CHAMPAIGN,Ill. – John L. Esposito, the author of more than 30 books on the politics of Islam, will speak on “The Future of Islam and Muslim-West Relations” at the annual Marjorie Hall Thulin Lecture in Religion at the University of Illinois.
The lecture will begin at 8 p.m. April 14 (Thursday) in the Knight Auditorium of Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana. It is free and open to the public.
In an email, Esposito said that his lecture will explore the major questions and issues facing Islam and Muslim-West relations: “Who are the reformers in Islam and what are the issues they address? What are issues that have affected and will affect future relations between the West and the Muslim world? How significant is the pro-democracy movement in the Arab world? How representative and widespread are religious extremism and the threat of global terrorism?”
Esposito is the founding director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he is a professor of religion and international affairs and of Islamic studies. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of State, the Center for Foreign Affairs and corporations, universities and the news media.
He is the editor-in-chief of the four-volume “Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World,” “The Oxford History of Islam” and “The Oxford Dictionary of Islam.” His latest books are “The Future of Islam” and “Islamophobia: The Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century.”
In 2004, according to The Muslim Weekly, the Islamic Society of North America gave Esposito an award recognizing his efforts to increase understanding of Muslims, comparing him to Abu Taleb, the prophet Mohammad’s uncle, who never converted to Islam.
Esposito – born and raised in Brooklyn, New York – is Catholic. He attended parochial school, served as an altar boy, and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Catholic universities (in philosophy and theology, respectively). He earned his doctorate in Islamic studies, with a minor in comparative religions, at Temple University, in 1974.
He was one of the first Westerners to focus on the political aspects of Islam, and has been in demand as an expert and consultant ever since the Shah of Iran was overthrown in 1979.
The U. of I. lecture is endowed by a fund established by Marjorie Hall Thulin
(1910-2009), who graduated from Illinois in 1931 and had a successful career in advertising. She also published poetry and children’s literature, and edited a book on the history of Glencoe, Ill., where she lived. She endowed the lecture fund with the goal of helping students understand how religion functions in a complex society, especially Christianity in America.
Esposito will be interviewed on “Focus” on WILL-AM (580) at 11:06 a.m. on April 14 (Thursday). Listeners can call in questions or comments.
For more information, contact David Price, the head of the department of religion, at dhprice@illinois.edu.
