ACMCU partnered with the Sultan Qaboos Center (SQCC) and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies to host a colloquium on music in Oman. The presentations included “Mozart in Muscat: Politics, Performance, and Patronage in Oman” by Nasser Al-Taee, Director of Education and Outreach, Royal Opera House, Muscat; “African Identities, Afro-Omani Music, and the Official Constructions of a Musical Past” by Majid Al Harthy, Assistant Professor of Music/Musicology/Ethnomusicology, Sultan Qaboos University; and “The Musical Design of National Space and Time in Oman” by Anne K. Rasmussen, Associate Professor of Music and Ethnomusicology and Chair of the Department of Music, College of William and Mary. The event was moderated by D.A. Sonneborn, who is an Associate Director at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution.

Former Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States and Chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal visited ACMCU to reiterate his full support of a Palestinian state. HRH is a Trustee of the Oxford Islamic Center at Oxford University and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University. He is also a Commissioner at the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. HRH received an honorary PhD. in Philosophy from the University of Ulster in 2010 and is a visiting Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University.

In the months after 9/11, many Americans wondered whether the world was entering a new era of spiraling terrorism and civilizational conflict. Ten years later, Charles Kurzman, Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, examined why these nightmares have not come true. This event was cosponsored by ACMCU and the Center for Peace and Security Studies.

In her presentation, Professor van Doorn addressed the question of how it could happen that a substantive number of citizens in the Netherlands, a country once famous for its progressive image, accepted the anti-Islamic, ultra-conservative rhetoric of Geert Wilders and made him one of the most popular and feared politicians. As she argued, part of the attraction seemed to be that he is one of the few who has managed to address the question about what it means to be “really” Dutch. The rest of the population, she explained, is still trying to figure out how Dutch they are and if being Muslim and Dutch can be an acceptable identity.

Contributors to the new book I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim visited ACMCU to discuss their experiences as American Muslim women. I Speak for Myself is a collection of 40 personal essays written by American Muslim women under the age of 40, all of whom were born and raised in the US. It is a showcase of the true diversity found in American Islam. The book has already caught the attention of prominent thought leaders including Deepak Chopra, Muhammad Yunus, Her Majesty Queen Noor, Jim Wallis, Eboo Patel, Soledad OBrien and many more.

Featuring Hadia Mubarak, Asma Uddin, Yusra Tekbali, and Saliqa Khan.

The events of the Arab Spring have brought Islamist groups in Egypt to the forefront, both as participants in the country’s revolution and now as influential voices in shaping Egypt’s future. Today Islamist groups of varied stripes are competing with more secular voices in Egypt over the proper place of Islam in the state’s functioning and the nation’s identity. What are the visions for the role of Islam in the new Egypt, how would these visions be implemented, and what impact would they have on Egypt domestically and internationally? This panel event addressed these important questions.