The Twenty-Second Annual Conference of the AMSS 28 Rabi al Akhir-1 Jumada- al Awwal 1414/15-17 October 1993 International Institute of Islamic Thought, Herndon, Virginia

Abstract

The Twenty-Second Annual Conference of the Association of Muslim
Social Scientists (AMSS) was jointly organized by the Intemational Institute
of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and the AMSS and was held at the IIIT
premises in Hemdon, VA. The open-theme conference featured eighteen
panels organized into fourtem sessions.
The opening session consisted of the welcoming address by Dilnawaz
Siddiqui, President (Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, PA), remarks
by Mushtaqur Rahman, Conference Chairman (University of Iowa,
Ames, IA), and the inaugural address of Taha al 'Alwani (President,
IIIT). The second session, "Islamic Philosophy and Compamtive Approaches,"
was chaired by Ja'afar Sheikh Idris (Institute of Islamic and
Arabic Sciences, Fairfax, VA). Presentations included "Islamic Theory of
Knowledge: A Reapptaisal" by Sirajul Husain (Islamic Research and Development
Council, Cleveland, OH), "Islamization of the Creative Imagination
and Its Ramifications in the Visual Arts of Islam" by Halide A.
Salam (Radford University, Radford, VA), and "The Concept of Free Will
in the Comments of al Ash'ari, al Hilli, and Taftazani" by Anne E.
Francisse (Seattle, WA).
The third session had two concurrent panels: "Concept of Shzird and
Democracy in Islam," chaited by Mumtaz Ahmad (Hampton University,
Hampton, VA) and "Culture and Communication," chaired by Ali Ramadan
(IIIT). The first panel comprised Aziza a1 Hibri (University of Richmond,
Richmond VA) and Ja'afar Shaikh Idris. Al Hibri pointed out that
shura (mutual consultation) is part of Islamic constitutional theory and reflects
the divine dimension of an Islamic political framework-while democracy
is one process of shzirti reflecting the human will in the political
plane. Also featured was Hamid al-Ghazali (Islamic Center of Lawrence,
Lawrence, MO), who gave a special report on the removal of an unjust
leader from an Islamic institution that had been presented to the Circuit
Court of Jackson County, Missouri.
The culture and communication panel had three presentors. Shamf
Rahman (Northern State Univedty, Aberdeen, SD) spoke on media types
and Muslim culture vis-8-vis Pakistani films and videos. Hussein Abiva
(Chicago, IL) dealt with the role and importance of Sufi orders in Balkan ...