Summer 2003
Issue 83

Publication Date: June 21, 2003
Posted: Saturday, June 6, 2003

A conference on American Islam, a discussion of Christian evangelism among Muslims, two Islamic Studies seminars, three "Technology and Society" lectures, and a book forum with Leon Kass are featured in this issue, which also notes the publication of the new Center book A Public Faith: Evangelicals and Civic Engagement.


In This Issue :

Divided by Similarity
Islam and evangelical Christianity are deeply divided by precisely what they have in common—certainty about the singular truth of their own religion and zeal in their efforts to convert others, said featured speaker Lamin Sanneh of Yale University at the May 29 Center seminar "Evangelicals, Islam, and Humanitarian Aid." The similarity of their global ambition has "complicated relations between Islam and the West." Muslims are uncomprehending, moreover, about Christian support for the separation of religion and the state. They fail to see how people who are religiously serious can conceive of religion "as a differentiated, private option."  [More]

American Islam
"New to America," the Muslim community "barely existed" here twenty years ago, noted Center president Hillel Fradkin in his welcoming remarks at a May 30 conference on American Islam, jointly sponsored by the Center and by Boston University’s Institute for the Study of Economic Culture. The question of how this community relates to American democratic society and its institutions is equally new, therefore, and was the subject of intense reflection by over two dozen scholars gathered at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington.  [More]

Muslim Hopes and Fears
Despite her realistic assessment of the obstacles facing a liberated Iraq, Zainab Al-Suwaij of the American Is-lamic Congress expressed optimism about the future of her homeland at the April 4 Center seminar "The Opportunity Before Us." She used her own experience to illustrate the role American Muslims could eventually play in fostering democracy and civil society throughout the Muslim world. After escaping to the United States in the wake of Saddam’s brutal repression of the 1991 Shia uprising in Iraq, which she witnessed firsthand, Al-Suwaij said that it took her years to emerge from fear and gain confidence to participate actively in a free society.  [More]

Islamic Democracy
Democratic sentiment within the Muslim community is growing, insisted Boston College professor Qamar-ul Huda at the April 30 Center seminar "Searching for Islamic Democracy: Developing Progressive Voices is Islam." But while Muslim proponents of democracy "are linked by their new and dynamic ways of thinking about religion" and its relation to government, Huda said, they emphasize different issues. He identified and discussed two major groups—"progressive" Muslims and "liberal" Muslims—who represent two distinct approaches to Islamic democracy.  [More]

Beginning at the Beginning
Modern science "has given us Promethean power, but no wisdom to guide its use," asserted Leon Kass, chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, at the June 17 Center forum "Why Genesis? Why Now?" Kass said his new book, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, offers "a philosophic reading" of Genesis and seriously reconsiders cast-off alternatives to Enlightenment doctrine. [More]

Technology and Society 2003 Lecture Series
The 2003 lecture series on technology and society, sponsored by the Center’s Project on Biotechnology and American Democracy, concluded with three speakers in May and June. Brief excerpts from their lectures follow. [More]