Syria on the Brink: Can Nonviolence bring her back?

Syrian nonviolence advocate and
Muslim scholar Jawdat Said will be
speaking on the crisis in Syria, reformist
Islam, and nonviolent interpretations
of the Koran.

Jawdat Said was born in 1931 in Syria. He holds degrees in
Arabic Literature and education from universities in Cairo,
Egypt, where he witnessed the violent confrontation between the Muslim Brotherhood and the secular government of Egyptian President Gamal Abd
an-Nasser. His initial reaction gradually became an intellectual orientation based on the idea
that violence is in contradiction to humanity and that coercion should be removed completely from the realm of ideas. Said’s principles were tested when
he served obligatory military service in 1959. Altogether, Said has been imprisoned five times for his political and religious views. Long before the rise of militant Islam, he predicted the inevitability of such a crisis because of the religious thought being preached and taught at this
time. Over the course of his career, Said has published numerous books, many of which focus on the nature of social change, the nature of knowledge, the need for a new alternative Islamic political theory and the need for a new theology. Said currently writes a weekly column in Al Majallah magazine. He travels and lectures occasionally. For detailed biography go to http://law.hamline.edu