Mississippi State University will welcome guest speaker Farid Esack to the Wise Center Auditorium Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. Esack will lecture on the world’s growing need for communication between Christianity and Islam. Esack, a South African native and practicing Muslim, has traveled the country over the past few years as a visiting professor lecturing and working with various universities to bridge the gap between the world’s 2 billion Christians and the billion-plus members of the Islamic faith.
Esack is a distinguished speaker on Islam. He has written and published numerous books on Muslim and Christian relations, and he divides his time writing a weekly column on the faith for several South African publications.
Dr. Eve Mullen and Dr. Paul Jacobs, of the department of philosophy and religion, are organizing and sponsoring Esack’s visit to the university. Jacobs explained that the current situation in Afghanistan, coupled with the ever-growing need for increased communication between peoples of different faiths and backgrounds, was sufficient enough to warrant such a distinguished lecturer as Esack.
“We thought it was time to offer a deeper understanding of the current Christian/Muslim situation to the students here at MSU,” Jacobs said. “With the constant barrage of media coverage and blanketed accusations, the public receives only one perspective of what the Islamic religion is really about, and we believe that Dr. Esack could help shed some light on our current relations and views of each other.”
“Hearing Farid Esack will offer a lively, more realistic view by someone who has experienced it firsthand. He will speak of the involvement with Christian groups all over the world while sharing his experiences as a Muslim scholar,” Jacobs said.
All students are encouraged to attend, as well as anyone interested. For more information on the lecture, call Jacobs at 325-7516.