Spirituality and India’s Environmental Challenges: Interview with Award Winning, Columbia University Scholar, Professor Jack Hawley

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PWPA is fortunate for the generosity of Columbia University, Professor Jack Hawley of NYC, who worked closely and patiently with us past the tech difficulties to bring to us his wisdom on Religion in India, and unique environmental challenges that call urgently for our care and creative response. 

This important and timely interview with Professor Hawley, (Claire Tow Professor of Religion at Barnard College, Columbia University) delves into the intersection between religious and political life in India, and how these impact the environment, and the health of its sacred rivers and beyond. 

This interview here just below  is a must listen for both specialists and new learners alike

Read more about Professor Hawley, and his life and distinguished work here: Continue reading →

The resurgence of Jihadi Violence in Europe: An interview with Dr. Tawfik Hamad

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Gruesome Jihadi terror has cursed Europe in recent weeks. 

From the New York Times

The victim was immediately depicted as a martyr to freedom of expression. France’s antiterrorism prosecutors are investigating the attack, which took place in a suburb north of Paris.

From CBS News 

Woman beheaded and 2 others killed in knife attack at French church

An attacker armed with a knife beheaded one person and killed two others at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday, French police and officials said. The country was already on high alert for extremist violence amid tensions over caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad published by satirical French magazine, Charlie Hebdo.  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/france-knife-attack-nice-terrorism-officials-say/

From Jihad Watch 

Vienna: Attack confirmed as jihad massacre, five dead, attacker was Muslim who supported ISIS

What caused the sudden resurgence of brutality and terror? To speak on this, PWPA invited radicalization and terrorism expert, author of Inside JIhad:: How Radical Islam Works, Why It Should Terrify Us, How to Defeat It to help us gain a better understanding of this inhuman phenomenon.

Listen to this important conversation with Dr. Hamid here:

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PWPA Interview – Thomas Block, author of Shalom/Salaam

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Thomas Block is  author of five books, a playwright, is a 25-plus year exhibiting visual artist, and Founding Producer of New York City’s International Human Rights Art Festival (ihraf.org).  Thomas was the Founding Producer of the Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival (2010), a Research Fellow at DePaul University (2010), LABA Fellow (NY, 2013-14), Hamiltonian Fellow (2008-09) and recipient of funding and support from more than a dozen foundations and organizations. He has spoken about his ideas throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Turkey and the Middle East.   His books include the non-fiction works Shalom/Salaam: A Story of a Mystical Fraternity, A Fatal Addiction: War in the Name of God; Machiavelli in America, Prophetic Activist Art: Handbook for a Spiritual Revolution and a novel, The Fool Returns. tomblock.com. 

This particular interview is dedicated to discussing together Shalom/Salaam: A Story of a Mystical Fraternity. Over the course of the interview we learn that this study is unique (one of a kind), and we learn why. An engaging and encouraging journey.

Please find Shalom/Salaam on Amazon., but also look to see abundant and helpful details about Shalom/Salaam on the site of Fons Vitae, the book publisher. 

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PWPA Interview – Professor Joseph Terwilliger: Genetics and Human Migration

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Professor Joseph Terwilliger is a multi-faceted and multi-talented figure, fascinating in all the fields of his interests and professional pursuits and achievements.

Joseph Douglas Terwilliger is an American geneticist and professor of neurobiology at the Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. In addition to his scientific research, he is known for accompanying retired basketball player Dennis Rodman on his visits to North Korea, where he serves as Rodman’s translator

In due course, the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) will interview Professor several more times to cover important topics of current concern. This first interview discusses the Genetics as an academic discipline, and touches on many of the unique areas of research in this area conducted by Professor Terwilliger.

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Ideals for Muslim – Christian Relations: PWPA Interview with Mr. Safi Kaskas

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Mr. Safi Kaskas is both a spiritual scholar as well as an entrepreneur and consultant in strategic planning, leadership and business ethics with an emphasis on strategic management in the corporate and academic worlds. He is a co-founder of East West University, Chicago, IL; and a Senior Researcher in Islam and Multifaith Reconciliation with George Mason University, Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution
 
Please see some of Mr. Kaskas’ important publications, and read a more full biography by clicking on the “continue reading” link just below.
 
