{"id":33467,"date":"2012-02-28T09:09:05","date_gmt":"2012-02-28T14:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=33467"},"modified":"2012-02-29T14:05:30","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T19:05:30","slug":"broadening-understanding-about-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/broadening-understanding-about-islam\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadening Understanding About Islam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nonviolent uprisings in several countries of the Middle East and North Africa, a movement many call the \u201cArab Spring,\u201d have captured the world\u2019s attention. To Amitabh Pal, author and managing editor of The Progressive <\/em>magazine, who spoke Thursday at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, the roots of those uprisings also help to illustrate the \u201crich tradition of nonviolence\u201d in Islam.<\/p>\n

Of course, as Pal acknowledged to an audience of about 100, that is not the prevalent perception among non-Muslims, who often see Islam as a religion largely spread and defined by violence \u2013 a notion made worse by the tragedy of 9\/11. Drawing from his new book, \u201cIslam Means Peace: Understanding the Muslim Principle of Nonviolence Today,\u201d Pal recommended re-examining the sources of Islam, such as the Quran, to find nonviolent elements.<\/p>\n

As part of his presentation, Pal sought to clarify the meaning of certain terms such as jihad<\/em>, which he described as often misunderstood. \u201cJihad does not mean war, bloodshed, violence or attack; rather, it means struggle, <\/em>both internal and external,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When asked why he, a Hindu native of India, chose to write a book sorting through the confusion and misperceptions about Islam, Pal pointed out that the connection was natural. \u201cA Pashtun friend of Mahatma Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, founded a movement dedicated to nonviolence and social reform,\u201d he said. Pal also spent most of his childhood in an environment where Hindus and Muslims lived and worked together.<\/p>\n

The event was a feature of the Al Ghazali Islamic Studies Program, housed in the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Global Perspectives Office, in partnership with the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ College of Arts & Humanities. It was also part of two 2012 themes, \u201cPeople Power, Politics and Global Change\u201d and \u201cCovering Global Crises from the Frontlines,\u201d as well as the \u201cIndia Speaker Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other sponsors and partners included the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Middle Eastern Studies Program, the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Political Science Department, the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Diplomacy Program, The India Program at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Nicholson School of Communication, the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Book Festival 2012 in association with the Morgridge International Reading Center, the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ International Services Center, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ LIFE and the Global Connections Foundation.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nonviolent uprisings in several countries of the Middle East and North Africa, a movement many call the \u201cArab Spring,\u201d have captured the world\u2019s attention. To Amitabh Pal, author and managing editor of The Progressive magazine, who spoke Thursday at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, the roots of those uprisings also help to illustrate the \u201crich tradition of nonviolence\u201d in Islam. Of course, as Pal…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":33468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[6,21],"tags":[5617,6874,1973],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-33467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-opinions","tag-al-ghazali-islamic-studies-program","tag-amitabh-pal","tag-global-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"\nBroadening Understanding About Islam | Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nonviolent uprisings in several countries of the Middle East and North Africa, a movement many call the \u201cArab Spring,\u201d have captured the world\u2019s\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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