Sowing Peace or War: Early America's Encounters with Islam

Sowing Peace or War?: Early America's Encounters with Islam

Revisiting the formative early decades of the United States, this lecture

event offers a window into the important but often overlooked relationship

between a still formidable 18th and 19th century Muslim civilization and a

young and emerging American nation. Drawing from original research

highlighting little known treaties and historical documents, tales of

diplomacy and foreign policy intrigue, accounts of the significant Muslim

presence from amongst America's slave population, and even obscure

writings of the founding fathers themselves, this event's two lectures

with accompanying multimedia presentations should provide a fascinating

glimpse of the early encounters of America and Islam that reveals the

seeds of conflict and cooperation between these two entities. Perhaps,

through such a reexamination of this largely forgotten past, we may find a

new understanding of the present and possibly even inspiration that

engenders enlightened solutions and bears the fruits of peace.