Middle East studies in the News

Learning about Western and Muslim nations

by Vern Barnet
Kansas City Star
April 2, 2003

http://www.cres.org/star/star03q2.htm

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/666

Since 9/11, many Americans have become aware of how ignorant we are about Islamic culture. And many Americans have yet to become aware of our ignorance about the rich Jewish history that unfolded after the Bible was compiled. Despite the fact that Kansas City's first sister city is Seville, most of us know little about how Jews and Muslims lived together in Spain's golden age of Islam before the Christians expelled the Jews and Muslims in 1492.
But we should know. And care.

Ross Brann, the Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies at Cornell University, offers insights from history to illumine the present in a lecture this Sunday at 4 pm at the Hall Student Center at Pembroke Hill School, 5121 State Line Road. His topic is "Religion, Politics and Peace in the Middle East."

In a telephone interview, I asked Brann about the frequent claim that "Jews and Muslims have been fighting for thousands of years, and nothing can change that." Brann said that it is useful to include the history of Christianity with Judaism and Islam in considering such views.
"The past may be more positive and tolerant--less hegemonic--than most people think. The idea that Jews and Muslims have been fighting since Isaac and Ishmael is false. We are not consigned to an eternal conflict. Medieval Islam was far more tolerant than the Christianity of that era."

Under Muslim rule, a Dhimmi was a non-Muslim whose right to practice his or her own faith was protected. Recently a derivative term, "dhimmitude," has been used to argue that Muslims demeaned or oppressed those with Dhimmi status. Brann is not in favor of this term because it is used polemically to "grossly oversimplify and distort" the historical context of the privileges and disabilities of the Dhimmi.

Brann suggests that looking at interactions from the past might point us in fruitful directions for the future. One of his special interests is Samuel Ha-Nagid, a Jew who rose to became vizier in Muslim-ruled Granada. "But he is not the only such figure" to illustrate the complicated relationships those of different faiths have had in mixed cultures, Brann said.

Brann's talk Sunday will move from such history to look at events of 1917 and 1967 and at current issues between the West and Muslim nations.

The lecture is sponsored by the Cornell Club, the International Relations Council, the Plaza Rotary Club and several other groups.

Note: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

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