Islam/West Relations
Comments by His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah al Salimi, Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments of the Sultanate of Oman.

On Thursday, June 23, 2005 the Institute for American Values hosted Abdullah bin Muhammad-AL-Salimi, the Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments of the Sultanate of Oman to discuss the future of Islam/West relations. The Minister offered some introductory comments ( Real Audio player required) on the current state and possible future directions of Islam/West relations.

Abdulrahman al-Salimi, the editor of the Omani journal Al-Tasamoh (“Tolerance”), and Ridwan al-Sayyid, a distinguished professor of Islamic jurisprudence at the Lebanese University in Beirut, also participated in the symposium. Both of these men have been leaders from the Arab and Muslim side of what we call our Malta Forum — a project (our first meeting took place in Malta last year) that brings together prominent Arab and Muslim scholars of religion and civil society with their U.S. counterparts for a serious engagement of ideas regarding the war on terrorism and Islam/West relations. The symposium on June 23 is one aspect and outgrowth of that project.

Relatedly, earlier this year, David Blankenhorn, the Institute’s president, gave a talk at the Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman, in which he discusses the Malta Forum.