Panel Focus: “Islam, War, and Terror”

The relationship between Islam and terrorism and the role Islamic political movements play in the contemporary world will be discussed by a panel of distinguished guests Oct. 24 for a discussion titled “Islam, War, and Terror.”

Scheduled at 8 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall, the discussion is free and open to the pubic. Laury Silvers-Alario, visiting assistant professor of religion, organized the panel, which features the following participants:

• Jonathan Brockopp, assistant professor of religion at Bard College and national co-chair of the section for the study of Islam at the American Academy of Religion. Author of books on Islamic ethics and early Maliki law, he is the co-author of a book on Islam and Judaism with Jacob Neusner and Tamara Soon. He holds graduate degrees from Yale University and also took graduate courses at Tuebingen University and the American University in Cairo.
• Frank Griffel, assistant professor of Islamic studies at Yale University. A specialist in the field of classical and contemporary Muslim theology, he is the author of a book on the development of the judgment of apostasy in Islam and is now focusing on contemporary Muslim thought and its exchange with modernity and globalization. His most recent article, “Muhammad Atta, Modernity, and the Secular State: How Important will Muslim Fundamentalism be for the 21st Century?” appeared in the April 2002 issue of The Politic.
• Rabia Terri Harris of the Muslim Peace Fellowship. Founder and coordinator of the Muslim Peace Fellowship, an influential forum for progressive Islamic thought, Harris also edits an international newsletter and regularly speaks on a variety of Muslim issues. She also serves as associate editor of Fellowship magazine, the bimonthly publication of the Fellowship of Reconciliations, the oldest, largest interfaith peace and justice organization in the world.
  

The panelists will approach the topics from the perspectives of the Islamic legal tradition, Islamic fundamentalism and its role in emerging democracies, and the nonviolent tradition in Islam.

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