DATE: 5:30 p.m. March 10, 2008.

EVENT: The Future of Islam, a panel discussion with visiting scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd and University of Michigan faculty to discuss how the interpretation of the Qur?an, and other religious works, are affected by those who provide the interpretation.

Trained in literary criticism at Cairo University, and a faculty member there until 1995, Abu Zayd established himself as one of the most innovative critical thinkers of the Islamic world with a new theory of hermeneutics of the Qur?an, which made a lasting impact in the academic field. Abu Zayd and his wife fled Egypt in 1995, fearing for their lives, after he was declared an apostate by a Cairo appeals court.

He now holds the Ibn Rushd Chair of Humanism and Islam at the University of Humanistics, Utrecht, The Netherlands. He defines his work there as the study of “modern Islamic thought by critically approaching classical and contemporary Islamic discourse in the fields of theology, philosophy, law, politics and humanism.”

The discussion will center on Abu Zayd’s research which aims to suggest a theory of hermeneutics that might enable Muslims to build a bridge between their own tradition and the modern world of freedom, equality, human rights, democracy and globalization.

The event is free and open to the public.

Gottfried Hagen, director of the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, acting co-director of the Islamic Studies Initiative and associate professor of Turkish language and culture, Department of Near Eastern Studies, U-M, will moderate the discussion.

PLACE: Hussey Room, Michigan League, 911 North University, Ann Arbor.

SPONSORS: The University of Michigan’s Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Institute for the Humanities, and the Islamic Studies Initiative.

Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies