I want to share some very exciting news about my book, Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization. Some friends have organized a book launch at the National Cathedral and the Brookings Institution, both in Washington DC. I believe the book’s message of hope, friendship and dialogue should be widely shared. This message is based on my travels last year to the Muslim world with a group of remarkable young Americans to the Middle East, South Asia, and Far East Asia. We interviewed a whole range of people from presidents and prime ministers to imams, sheiks and students. We visited mosques, churches, synagogues, and temples. The book that is being launched is an outcome of the journey.
The book offers a special insight into relations between the West and the Muslim World; it allows the voices of ordinary Muslims—and of course some very prominent ones—to be heard; it allows us to hear the voices of my young American team and to see their interactions in different and often challenging situations. And finally, the book offers a set of practical recommendations for policy makers and leaders, both Muslim and Western. Because I believe—as indeed does the team working with me—that is important to get our message out, I am delighted at the two events planned to launch the book.
The first book launch on Wednesday, June 13 is being planned by the Brookings Institution with a panel including Rep. Keith Ellison, the congressman from Minnesota, the Washington Post’s Nora Boustany and Dr. Stephen Cohen from Brookings. Dr. Stephen Grand will chair the session. Brookings, of course, is a leading think tank and the event I’m sure will be focused on global ideas, policies and international affairs.
I believe that the event taking place the next day on Thursday, June 14 will allow us to engage with the spiritual side of our nature when Bishop John Chane and Rabbi Bruce Lustig help me launch the book at the National Cathedral. John and Bruce are wonderful friends and allies in our effort to bring greater understanding between the Abrahamic faiths. As I have concluded the book by giving their extraordinary example of leadership after the traumatic events of 9/11, the launching of the book at the cathedral will be appropriate.
So friends, join us to celebrate dialogue, discussion, and debate these ideas of mutual interest at either of these events.
Wednesday June 12, 3:30 pm, Brookings Institution
More information: http://www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20070613.htm
Thursday, June 14, 7-9 pm, Perry Auditorium, National Cathedral
More information: http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/programs/JourneyIntoIslam.shtml
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