| |
| News
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 IIIT held its first seminar for the year 2012 on Thursday, January 5th at its offices in Herndon, Virginia. The three-hour panel discussion focused on the recently held elections in Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt and the debate that ensued after Islamist parties in the three countries achieved significant electoral victories. They won absolute majority in the Egyptian Parliament and significant votes in Tunisia and Morocco that allowed them to form strong coalition governments in the two countries. The main panelists were: Dr. Muqtedar Khan, Professor of International Relations and Islamic studies at the University of Delaware, Dr. Mohammad Nimer, Professor of International Relations at the American University, Washington, DC; and Dr. Anwar Haddam, the well known Algerian political leader. Dr. Jamal Barzinji, Vice President of IIIT was the main discussant of the panel.The discussion itself centered around four major questions... |
| Read More.. |
|
|
|
 In its last lecture of the 2011 Lecture Series, IIIT hosted on Friday December 16th Dr. Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi, Professor (Emeritus) of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Maryland and a former Iranian diplomat. He spoke about “Rethinking Diplomacy and Islam: A Focus on Iran”....
|
| Read More.. |
|
|
|
 The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), in partnership with the Institute of Global Cultural Studies (IGCS) at Binghamton University, SUNY, New York, organized a series of special events in honor of Professor Ali Mazrui, at the 45th annual meeting of the African Studies Association (ASA), held at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel in Washington DC on November 18-19, 2011.
The special events started on Friday, November 18 with an exhibition of selected items from the Mazrui collection and memorabilia. The full collection that includes more than forty ... |
| Read More.. |
|
|
|
 IIIT resumed its monthly lecture series on Friday, October 28, 2011 by a lecture from Joseph Montville, Senior Research Fellow at IIIT and political psychologist, who spoke on “the Prophet and the Jews of Medina”. The paper is part of a series of research papers that aim to illuminate the historical encounters between Jewish and Muslim communities at different stages of their common history and address some of the issues in these encounters that have particular significance, especially within the contemporary context.
The paper describes the ...
|
| Read More.. |
|
|
|
 Once again this year, the Annual Banquet of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) brought together Muslim leaders and activists to hear about CAIR’s progress in protecting the civil rights of Muslim Americans and to generate funds for its continuing work. Imam Siraj Wahhaj urged those present to donate generously. Congressman Jim Moran addressed the problems of prejudice against, and ignorance about, the Muslim community, and advised increased participation in the political process.
Dr. Iqbal Unus, Director of The Fairfax Institute at IIIT received CAIR’s 2011 Lifetime Service Award at this well-attended event in... |
| Read More.. |
|
|
|
 The Graduate Certificate for Imams and Community Leadership, and academic collaboration in general between IIIT and Hartford Seminary, moved a significant step forward with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on October 3. The Memorandum formalized earlier agreements which defined and regulated the offering of courses in the pilot graduate certificate program.
The Memorandum was signed by IIIT vice president Dr. Jamal Barzinji and Hartford Seminary president Dr. Heidi Hadsell. Present at the meeting and the signing ceremony were ... |
| Read More.. |
|
|
|
 Northern Virginia’s Arab community gathered at its 23 rd annual event in Tysons Corner on September 25 th, with more than 300 leaders, activists and donors attending, and 46 democratic and republican politicians making their pitch for election or re-election to local and State offices. Also speaking at the event was former Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia who is running for the U.S. Senate .... |
| Read More.. |
|
|
|
 On the evening of Wednesday, August 24th, 2011, IIIT held its 5th Annual Friends of IIIT Iftar/Dinner on the premises of IIIT. The event brought together about a hundred scholars, interfaith leaders, politicians and Imams representing universities, interfaith groups and Islamic centers in the metropolitan Washington area.
The four- hour program featured the Annual Isma’il al Faruqi Memorial Lecture delivered by Dr. Charles Butterworth, Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland and specialist in Arabic language and Islamic Political Philosophy. Professor Butterworth spoke on “Reading the Qur’an”, reflecting on its awesome linguistic complexity, the outsider/insider perspectives in approaching the Qur’an, and the continuity of its message in relation to earlier revealed scriptures. At the dinner that followed Governor John Sununu, former Chief of Staff at the White House for President George Bush, Sr. delivered keynote remarks. Governor Sununu reminded the audience of the utmost importance of engagement in the political process, particularly in the coming election year, and counseled them to stay united as they seek their rights within this process... |
| Read More.. |
|
|
|
 IIIT held its concluding session of the 4th Annual Summer Institute for Scholars on Wednesday July 20, 2011. The Summer Institute began in 2008; its theme is a Contemporary Understanding of Qur’an and Sunna. This year’s program, which ran between July 11 and July 20, focused on Iftaa and Fatwas: the Challenges of Authority, Legitimacy and Relevance. More than forty scholars, intellectuals, community leaders and graduate and undergraduate students participated in different parts of the program, beside IIIT executives and staff. Participating scholars included ...
|
| Read More.. |
|
|
|
 On Monday, July 11th, 2011, IIIT launched the 4th annual Summer Institute for Scholars at its offices in Herndon, Virginia, with the participation of more than thirty scholars, intellectuals, community leaders and graduate students. The focus of this year’s Institute is “Iftaa and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West: the Challenges of Authority, legitimacy and Relevance”... |
| Read More.. |
|
|
|
|
|