October 2, 2003 Library to Host Symposium on the Science and Culture of Islam

The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, along with the Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division, the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding of Georgetown University, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion jointly present a symposium titled “Islam, Science and Cultural Values.” The program will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 9, in LJ 119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required.

Participants will include a number of leading Muslim and non-Muslim scientists and scholars who will examine the complex relationship among science, religion and values that has been a driving force both within and among civilizations. Some of the speakers include John Esposito, Osman Bakar and Ahmad Dalal of Georgetown University; Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University; George Saliba of Columbia University; Ebrahim Moosa of Duke University; Syed Nomanul Haq from the University of Pennsylvania; Karim Ahmed of the National Council for Science and the Environment; Munawwar Anees of the Templeton Foundation; Mustanir Mir of Youngstown State University; Ibrahim Kalin of the College of the Holy Cross and Mohamed Hassan of the Islamic Academy of Sciences in Trieste.

The Library of Congress established the John W. Kluge Center in 2000, through a generous endowment from its namesake, to bring together the world’s best thinkers to stimulate, energize and distill wisdom from the Library’s rich resources and to interact with policymakers in Washington, D.C. The Kluge Center houses five senior Kluge Chairs (American Law and Governance, Countries and Cultures of the North, Countries and Cultures of the South, Technology and Society, and Modern Culture); other senior-level chairs (Henry A. Kissinger Chair, Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in American History and Ethics, and the Harissios Papamarkou Chair in Education); and nearly 25 postdoctoral fellows.

For more information about any of the fellowships, grants and programs offered by the John W. Kluge Center, contact the Office of Scholarly Programs, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Avenue S.E., Washington, DC 20540-4860; telephone (202) 707-3302, fax (202) 707-3595, or visit the Web at www.loc.gov/kluge.

Established in 1978, the African and Middle Eastern Division comprises three sections of the Library of Congress—African, Hebraic and Near East, which cover some 70 countries and regions from Southern Africa to the Maghreb and from the Middle East to Central Asia. For more information, visit the African and Middle Eastern Division Reading Room at www.loc.gov/rr/amed.

Coming soon: the Library of Congress will present the first John W. Kluge Prize, for lifetime achievement in the humanities and social sciences. The winner of the million dollar prize will be announced on Wednesday, November 5, 2003.