PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Muslim Scholar Delivers Message of Peace Between Religions
by Corey Ballantyne Thursday, Mar. 27, 2003 at 8:27 PM
cjbst57@pitt.edu (email address validated) 412 687 3996

Muslim scholar Dr. Bekir Aksoy delivers brief lecture, long Q & A, on Islam; encourages peaceful & accepting "dialogue" between religions.

Muslim scholar Dr. Bekir Aksoy of the Islamic Studies Group (ISG) at Univ. Pittsburgh delivered a peaceful lecture/discussion this evening emphasizing the importance that �dialogue� be held in a �civilized� manner between especially Jews, Christians, and Muslims about their faiths. After a short lecture, Dr. Aksoy devoted approximately 1 � hours to audience questions, giving generous attention to every question.

Islam in a general sense is �the religion of God,� he said, and encompasses the three religions which can be traced back to Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and what we usually refer to as Islam.

In addition to people sharing their own specific beliefs, Muslims respect �people of the book,� a designation which historically meant Jews and Christians but has come to encompass most of the world�s religions.

Dr. Aksoy calmly expressed disagreement with the fundamentalisms of all three �Abrahamic� religions. He equated fundamentalism with �exclusivity� (belief that truth exists only in one�s own belief system) and called this tendency �ignorance.�

Asked about politics, his comments included the following. He considers himself both American and Turkish. He was forgiving of various countries which have not acted ideally, including the U.S. in invading Iraq at present. He said that �Muslims around the world should support the U.S.� as a superpower because of all countries which have (or have recently had) potential for world domination, it is the best; he would not like to live in a world dominated by China or by Russia under Stalin.

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