Moving forward with Brill Publishers and other news
Dialogue Across Borders is very pleased to announce that our database is now available through Brill Publishers, one of the world’s premier publishers in Middle Eastern, Islamic, and religious studies. Our affiliation with Brill represents an important academic and professional milestone following years of hard work by my predecessor, Cornelis Hulsman, along with CIDT/CAWU staff, interns, and partners. The database will be marketed to universities worldwide this fall. Our goal in the coming years is to make Dialogue Across Borders a required academic resource for students, scholars, and practitioners interested in interreligious and intercultural dialogue in the Middle East. We would like to thank our acquisitions editor at Brill, Dr. Tessel Jonquiere, for her encouragement and support in this process.
(A Brill-DAB marketing flyer.)
In other news, Xanthe-Yalou Vije, a Dutch graduate student from the University of Groningen and CAWU intern, conducted a wide-ranging interview with Dr. ʿAzza Ramaḍān, professor of Islamic theology and philosophy at Al-Azhar University. We hope to publish this interview on DAB soon. Xanthe-Yalou is also writing a research paper analyzing Dutch and Middle Eastern perspectives on the spate of Qurʾān burnings that has taken place in several European countries in recent months.
(Dr. ʿAzza Ramaḍān and Xanthe-Yalou Vije)
Dr. Wagih Mikhail, a friend and partner of our work, has recently published an essay on early Arab Christianity at Christianity Today. The essay is a revised version of a lecture he delivered earlier this year at an event Dialoge Across Borders cosponsored with the Centre for Christian-Muslim Understanding and Partnership in Cairo.
Lastly, I know that all of us have been disturbed by the news of renewed military conflict in Israel/Palestine in the last few days. In reflecting on these events, I was reminded of the wise response of Dr. Tarek al-Gowhary when he was asked for his opinion on the Israel/Palestine issue during my visit to the Potomac Islamic Center in Maryland (U.S.). As I recall, his response was that he was not so concerned about the Israel/Palestine “issue” as much as he cared about the lives of Palestinians and Israelis. When we watch the news, let us be reminded that this is not an abstract “issue” to debate, but rather that it is the lives of individual Israelis and Palestinians and their families that continue to be tragically impacted by this conflict. We continue to pray for peace, justice, and wise leadership.
With best wishes,
Matthew Anderson
Director - Center for Arab-West Understanding
Executive Editor - Dialogue Across Borders
October 8, 2023
Emerging Perspectives on Intercultural and Interreligious Relations
Dialogue Across Borders is a database of summary translations of Arabic newspaper articles with references to their sources about intercultural and interreligious relations, focusing primarily but not exclusively on Muslim-Christian relations. The database also contains articles with editorial analysis and interviews on the subject.