SCIS to kick off yearlong theme, 'Understanding Islam'

One of the country's most respected voices on Islam and the Middle East will kick of Presbyterian College's yearlong study of Islamic culture on Sept. 12.

Reza Aslan, the author of No god but God: the Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam will speak at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, in PC's Belk Auditorium in a lecture sponsored by the college's Southeastern Center for Intercultural Studies.

Born in Iran, Aslan earned a bachelor of arts degree in religion from Santa Clara University, a master's in theological studies from Harvard University, a master's of fine arts in fiction from the University of Iowa and is currently a doctoral candidate in history of religions at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Until recently, he was both the visiting assistant professor of Islamic and Middle East studies at the University of Iowa and the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has served as a legislative assistant for the Friends' Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C., and was elected president of Harvard's chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, a United Nations organization committed to solving religious conflicts throughout the world.

Aslan also is a research associate at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy and the Middle East analyst for National Public Radio's "Marketplace." He has written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Slate, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and the Nation, and has appeared on "Meet the Press," "Hardball," "The Daily Show," and "Nightline."

William Grimes of the New York Times said Aslan "has written a literate accessible introduction to Islam (or more accurately Islams), carefully placing its message and rituals in historical context."

Of his own religious beliefs and culture, Aslan said "I believe we are living in the time of the Islamic reformation."

"In fact, I think we are living in the twilight of that reformation," he stated. "For me, the word 'reform' is defined by its inevitability. This process cannot be stopped; it can be slowed down for a time but reform is inevitable. It's an historic reformation taking place within Islam ñ it's adapting itself to the realities of the world around it.

"I think we'll see the same process we saw in the Christian reformation from doctrinal absolutism to doctrinal relativism; toward a truly indigenous Islamic enlightenment. And it's up to us Muslims in the U.S. to give voice to that for our brothers and sisters who don't have the voice or the same ability to speak out as we do."