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Event: McGinley Lecture, April 14 and April 15

It is time for the McGinley Lecture at Fordham. This term, I will be giving a response to the theme of “Poverty: The Curse and The Blessing.” The event will be Tuesday, April 14 at 6PM at the Lincoln Center campus, and repeated on Wednesday, April 15, at 6PM at the Rose Hill campus. Details on this event can be found here. Previous topics I have been a respondent to include: Usury: A Moral Concern for Jews, Christians and Muslims (Video | text of my response) Life After Death: Hopes and Fears for Jews, Christians and Muslims (Video | text…

my final word on @Park51 – City of Brass

my final word on Park51 – City of Brass. When you combine the emotional impact of 9-11, the undercurrent of prejudice against Islam borne of fear of the unknown/centuries of Orientalism marking it as the quintessential Other, and then layer onto that the background signal of racial intolerance that is America’s original sin and persists to this day, then you are basically confronted with a pretty skewed playing field, against which the idealized rhetoric of universal rights and freedoms has a disadvantage. It’s to the credit of our national character however that we are actually having a debate. That suggests…

Muslims, Jews, and the Holocaust

Although now we hear quite a bit about Muslims denying the Holocaust, things were not always thus. NPR has a good interview with the author of a book called Besa: Muslims who Saved Jews in World War II. I have Besa, and can tell you it is very good. In searching for the title on Amazon, I found two other related books, listed below. “Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II” (Norman H. Gershman) Related: “The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust” (Karen Gray Ruelle, Deborah Durland Desaix) “When Courage…