A three-day international conference on “Women’s Empowerment: Paradigms, Sources, Methodologies” was inaugurated in Calicut, Kerala, India on January 6-8, 2012 by economist Dr Abusaleh Shariff with an address on “Gender Empowerment in India: Concept, Measurement and Policy.” The conference was organized by the Institute of Objective Studies (IOS) in collaboration with National Women’s Front. ...

In a ceremony on December 7, 2011, Nazareth College of Rochester became the beneficiary of a new academic chair endowed by IIIT. The chair appropriately named ‘International Institute of Islamic Thought Chair in Interfaith Studies and Dialogue’ is placed in the Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue, which is now named after Brian and Jean Hickey who gifted funds to endow the Center. Mr. Brian Hickey is a trustee of the College. The IIIT donation was a challenge grant for which the Hickeys provided matching donation...

In its last lecture of the 2011 Lecture Series, IIIT hosted on Friday December 16^th 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”....

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 45^th 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 ...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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...

On Friday July 22^nd, IIIT celebrated the completion of its 5^th annual Summer Program in Islamic Studies with the graduation of fifteen students. The program, which ran for six weeks between June 13 and July 22, included instruction in core courses such as Qur’an and Sunna, Islamic History and Civilization, Islamic Jurisprudence, Contemporary Islamic Thought, and Muslim World Affairs. In addition, four seminars were offered focusing on...