What Insha'Allah means to our world
By Leah Ward Sears, CNN.com, October 19, 2010
"Ninety-eight new e-mails? I always check my inbox at least once a day when I'm away from the office, and it's usually teeming with new entries. But this was ridiculous. Something was up." I often receive requests to post a glossary of terms on religious and educational topics. The opinion of each user is important to us, so we turned to personal letter writer for help and decided to edit some articles using footnotes for unfamiliar definitions and develop additional guides, informational guides. Read more
What Oman Can Teach Us
By Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, October 14, 2010
"As the United States relies on firepower to try to crush extremism in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, it might instead consider the lesson of the remarkable Arab country of Oman." Read more
Oman-US Cultural Ties Reviewed
The Middle East Times and Oman Daily Observer, April 13, 2010.
"Abdulaziz bin Mohammed al Rowas, Adviser to His Majesty the Sultan's Adviser for Cultural Affairs, received Justice Leah Ward Sears and Raina Blankenhorn, Executive Vice President of the Institute for American Values." Read more
The United States and the Muslim World: Seeking a New Understanding [in Arabic]
By Nabil Abdel-Fatah, Al Ahram (Cairo), March 25, 2010.
"The lack of mutual knowledge has prompted the US and Arab intellectuals to initiate the Malta Forum in order to consider the socio-cultural and socio-political aspects of their differences. [...] The intent is to conduct the next meeting in the Alexandria Library, with the mirror theme of the US cultural debate, towards a more deeply rooted historical and realistic mutual understanding." Read more
The US-Arab Relations: A Moment of Dialogue [in Arabic]
By Shafeeq Ghabra, Al Ayyam (Kuwait) and Kuwaiti Daily Awan, March 22, 2010, and in the shafaf blog.
"The primary question [addressed by the Malta Forum] was focused on the causes of the confrontation between the United States and the Arab world. [...] The meeting was comprehensive in its cultural approach. [Its] strength was the clear recognition of the differences between the US and Arab sides, cultural as well as political." Read more
The Cultural Dimensions in US-Arab Relations [in Arabic]
By Hassan Mneimneh, Al Hayat (London, Beirut, Cairo, et al.), March 21, 2010.
" . . . the reduction in the tension in the relationship cannot evidently be limited to the cultural dimension. Still, it benefits from it. This is the basis upon which the Malta Forum is premised. [...] The aim is neither to reach full agreement, nor to denounce one party or the other. Instead, it is to allow both sides to understand the convictions of the other on the basis of good faith, with the hope that such understanding will be reflected in culture both in the Arab world and the United States." Read more
Arab Scholars Speak
By Peter Wood, National Association of Scholars website, March 18, 2010.
"The Institute is most often in the news for its work promoting marriage and parenthood. But the Institute's other interests include finding common ground with intellectual leaders in the Muslim Middle East to advance 'human right and human dignity.'" Read more
