International Seminar on Islamic Thought

Abstract

“Islamic thought” has received a great deal of attention since the 9/11 tragedy and the American-led invasion of Iraq. As a result, the conference organizers considered it timely to invite selected individuals to discuss this topic at the International Seminar on Islamic Thought, which was held at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) on 7-9 December 2004. The conference attracted a sizeable number of participants from within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region and beyond. The large contingent of presenters (100+) was placed on thematic panels designed to cover the following topics: ethics, psychology, education, the environment and technology, theology, philosophy, the Shari`ah, gender, social development, economics, civilization, and Qur’anic studies. The organizers divided the panels into specific time-slots. The languages of presentation were Bahasa Melayu, English, and Arabic. Given the large number of presenters, it is difficult to highlight all aspects of this conference. Therefore, interested readers are advised to get hold of the CD that contains all of the papers that were presented or sent for inclusion. These papers were edited by Ahmad S. Long, Jaffary Awang, and Kamaruddin Salleh, and the digital publication was titled Islam: Past, Present, and Future. Prior to the seminar, the organizers invited Minister of Higher Education Dato Shafi’ to give his input and support. This was then followed by contributions from the dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies, which is an integral part of UKM, and two of the organizers. The seminar was officially opened with an important public forum on “Islam and Globalization,” chaired by Abu Bakr Ibrahim, who is a member of the Department of Usulud- Din (UKM). This forum was addressed by the two keynote speakers: Irfan Abdul-Hamid Fattah, who hails from Iraq and is attached to the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM), and Azizan Baharuddin, director of the Centre for Civilizational Dialogue at the University of Malaya (UM). Fattah argued for replacing globalization with universalism, which he considered to be more suitable because the latter term is not beset with problems and has no negative connotations. Azizan addressed the issues of science and technology, as well as economics in relation to globalization ...