"We have made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another" A verse of the Quran and Western Errors

TALK ABSTRACT: Qur’an 49:13, from which the phrase in the title of the lecture comes, is commonly cited by Muslims and even non-Muslims – for instance, President Obama his 2009 Cairo speech – to emphasize tolerance in Islam. The lecture will follow different interpretations of the verse through various historical times and contexts to see how that current understanding developed. Hostile dismissal of the modern reading in non-Muslim popu-lar discourse and even by some scholars is also addressed.

Lynda Clarke is Professor of Religion and Islam and Chair of the Department of Religions and Cultures at Concordia University, Montréal. She has also held positions in the Department of Asian and Middle East Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Department of Religion, Bard College, NY. Her research interests include Shiism, gender, law, and Islam in the West. Recent publications include “‘Aql (Reason) in Modern Shiite Thought: The Example of Muḥammad Jawād Maghniyya” in Essays in Islamic Philology, History, and Philosophy (Berlin, 2016) and “Belief and unbelief in Shīʿī thought” in Encyclopedia of Islam, (Brill, 2017). Dr. Clarke’s 2013 Women in Niqab Speak (http://ccmw.com/women-in-niqab-speak-a-study-of-the-niqab-in-canada/), the first study of women wearing face veils in the West, will be followed by “Unveiled Muslim Women, Views and Voices”, for which field work is presently underway.