"Islam and the West"

[_Daniel Peterson]

People in the area might enjoy a conference on "Islam and the West" being sponsored today by the Wheatley Institution at BYU, all events being held in the Hinckley Center. Of particular note is the evening lecture by Khaled Abou El Fadl, who is an extremely distinguished (moderate) Muslim intellectual:

1:30 p.m. — THE MUSLIM PERSPECTIVE
Douglas Johnston, President and Founder, International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, will moderate a panel that will include Ingrid Mattson, professor of Islamic studies and Christian-Muslim
relations at Hartford Seminary; Sulayman Nyang, professor and chair of African studies at Howard University; and Khosrow Semnani, president of S.K. Hart Management.

3:30 p.m. — THE WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Moderator Fred Axelgard, vice president of Middle East business development at General Dynamics, will lead a panel that will feature General Buford Blount, University of Southern Mississippi; Donna Lee Bowen, BYU professor of political science; and Daniel Peterson, BYU professor of Islamic studies and Arabic.

7:30 p.m. — Address by Khaled Abou El Fadl, Omar and Azmeralda Alfi professor of law at the UCLA School of Law.

[_Daniel Peterson]

I just noticed the following, down in the "Terrestrial Forum," from poor Joey:

He attempts to use his credentials at BYU, in an area of study that has no students (we know) . . .

I know too many in the Law School and Business School at BYU who know what his tenure means! His college, and his particular areas of teaching, brings no interest or revenue to the church, so he gets paid, instead, to post on obscure boards like this. He and Hamblin. He's a paid chump - not my words but those at BYU!

This is silly stuff, but, since it involves my employment, I suppose I'll set the record straight.

* Do I get paid "to post on obscure boards like this"?

Of course not. The very idea is ridiculous. Nobody pays me to post on message boards, any more than anybody pays Some Schmo or Joseph to post.

* "He and Hamblin."

If Professor Hamblin gets paid to post on message boards, he'd better increase his productivity. Otherwise, he's going to starve to death.

* Does my area (Arabic and Middle Eastern studies) really have no students? Or even few students?

Well, it's all relative, I suppose. There aren't as many Middle Eastern Studies (Arabic) majors as there are accounting and English majors, but ours is one of the largest and most successful undergraduate Arabic programs in the United States.

This fall, we'll be sending about seventy advanced Arabic students on our biannual study abroad program in the Middle East.

* Do substantial numbers of faculty in the law school and business school at BYU, knowing what my tenure means, describe me as (not Joey's words, but theirs, confided to their good friend Joey) "a paid chump"?

Possibly.

But I know lots of people at the law school and the business school, and I doubt that the people who know me think of me that way, let alone use that language. Perhaps everybody else does, though.

Still, I can't imagine myself saying anything analogous (particularly to a Joey) about any of my colleagues in the business or law schools, so I'm still a bit doubtful that hordes of BYU faculty are scurrying up to Joey to confess to him that Dan Peterson is "a paid chump." On balance, the claim doesn't seem very plausible.

And why would they say such a thing, anyway? There's nothing out of the ordinary about "what my tenure means." I had to go through the same tenure process, with reviews from department, college, and university-wide committees, and from department chairs and deans and the academic vice president, that they did, according mutatis mutandis to the same standards.

* Is it true that my college, and my particular areas of teaching, bring no interest or revenue to the Church?

It's very likely that philosophy and English and Arabic bring little revenue to the Church.

But no interest?

It would take me far more time than I have or am inclined to spend to report on the general status of the College of Humanities at BYU, so I'll simply offer a few links on areas that interest me in particular:

http://news.newsreleaseagency.com/2010- ... Supplement

http://www.amazon.com/Explaining-Cosmos ... t_ep_dpi_1

http://www.amazon.com/Aristotles-Two-Sy ... 0198249705

http://www.nmelrc.org/Home (headquartered at BYU)

posting.php?mode=reply&f=3&t=17726 (formerly headquartered, and its journal edited, at BYU)

Finally, as for the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, which I founded and for which I'm the editor in chief: Writing already in 2006 in his Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy, the prominent Irano-American historian of science Seyyed Hossein Nasr remarked that "What is needed for Islamic philosophy is something like the Loeb Library for Greek and Latin texts where the text in the original appears on one side of the page and the English translation on the opposite page. Fortunately during the last few years Brigham Young University has embarked upon such a series in which already a few important titles have appeared." And that was five years ago. During 2010 alone, we published four volumes. (They're distributed by the University of Chicago Press.) And we hosted an international conference on the philosopher Avicenna, drawing participants from across the United States, Belgium, the UK, Malaysia, Egypt, France, and etc.

This is, I realize, more than a bit like using a sledge hammer on a gnat. But Joey obviously doesn't know what he's talking about.

[_Buffalo]

Of course not. The very idea is ridiculous. Nobody pays me to post on message boards, any more than anybody pays Some Schmo or Joseph to post.

Yes, I have a hard time seeing anyone paying you for the content you post online. Good call. :p

[_Daniel Peterson]

Yes, I have a hard time seeing anyone paying you for the content you post online. Good call. :p

How much do you have to pay to post?

I hope it's not too much.

[_Buffalo]

Yes, I have a hard time seeing anyone paying you for the content you post online. Good call. :p

How much do you have to pay to post?

I hope it's not too much.

$1 a word. :(

[_Daniel Peterson]

$1 a word. :(

Well, okay. Given what you post, that's probably reasonable. I was afraid they were overcharging you.

Some of that money ought to be shared with the broader audience here, though. I mean, we're the people principally suffering.

[_Fence Sitter]

Dan,

Do they ever broadcast this sort of thing? Or the SMPT? Maybe on the net?

[_Buffalo]

$1 a word. :(

Well, okay. Given what you post, that's probably reasonable. I was afraid they were overcharging you.

Some of that money ought to be shared with the broader audience here, though. I mean, we're the people principally suffering.

Suffering purifies the soul, Dan. I'm providing you with a valuable service!

[_Daniel Peterson]

Dan,

Do they ever broadcast this sort of thing? Or the SMPT? Maybe on the net?

So far as I know, there is no plan to broadcast the "Islam and the West" conference. But I'll bet they're recording it, and it may yet show up on BYU's Wheatley Institution website.

SMPT has no such plans. We're a small bunch, and, at least under my leadership, fortunate if we can walk and chew gum at the same time.

[_Fence Sitter]

Dan,

Do they ever broadcast this sort of thing? Or the SMPT? Maybe on the net?

So far as I know, there is no plan to broadcast the "Islam and the West" conference. But I'll bet they're recording it, and it may yet show up on BYU's Wheatley Institution website.

SMPT has no such plans. We're a small bunch, and, at least under my leadership, fortunate if we can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Will the presentations at SMPT be available at least in a text format? I would like to at least be able to read the papers.