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Javed Nazir, who spent 25 years in journalism in South Asia and now is
the 2004-05 Human Rights Fellow at the University of Michigan, will
be the keynote speaker for a campus-wide forum at Berea College on “Islamic
Fundamentalism: Problems and Prospects” this Wednesday, April
20.
The event is scheduled at 6 p.m. in Baird Lounge of the Alumni Building.
The forum is sponsored by Berea’s International Center, political
science department and Muslim Students Association and the Scholars at
Risk (SAR) Network. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.
Joining Nazir for a panel discussion will be Dr. Abdul Rafai, professor
of political science and Dr. Duane Smith, associate professor of religion,
both faculty members at Berea.
Nazir is former editor of the Frontier Post, an independent English-language
newspaper in Pakistan. During his career in journalism in South Asia,
he wrote mostly on politics and social issues. In recent years, radicalization
of religion, and its impact on societies in South Asia and Afghanistan,
has been the major focus of his research efforts. A Fulbright Scholar,
Nazir is currently working on a book about the predicament of minorities,
mainly Christians, in Islamic countries.
The Frontier Post withstood intense pressure from those who practiced
one of the most virulent forms of dictatorship and religious extremism.
With the help of the Committee to Project Journalists and the Knight
Foundation, Nazir first came to the University of Michigan in 2001-02
in the University’s Journalism Fellows program as a “Journalist
at Risk.”
Scholars At Risk (SAR) is an international network of universities and
colleges working to promote academic freedom and to defend human rights
of scholars worldwide. The network arranges short-term academic positions
for scholars of any discipline and from any country who suffer violence
or other threats because of their work, prominence or exercise of basic
rights. Since 2000, SAR has helped more than 80 scholars with temporary
positions or other relief.
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