Anouar Majid presents “The Lost Language of Arab American Relations” at Montgomery College
On April 5, 2016, Anouar Majid, Ph.D., vice president for Global Affairs and director of the Center for Global Humanities, gave a talk in celebration of Arab American Heritage Month at Montgomery College in Montgomery, Maryland.
In the last half-century or so, Arabs have developed a complicated image of the United States as a superpower (where many accomplished Arabs want to settle) but also one that is not always sensitive to Arab needs. Such sentiments developed over the decades following World War II and reflect the new ideologies and nationalisms that have gripped the Arab imagination since then. Before this time, the United States was widely admired in the Levant, Egypt, Morocco and other places that are now considered part of the Arab world. Arab immigrants, too, were grateful to America and many reciprocated by making major contributions to their adopted nation. In his talk, Majid addressed whether this relationship should be resurrected to build a better future for both peoples.
Born in Tangier, Morocco, Majid is the author of five critically acclaimed books on Islam and the West, including Unveiling Traditions (2000), Freedom and Orthodoxy (2004), A Call for Heresy (2007), We Are All Moors(2009) and Islam and America: Building a Future Without Prejudice (2012; paperback with new preface in 2015). He has also written for the Washington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and other publications. His work and life were the subject of a Bill Moyers interview and an Al Jazeera television program, both aired in 2007. Majid is a novelist, the author of Si Yussef (first published in 1992) and is the editor of Tingis, a free online magazine dedicated to a new reading of Islam and its traditions.