Our Views: An outreach at UL library

Winning a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association, the Dupre Library at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette will present a series of films and lectures about Islamic civilizations around the world.

Books and films for the series beginning in March were paid for by the grant, obtained by April Grey of the library and Chad Parker, ULL history professor.

This is an excellent example of both what a public university can do for its larger community. The program is also a reminder of the immense debt owed to Islamic civilization by the West. From Arabic numerals and physical sciences to the arts and cultural achievements, the significance of Islamic civilizations — and the need for more mutual understanding today — are worthy objects of study and reflection.

We commend the library for this effort, an effective antidote to misunderstanding.

Comments

1) Comment by bourbon-soda - 28/02/2013

If circumstances permit, I plan to partake of this. An interesting supplement might be Robert Reilly's _The Closing of the Muslim Mind_. A good summary is in a book review, << http://www.nationalobserver.net/2010/83_6_book_reilly.htm >> or search " robert reilly closing of the muslim mind national observer >>. A central thesis of Mr. Reilly's is that the Islamic world deliberately "dehellenized" (or, in the Australian usage of the above book review, "dehellenised" itself, or cleansed itself of the Greek influences of Western Civilization.