A team of University of Colorado at Boulder scholars from anthropology, geography, history, religious studies and journalism will host a conference Friday, Oct. 24, on "Transnational Discourses of the Global Islamic Community."
The conference will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Norlin Library's British Studies Room. All sessions are free and open to the public.
Like Christians and Jews, Muslims revere religious leaders and holy sites abroad. But in the West, transnational Islam can be seen as radical and a potential threat.
That fear is misplaced, says the interdisciplinary team of scholars. The team is nearing completion of a pilot study of how the West views Islam.
Carla Jones, a CU-Boulder assistant professor of anthropology and a leader of the project, notes that Western depictions of Islam are "incredibly parochial and antithetical to modernity." Such views are "very misleading and offensive," she said.
Muslims compose a global community of pious people. But like Christians and Jews, Jones said, they also are loyal to the nations where they live. The team led by Jones and Ruth Mas, assistant professor of religious studies, went beyond the Middle East to interview Muslims about their views on global Islam.
Conference speakers include Mas, Jones and other CU faculty members. Other participants include Enseng Ho, professor of cultural anthropology and history at Duke University; Peter Mandaville, associate professor of public and international Affairs at George Mason University; Andrew Shryock, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan; and Paul Silverstein, anthropology professor at Reed College.
For a complete schedule of Oct. 24 events, visit / and click on "Conference."