Talk from Anouar Majid featured in story from ‘Courier Publications’
Anouar Majid, vice president for Global Affairs Affairs and Communications Communications at the University of New England (UNE) and founding director of UNE’s Center for Global Humanities, gave a special presentation at the Camden Public Library on November 17, 2015 titled “The Gift of Tangier.”
Majid shared his unique perspective on the culture and traditions of Tangier, Morocco. A native of the city, Majid was a vocal advocate for the development of UNE’s Tangier Campus.
During a lively discussion with the audience, Majid also answered questions about Islam and terrorism.
Read more from Courier Publications:
UNE scholar speaks on Islamic 'intellectual terrorism'
CAMDEN — Anouar Majid thinks the religion of Islam is partly to blame for the horrific acts committed by terrorist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Majid, the vice president for Global Affairs and Communications at the University of New England, shared this view during a presentation at the Camden Public Library on Nov. 17.
“Liberals have an overprotective way of treating Islam and Muslims,” said Majid, the author of five books about Islam and the West. He argued that this coddling is stifling a critically needed discussion of the link between Islam and terrorism. “Everything ISIS is doing can be theologically justified, but no one is willing to discuss this,” he said.
Majid added that Muslims themselves are not free to critically analyze passages from the Quran, even those used to justify terrorism. “As long as you believe it is the uncorrupted, eternal word of God, you cannot debate it,” he said.
Majid described the fear of having a meaningful discussion of Islam as “intellectual terrorism.”
“People are afraid to speak out,” he said. “They are afraid of going to hell and afraid of getting beheaded by extremists.”
About 50 people attended the presentation, titled “Gift of Tangier,” which was a free community event sponsored by the Camden Conference in advance of their 2016 conference on “The New Africa.”
Although the lively audience diverted the discussion to terrorism and the Middle East with their well-informed questions, Majid did manage to talk about his home country of Morocco and the UNE’s Tangier Campus.
Majid was instrumental in the establishment of the Tangier Campus, with a hand in everything from architecture and construction, to the guest list at the campus dedication ceremony in 2014. “I invited Governor LePage,” Majid said to a chorus of groans from parts of the audience.
LePage’s rise from poverty was briefly mentioned in one of Majid’s books and a UNE official sent the book, with the passage highlighted, to LePage along with an invitation to the Tangier dedication. Majid later ran into LePage at a Bush Foundation reception and personally extended the invitation again. “His assistant said there was no way [LePage] would go to Morocco in an election year,” Majid said, “but he did come to Tangier. For three days.”
Majid said Tangier sits at the intersection of Arabic/Islamic, African, and southern Mediterranean cultures and that UNE students in Tangier get to interact with students from many different countries. “It is cultural diplomacy of a kind,” he said.
While the UNE students in Tangier are gaining an appreciation for other cultures, they are also feeling the effects of those who do not accept other cultures.
“After the Paris attacks, our campus officials were dissuading students from traveling to Paris or Brussels,” Majid said. “How strange is it that students can be safer in Tangier than in Paris?”