The world’s best-known Muslim intellectual has attracted intense interest for his 7 p.m. talk in Vancouver on Thursday, February 3.
Simon Fraser University officials have set up additional theatre space and a live webcast after an overflow audience of 450 people registered to hear Tariq Ramadantalk at the Segal Graduate School of Business, 500 Granville Street.
Ramadan, a soft-spoken, charismatic European Islamic scholar who often draws thousands of listeners to his events, will speak about his latest book,The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Theology of Pluralism.
The author of more than 20 books is professor of contemporary Islamic studies at St. Antony’s College at Oxford University, England. He lectures extensively around the world on theology, Islamic law, applied ethics, philosophy, social justice, economy, politics, interfaith and intra-community dialogue.
In my 2009 Vancouver Sun interview with Ramadan, he called on moderate Muslims to come out of their self-imposed hiding, speak up publicly and seize the media debate from headline-grabbing “dogmatic” Muslims.
“These voices of moderation should be radically more vocal,” said Ramadan, whom Time Magazine ranked among the world’s “top 100 innovators.”
Ramadan called on Muslim immigrants to Canada and other Western countries to stop acting like misunderstood “victims” and get on with “contributing” to Western society.
He also urged non-Muslim Canadians to avoid being sucked into the “ideology of fear” that has been promoted in recent years both by fundamentalist Muslims, extremist North American Christians and people such as former U.S. president George W. Bush.
To view Thursday evening’s life webcast of Ramadan’s talk, click onhttp://www.lidc.sfu.ca/broadcast
