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Community Corner

Conflicts within Islam - Sunni vs. Shi'ite vs. Secular vs. Women's Rights

According to Karl Fryxell, many aspects of religious politics in the Middle East are poorly understood in the western media, even in our own Washington Post.  He will lead a forum focusing on the geographical triangle of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey.  He will outline their religious history from the year 622 as far forward as time allows (perhaps even to the present).  This ancient triangular rivalry helps to clarify many aspects of the conflicts in the Middle East, and the extent to which each side has made rational choices, based on its own beliefs, as well as economic and environmental factors.

Fryxell is currently a Professor of Systems Biology at George Mason University. His interest in Islam and religious history began after a series of personal interactions with students and researchers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and other countries.  Among these were one student rather close to those who assassinated Anwar Sadat; and another who is now serving a life sentence in a super-max prison in Colorado.  At the personal level, these fundamentalists were quite different from the way they are portrayed in the media (or sermons).  More recently, Fryxell has engaged part-time in the traditional Unitarian Universalist “search for truth and meaning”, based on the proposition that truth and meaning can both be illuminated in the origins of religions (and their conflicts).

This forum is part of the Sunday Forum: Science, Reason and Religion at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax.  The forum is in the Chapel of the Program building.  All are welcome.


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