<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div apple-content-edited="true"><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">MIT Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar</font><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> </font></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Fundamentalist & Other Obstacles to Religious Tolerance<o:p></o:p></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> </font></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Dr. Malise Ruthven<o:p></o:p></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Author/Historian<o:p></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> </font></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">April 5, 2011<o:p></o:p></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">4:30 – 6:00pm<o:p></o:p></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">E51-395 (Tang Center, 70 Memorial Drive)<o:p></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">For More information </font></o:p><a href="http://events.mit.edu/event.html?id=13572474&date=2011/4/5">http://events.mit.edu/event.html?id=13572474&date=2011/4/5</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Abstract</font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">In this talk Malise Ruthven addresses issues of religious conflict and asks “Is - God - or theology to blame?” After exploring the term “fundamentalism” he suggests that it is the reification or “objectification” of religious symbols, rather than theological differences as such, that serve to perpetuate conflicts seen as religious. The manner in which symbols are transformed from being modes of apprehending spiritual realities (howsoever these are understood) into becoming non-exchangeable, and non-negotiable tokens of individual or group identity lie at the heart of conflicts afflicting many religious traditions at the present time. <o:p></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Bio</font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Malise Ruthven is the author of </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Islam in the World</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> (OUP, 1984, 1991, 2006), an overview of Islamic faith and history, </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Torture:The Grand Conspiracy</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> (Weidenfeld, 1978); </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Cairo</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> (Time-Life, 1980); </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Traveller Through Time: A Photographic Journey with Freya Stark</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> (Viking, 1986); </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">The Divine Supermarket: Shopping for God in America</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> (William Morrow nominated for the 1989 Thomas Cook Travel Award); </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">A Satanic Affair: Salman Rushdie and the Wrath of Islam</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> (Chatto & Windus, 1989); </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Islam:A Very Short Introduction </font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">(OUP, 1997, 2000 and published in several languages, </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">A Fury for God: The Islamist Attack on America</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> (Granta, 2002); </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Fundamentalism: The Search for Meaning</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> (OUP 2004); and </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">A Historical Atlas of the Islamic World</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> [with Azim Nanji] (OUP/Harvard University Press, 2004 - Winner of the 2005 US Middle East Outreach Council Book Award). </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Gnosticism: A Very Short Introduction</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">, commissioned by OUP will appear in 2012 along with </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Encountering Islam</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">: a book of essays, to be published by I B Tauris. Ruthven’s review essays and blogs appear regularly in the </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">New York Review of Books</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">. In 2004 London's </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Prospect </font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">magazine ranked Malise Ruthven among the 100 top public intellectuals in Britain.</font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Malise Ruthven is a former scriptwriter for the BBC. He holds an MA in English Literature and a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University. He has taught Islamic studies, cultural history and comparative religion at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, Birkbeck College, University of London, the University of California, San Diego, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire and at the Colorado College, Colorado Springs.</font></p><div><span style="font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt; font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div><div style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Seminars will be held in building E51, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge.</span></font></b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><o:p></o:p></span></font></div></div><div><div style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><a href="http://whereis.mit.edu/?q=E51-145&zoom=16&lat=42.36226996640223&lng=-71.08632802963257&open=object-E51&maptype=mit" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">http://whereis.mit.edu/?q=E51-145&zoom=16&lat=42.36226996640223&lng=-71.08632802963257&open=object-E51&maptype=mit</span></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><o:p></o:p></span></font></div></div></div><div><div style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></div></div><div><div style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></div></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; "><div style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar: </font><a href="http://web.mit.edu/CIS/bustani/bustani2011spring.htm" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">http://web.mit.edu/CIS/bustani/bustani2011spring.htm</font></a></div></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div> <!--EndFragment--> </div>contact: <a href="mailto:pardisp@mit.edu">pardisp@mit.edu</a></div></div><br></body></html>