DEPARTMENT OF MALAY STUDIES, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
&
UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS PROGRAMME, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
present a panel discussion on
ISLAM AND THE WEST: A CONVERSATION BETWEEN AND BEYOND IDENTITIES (CULTURES)
Panelists:
RABBI MORDECHAI ABERGEL
Orthodox Jewish Community of Singapore;
DR. KARIM DOUGLAS CROW
Associate Professor of Contemporary Islam, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University; PROF.
GEORGE FRANCIS MCLEAN
Director, Center for the Study of Culture and Values, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
Venue: University Scholars Programme, Conference Room, Blk ADM, #07, adjacent to Central Library)
Date: 3rd July 2007, Tuesday
Time: 11.00am – 12.30pm
Abstract
Historically there has been significant tension between Islam and the West. An examination of the radicalization of rationalism which has characterized the modern West indicates the deep systematic roots of these tensions. A parallel examinations of the dissolution of that paradigm signaled by the broad use of the term "post modern" promises to open the path for more positive interchange in global times. The hope is to initiate a discussion of how to converse in a way that is the more faithful by being more positive.
Our present global reality forces different cultures to explore their differences and commonalities with fresh urgency and at a deeper level of self-awareness involving new appreciation for the other. With the intensified re-assertion of religious identities and expressions forming a crucial component of competing cultures and nations, there is a great need today for well-informed exchanges about perceived religious differences and mutual concerns. To respond to this need it is important to seek clarification on several issues: (1) Why do we talk with one another? our reasons both positive and negative; (2) How do we talk about our own traditions and value may we listen to and hear the other communities when they discourse from within their own worldviews? This Conversation from inside our culture and outside the other cultures, and between & within differing cultures, demands a creative hermeneutics which may open, share and promote self- and mutual-understanding. Three/four thinkers, speaking both within and beyond their own traditions, initiate a conversation exploring this together.
About the Speakers
KARIM D. CROW is Associate Professor of Contemporary Islam at the S. Rajaratnam School Of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Dr. Crow studied in Beirut & Cairo, taking his Doctorate from the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University. He taught Islamic Studies & Arabic Language at Columbia University, New York University, University of Virginia …, and in 1999–2005 was Professor of Islamic Thought (philosophy, theology & intellectual traditions) at the International Institute of Islamic Thought & Civilisation (ISTAC –Kuala Lumpur). He has published on Islamic metaphysics, values & ethics, peace studies, contemporary Muslim intellectual life; and an edited volume Facing One Qiblah: Legal & Doctrinal Aspects of Sunni and Shi‘a Muslims. He is writing an historical survey Islam and Rationalities, and a textual study of tradition history ‘When God Created Wisdom’: Islamic ‘Aql Creation Narratives being published by Brill.
GEORGE FRANCIS MCLEAN studied philosophy and theology at the Gregorian University, Rome, and philosophy at the Catholic University of America (CUA), Washington where he received his Ph.D. in philosophy (dissertation on Pual Tillich and knowledge of God). Further research was carried out on Hindu philosophy with TNP Mahadevan and R. R Balasubramanian in Madras/Chennai, India, on phenomenology with Paul Ricoeur in Paris, and on Islamic thought with Georges Anawati in Cairo. He has been professor of metaphysics at CUA and Secretary of the International Society for Metaphysics, and the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP) and editor of its 200 volume series "Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change". His many publications include God and the Discovery of Man: Classical And Contemporary Approaches: Lectures in Wuhan, China. Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change, Series III. Asia, Vol. 19. Washington: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2003; Persons, Peoples and Cultures in a Global Age: Metaphysical Bases for Peace between Civilizations. Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change, Series I. Culture and Values, Vol. 29. Washington: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2003; Plenitude and Participation: The Life of God in Man; Lectures in Chennai/Madras, India. Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change, Series IIIB. South Asia, Vol. 8. Washington: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2004; and Al-Ghazali, Deliversance from Error and Mystical Union with the Almighty, Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal. Critical Arabic text established by Muhammad Abulaylah and Nurshif Abdul-Rahim Rif; English translation with introduction by Muhammad Abulaylah; introduction and notes by George F. McLean. Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change, Series IIA. Islam, Vol. 3. Washington: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2000.
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