Religions for Peace USA Webinar with Dr. Amir Akrami
December 17th, 3:00PM ET: Islam, Religious Diversity, and Peacemaking in Iran
Iran has been in the news a lot lately and this time it looks like diplomatic efforts are making significant headway. In a nation that has been a
theocracy for the last 34 years, the question remains to how Iranian politics deal with religious difference. These new negotiations seem different, however. As columnist Roger Cohen recently noted, “The era of traumatized alienation is over. The United States and Iran have embarked on a new phase in their relationship. It is marked by bilateral negotiations, handshakes, smiles, side-by-side flags and significant compromise, including United States acquiescence to a ‘mutually defined enrichment program’ for Iran in any long-term agreement and an Iranian commitment that ‘under no circumstances’ will it ‘ever seek or develop any nuclear weapons.’” Behind all of this new progression is the question of how as Islamic theocracy deals with difference, with peacemaking.
Religions for Peace USA is happy to announce that our next webinar will cover this important and timely topic of Islam, Religious Diversity and Peacemaking in Iran on December 17th at 3:00 PM ET.
Dr. Seyed Amir Akrami, the top Iranian interfaith specialist will be featured in this webinar. Dr. Akrami is a visiting scholar at Eastern Mennonite University’s (EMU) Center for Interfaith Engagement. Until recently, Dr. Akrami was a lecturer at the Al-Mahdi Institute in Birmingham, England. He is a member of the academic board of the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue, a non-governmental organization based in Iran, and has served as Secretary for Inter-Religious Dialogue at the Organization for Islamic Culture and Communication in Tehran.
For the last year and a half, Dr. Akrami has been lecturing and teaching at EMU focusing on questions regarding Islam and religious diversity, Iranian politics and religion, and the topics of peace and violence in relation to Islam. But for our focus, Dr. Akrami will focus specifically on his own personal story regarding questions such as, “What was it like to be formed as a religious scholar in a theocratic nation? As an Iranian who has studied in the West, how do you work with people of other faith in the face of deep divisions culturally and religiously?” For many of the Religions for Peace USA family, these are culturally sensitive, important issues.
In case you haven’t noticed, we updated our website to include access to all of our past webinars! In the last six months, we’ve featured leaders such as Rev. Paul Raushenbush of the Huffington Post, Dr. Heidi Hadsell of Hartford Seminary, Jen Symers of Church World Service, and Remziya Sulleyman of American Center for Outreach. If you would like full access to any of these please check them out, here.
We look forward to seeing you on December 17th at 3:00 PM for our webinar on Islam, Religious Diversity and Peacemaking with Dr. Amri Akrami!