An Islamic Feminist Response to the Sept. 11 Attacks

WORCESTER, Mass. – Islamic peace activist Rabia Terri Harris will give a lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. in Room 519 of the Hogan Campus Center. The lecture, titled "Sept. 11, 2001: An Islamic Feminist Response," is free and open to the public.

Born to a Christian mother and Jewish father, Harris embraced Islam in 1978. She earned her bachelor's degree from Princeton University, and her graduate degree in Middle Eastern languages and cultures from Columbia University.

Soon after, she studied at Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul, Turkey, on a Fulbright grant to investigate unpublished manuscripts attributed to the controversial mystical philosopher Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi. She has published translations of several key medieval Arabic spiritual texts.

Currently, Harris works as associate editor of Fellowship Magazine, the bimonthly publication of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an international, interfaith peace and justice group founded a the outbreak of World War I. She is founder and coordinator of the Muslim Peace Fellowship, an influential forum for progressive Muslim thought. In this latter role she edits an international newsletter and regularly addresses church, school and organizational groups on a variety of Islamic issues.

She is a senior member of the Jerrahi Order, a 300-year-old Muslim religious sodality headquartered in Istanbul.

This lecture is sponsored by the Women's Studies concentration, Asian Studies concentration and Religious Studies department at Holy Cross.