We hope you enjoy this interview with Mr. Kaskas, as we examine together key spiritual, theological, and doctrinal questions relevant to relations  between Islam and Christianity. The interview is enlightening, and moves to some poignant, rich, and encouraging places
 

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Interview with Dr. Craig Considine, Author of “The Humanity of Muhammad: A Christian View”

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We are very fortunate for the good will and availability of Dr. Craig Considine, who has served the mission to improve Christian – Muslim relations conscientiously and sacrificially.

Dr. Considine is energetic, productive, and has enjoyed good success in his efforts. His writing and work is insightful and path breaking, and the fruits of this interview continue this good blessing. Interesting, constructive, and valuable information comes forward in this conversation

Dr. Craig Considine, photo credit http://www.drcraigconsidine.com/about.html

Read more about Dr. Considine and his work here: The official website of Dr. Craig Considine

Read more about The Humanity of Muhammad: A Christian View here, on Amazon:

The Path to Peace: Transforming Pain into Love, an Interview with Dr. Drissa Kone

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Dr. Drissa Kone was raised in a northern Cotes D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) village, and came to the United States in 2007. In gentle but industrious ways, Dr. Kone followed a path of dedication and service resulting in his recent appointment to Director of the Doctoral Program for Unification Theological Seminary.

Dr. Drissa’s The Path to Peace: Transforming Pain into Love, based on personal life experiences and careful research, provides the source material for this interview. These experiences in conflict ridden Cotes D’Ivoire (at the time) and subsequent research into dynamics of personal transformation comprise the content of this fascinating exchange.

Dr. Drissa Kone

Dr. Kone’s experiences, and insights for transcending the evils of injustice offer important insights and recommendations to help guide our relationship to current challenges regarding race and histories of injustice

Click here to see how to buy Dr. Kone’s book 

Click here to see the cited passage from the interview: Continue reading →

Lessons for Today from The Truth and Reconciliation Commissions of Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Conversation with Professor Hanoch Ben Pazi

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We are blessed and privileged to have time with Professor Hanoch Ben Pazi of Bar Ilan University who spent time in South Africa researching Post Apartheid, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The special benefit of this work is its extreme relevance to the race-related challenges that have erupted and persist in the United States, and now continue worldwide. There is so much to learn from this research, both to understand our current moment, and to understand our respective personal obligations in this time.

Please be sure to listen to this valuable exchange

Professor Hanoch Ben Pazi

Professor Ben Pazi, as you will hear in the program is Chair of the Dept. of Jewish Philosophy at Bar Ilan University (Israel). He researches Contemporary Philosophy and Modern Jewish Thought, especially the philosophical writings and Jewish thought of Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jacques Derrida. Professor Pazi writes on ethics, contemporary philosophy and modern Jewish thought in the framework of religious studies and Interreligious dialogue. His books include: Interpretation as Ethical Act: The Hermeneutics Of Emmanuel Levinas, and Emmanuel Levinas: Educational Contract: Responsibility, Hopefulness, Alliance

Here is the original essay on which this interview is based:
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Petition for Consideration: Protecting Academic Freedom

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 17, 2020

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov was a Soviet geneticist, botanist and agronomist, and collector of one of the world’s largest seed banks, who was sentenced to death in July 1941 for defending scientific truths about genetics. While he escaped his death sentence, he lived the last twenty years of his life in a Soviet labour camp, disgraced and ostracised. His crime was to have criticised Lamarckian inheritance–the notion that changes to an organism in its lifetime can be passed on to offspring via genetics. Because Lamarckian inheritance emphasised the importance of the environment it was the favoured evolutionary theory among the socialists and communists of the time, and thanks to the advocacy of Trofim Lysenko, scientists who departed from this orthodoxy were shunned, persecuted, and in the case of Vavilov, sent to a gulag. When the siege of Leningrad occurred, Vavilov and a group of botanists who were holed up in a secret vault, famously chose to starve themselves before consuming their seeds, which they were preserving for the sake of humanity. While Vavilov died in obscurity, he is now recognised as one of the greatest Russian scientists of all time.

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The Comfort Women Controversy: Not Over Yet – Interview with Professors Thomas J. Ward, and William D. Lay

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This riveting, haunting, and informative interview touches on a phenomenon of intense impact that moves the listener to concerns of the heart, and to a deeper grasp of delicate geopolitical realities of our time.

The springboard for this conversation is this article, entitled “The Comfort Women Controversy: Not Over Yet.” Please be sure to read this in its entirety . https://tinyurl.com/yacuza6a

 

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