Imam Zaid Shakir to Discuss Islamophobia in the U.S.

 April 24, 2006

ANDOVER — Imam Zaid Shakir, one of the world’s most prominent Islamic scholars in the West and a popular speaker on the talk circuit, will visit the Phillips Academy campus on Wednesday evening, April 26, to participate in a panel discussion titled, “Islamophobia: What’s the Threat?”

The panel discussion will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Kemper Auditorium in the Elson Art Center on the Andover campus. The event is free and open to the public.

The panel discussion is the second event to be held on the PA campus this year that focuses on exploring the current high level of tension that exists between the East and West. On February 28, the Academy held a dinner dialogue during which attendees discussed the worldwide controversy that was sparked when a Danish newspaper printed unflattering cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. Among the speakers at that event was Imam Faaruug of Roxbury, Massachusetts.

During Wednesday’s event, panel members will discuss how, in the past few years, the word Islam has come to evoke feelings of fear, anger and hatred from people around the world.  Islamophobia has resulted in various levels of discrimination, prejudice, exclusion, and violence against Muslims and non-Muslims in America.  This panel will focus on many common misconceptions about the Muslim community, the causes of Islamophobia, and why a vast majority of Americans are convinced that Muslims have unfavorable views of the United States.

Shakir will be joined on the panel by Bob Braile, PA instructor of English and a practicing journalist; Frank Tipton, PA instructor of history and social science; and Susan McCaslin, PA assistant dean of faculty instructor of philosophy and religious studies.

Imam Zaid Shakir was born in Berkeley, California and accepted Islam in 1977 while serving in the U.S. Airforce. Over the years, he has developed into one of the most influential leaders in the Islamic community in the West and is widely regarded as an articulate voice on Islam and African American issues. Since 2003, he has served as scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, California, where he teaches regular courses in Arabic, Islamic Law, History, and Islamic Spirituality.