Mattson, Abdo speak on Islam in America

Two widely-respected experts on Islam in America, Ingrid Mattson and Geneive Abdo, will share the stage at the next public address in the New Hampshire Humanities Council’s two-year Shifting Ground: Religion and Civic Life in America project on Wednesday, April 30 at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s School in Concord. Abdo will interview Mattson on the experiences of Muslims in America. This event is free and open to the public.

Mattson is the first female and the first convert to Islam to lead the Islamic Society of North America. She is the Director of Islamic Chaplaincy and a Professor at the MacDonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut and the author of The Story of the Koran. She became an internationally-sought resource on the experiences of Muslim-Americans and Islam in the wake of 9/11.

Abdo is the author of Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America After 9/11. Her 20-year career in journalism centered on coverage of the Middle East and the Islamic world. Abdo was the Iran correspondent for the British newspaper, The Guardian, and a regular contributor to The Economist.

Five Shifting Ground community forums will take place this year, the first two in Nashua and Laconia. Download a registration form. The project will culminate in a November 20 appearance by constitutional scholar and Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman, author of the NY Times best-seller, Divided by God.

Read Mattson's poem, Waterboarding.

Join the conversation...

The New Hampshire Humanities Council is beginning the second year of our two-year Shifting Ground: Religion and Civic Life in America project. Our goal for the Shifting Ground project: to get beyond the headlines, to reflect, learn, and cultivate an understanding of divergent views.

Is religion becoming more influential in determining American public policy? Conflicting but deeply-held values affect public policies that range from waging war to the right to die, from same sex marriage to faith-based initiatives. While the public debate generates great heat about American values and the shifting relationship between Church and State, not much light emerges.

In the coming year the Humanities Council will host five six-week Shifting Ground community forums across the state beginning next month in Laconia and Nashua. Learn more.

Join the conversation...

Watch this space for broadcast dates and a link to view a Shifting Ground Community Forum discussion on the topic of "just war" taped last month at Manchester Community Access Media (MCAM). Participants from our six-week community forum in Concord joined facilitators Buzz Scherr and Janet Ward for a far-ranging 90-minute conversation. The group utilized three texts as the basis for their discussion: William Carlos William's short story, The Use of Force, and a letter from the mayor of Atlanta urging General William Tecumseh Sherman to spare the city on his march through Georgia and Sherman's reply. Read these texts, view the discussion and join the conversation.