
Three Views of Oman
Wilfred Thesiger, Charles Butt and Edward Grazda
Society and Religion 1945–2006
Edited by
Raina Sacks Blankenhorn
With a Foreword by
Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Salimi
Publication date: March 2012
To order a copy of this book please visit:
threeviewsofoman.com
Articles
Introduction
By Hassan I. Mneimneh
Recent history has left its mark on Arab public culture across a less-than-unified Arab world. Liberals, nationalists, leftists, separatists, secularists, and myriad types of Islamists compete to lay their claim on societies that noticeably lack convincing forms of political and socio-cultural representation. Read more
Voices
Mohamed Jamal Barout, a Syrian political analyst and journalist, has been an adviser to the Syrian parliament on Read more
Hassan Hanafi is currently a professor of philosophy at Cairo University. Since 1976, he has been the secretary general of Read more
Hassan al-Turabi is the founder and secretary general of the Popular National Congress Party in Sudan. Read more
Announcement
A Proposal for a Universal Declaration of Human Values
From the Center for Global Engagement
One of the great needs in the world today is a compelling articulation of our common human values. What unites us as human beings on the moral and ethical level? How can understanding our shared values contribute to progress and human dignity?
Whereas the important 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights presented a shared global vision in terms of rights, this new initiative, in revisiting and building on that document in light of new needs and conditions, will articulate a shared global vision in terms of "the good" — that is, in terms of values.
His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Mohammed Al-Salmi, the Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments of the Sultanate of Oman, has provided a framework and call to action for this initiative in his important essay, Belief and Righteous Work: An Open Vision on a New World, first delivered in 2011 as an address to the Centre for Islamic Studies in Oxford, England. Please find the essay below and watch this site for important updates on this new initiative from the Center for Global Engagement.
Features
By Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Salimi
The Holy Qur'an, in defining and governing the relationship between Muslims and People of the Scripture, follows a two-fold approach. It first appeals for the Call, or invitation, to People of the Scripture to join Muslims in worshipping the One God. Read more
السلام عليكم. أبدأ بالإعراب عن امتناني لفرصة زيارة بلادكم الجميلة، وعن تشرفي بأن أكون بينكم في صرح المعرفة ودار الإيمان والتقوى هذا، وأنقل إليكم من زملائي في معهد القيم الأميركية، وهم زهاء مئة من الباحثين المتخصصين في دراسة الأسرة والمجتمع المدني وموقع الدين في الحياة العامة، تحيات مفعمة بالصداقة، كلها رجاء أن نتمكن يداً بيد
Read more
By Hassan I. Mneimneh
He lived by the fire, and died by the fire. Almost ten years after the millennial terrorist act that made him the arch-villain for most, but still a hero for some, Usamah Bin Ladin is dead. While its circumstances will undoubtedly remain obscure Read more
By Abdulrahman al-Salimi
When it was announced that most of the September 11th attackers came from the Arabian Peninsula—particularly Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen—it raised the question of why most of those involved were Read more
Lectures at the Grand Mosque, Oman
By David Blankenhorn
From my colleagues at the Institute for American Values in New York —about 100 scholars specializing in studies of the family, civil society, and religion in public life — I bring warm greetings of friendship to you, offered in the sincere Read more
السلام عليكم. أبدأ بالإعراب عن امتناني لفرصة زيارة بلادكم الجميلة، وعن تشرفي بأن أكون بينكم في صرح المعرفة ودار الإيمان والتقوى هذا، وأنقل إليكم من زملائي في معهد القيم الأميركية، وهم زهاء مئة من الباحثين المتخصصين في دراسة الأسرة والمجتمع المدني وموقع الدين في الحياة العامة، تحيات مفعمة بالصداقة، كلها رجاء أن نتمكن يداً بيد
Read more
Recent Events
The Arab Protest: Sustainable Democracy or Outburst?
AP 2/11/2011
Distinguished scholars discuss recent protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordon, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, the Sudan, Bahrain, and Libya.
A Conversation with Abdulrahman Al-Salimi, Editor, Al-Tasamoh, and Hassan I. Mneimneh, Editor, IjtihadReason, hosted by William A. Galston, The Ezra K. Zikha Chair in Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution.
At the Center for Public Conversation on March 8th.
Watch Video
What is the Meaning of
IjtihadReason?
By Hassan I. Mneimneh
Together with its sister Semitic languages, such as Hebrew and Aramaic, Arabic uses three-letter roots Read more
By Jean Bethke Elshtain
Nineteenth century European intellectuals were an optimistic lot. Even the pessimistic Freud Read more
Publications

The Islam West Debate: Documents from a Global Debate on Terrorism, U.S. Policy, and the Middle East
Edited by David Blankenhorn, Abdou Filali-Ansary, Hassan I. Mneimneh, and Alex Roberts
The Malta Forum
The Malta Forum is an endeavor which began in 2002 to reach out across what seemed to be a civilizational divide, in the aftermath of the events of September 11th, 2001, and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.