occidentalisation (Paris, ed. Le Rocher), Islam.The Future of Tradition between Revolution and Westernization ( Le Rocher publisher, Paris) in 2008. The main subject of this book is Islam and the challenge of the future between revolutionary sectarianism and westernization. Nowadays Islam has become a main concern to the world. Words as "Islamism", "radical Islam", "salafism", "wahhabism", are often used without a clear meaning and content. Saint-Prot explains how orthodox Sunni Islam succeeds in bringing together the largest number of the Muslims with a creed, legal principles and rules which were defined by the traditionalist current. Tradition never rejected reformism and cannot be compared with rigid conservatism or with minority, but active, trends defined by their radical revolutionary sectarianism.