RELIGION AND SOCIETY Program- INDONESIA and UNITED STATES

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. State Department sponsors Religion and Society: A Dialogue (RSD), a two-year, two-way exchange between religious scholars, clerics, and community leaders of Indonesia and the United States.    Legacy International in partnership with the Center for Civic Education Indonesia plans activities and selects delegates for this exchange.

US Delegation prepares for 2 week trip to Indonesia
January 2-15, 2008

Legacy International has selected the following people to go to Indonesia for two weeks.  During their time in Indonesia they will visit three cities and provinces – Palembang, Sumatra, Yogyakarta, Central Java  and Jakarta West Java.  This trip provides an opportunity for US citizens to gain firsthand knowledge of some of the premiere educational and civic organizations at work in Indonesia. Our schedule will include discussions with religious and university leaders, US Embassy and consulate officials, presentations at universities and pesantrens, television and radio interviews, and visits to civic organizations. 
 

In each city, there will be panel and roundtable discussions.  Topics will include:

• The practice of interfaith work and dialogue in US and Indonesia
• Democracy, religious pluralism and multiculturalism in US and Indonesia
• Comparative studies programs
• Relationship between American people and US government
• Islamic studies in US and Indonesia
• Gender and Religion
• Islamic organizations In US and Indonesia
• Role of religious leaders in society

Legacy is happy to be traveling with the following people to Indonesia:

 Sulayman Nyang Ph.D – A prominent professor of African studies for more than 32 years at Howard University. He is highly regarded in the field of interfaith dialogue.  He is the Co-Principal Investigator of “Muslims in the American Public Square,” Project, an initiative to foster greater understanding of Islam and Muslims in the US. He is a member of many boards on Islamic and civic organizations. He was president of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington in the 1990s. 

Robert Kevin Jaques Ph.D.– Associate professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University.  Also the Director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program. 

Sister Marianne Farina Ph.D. of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkley California.  She is a member of a Catholic religious order, the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, IN. As Assistant Professor, she teaches courses which focus on Islamic Studies, Social Justice, Moral Theology, Comparative Studies, and Spirituality. 

Racelle R Weiman, PhD is the Executive Director of the Dialogue Institute at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. This interreligious, intercultural and international think tank is in an academic setting, and serves as the outreach arm of the prestigious Journal of Ecumenical Studies. It is responsible, among many other roles, for creating an international network of dialogue institutes (DIN). She has bee a member of the pioneering work of the International Scholars’ Trialogue (Abrahamic Traditions), which has convened in many parts of the globe

Abubaker Ahmed Ph.D– Regional Director Europe and North America for the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Sterling VA.  Also Vice President for Islamic Program and the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD).

Milia Islam, M.A.  – Program Manager  -Leadership Development Center at the Islamic Society of North America.  She is primarily responsible for curriculum development for leadership training seminars and immigrant imam cultural competency trainings.   She holds a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard University. Her personal academic interest lies in the study of religious identity formation in contemporary America, particularly among those of minority faiths and the navigation of multiple cultures in forming a collective hybrid identity.