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| Nasr
Hamid Abu-Zayd (1943 – 2010)
Our beloved friend and colleague,
Dr. Nasr Hamid Abu-Zayd—the Director of Academics of LibForAll’s
International Institute of Qur’anic Studies—passed away
on July 5, 2010, in Cairo, Egypt.
Nasr possessed a remarkable depth of knowledge whose
richness was amazing to behold, and the heart of a loving child.
Although he has left us physically, his legacy will endure, as you
can see from this sampling of
tributes.
Those who love and admire Nasr may be interested
to know that he entered a profound, and prolonged, spiritual
state prior to his death, while visiting Java in May of
2010. Nasr’s description of the state was that of
directly experiencing “the Reality
which requires no explanation,” and entering “the
[Divine] Fire from which Bistami
and al-Hallaj did not return.”
As one who was with him near the end, it seemed as if the
veil had been torn asunder, and the servant returned
to his Master.
~ C. Holland Taylor, Chairman & CEO
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“I would like to tell the Muslim nation that I was born, raised
and lived as a Muslim and, God willing, I will die as a Muslim....
My worst fear is that people in Europe may consider and treat me
as a critic of Islam. I'm not.... I'm critical of old and modern
Islamic thought.”
~ Nasr Hamid Abu-Zayd (whom Islamists accused of
apostasy), quoted in
al-Ahram
Weekly
LibForAll
Establishes
Media Production Center
to Expand Global Reach
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وَمَا
أَرْسَلْنَاكَ
إِلَّا رَحْمَةً
لِّلْعَالَمِينَ
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“Muslims themselves can and must propagate
an understanding of the ‘right’ Islam, and thereby discredit
extremist ideology. Yet to accomplish this task requires the
understanding and support of like-minded individuals, organizations
and governments throughout the world. Our
goal must be to illuminate the hearts and minds of humanity,
and offer a compelling alternate vision of Islam, one that
banishes the fanatical ideology of hatred to the darkness
from which it emerged.” |
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“[T]he world's most potent and innovative
anti-extremist network” |
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“LibForAll Foundation... aims to present
the moderate and tolerant face of Islam, and explain the importance
of [Muslims] returning to the essence of Islamic teachings
which, until now, have been poorly understood by many groups
[both in Islam and the West].” |
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“LibForAll itself is a model
of what a competent public diplomacy effort in the Muslim
world should look like.” |
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LibForAll co-founder C.
Holland Taylor is linking moderate Muslim leaders “in a network
of lighthouses within the Islamic world that will promote
tolerance and freedom of thought and worship.” |
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“[O]ne of the rare
success stories of an initiative in which moderate and liberal
Muslims—too often the silent and disorganized majority—have
organized effectively to counter radical Islamist groups by
promoting democracy and tolerance.” |
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A year-long study
conducted by the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish
National Defense College identifies LibForAll as "exceptional,"
citing its track record of "selecting methods with maximum
impact and that reach the largest possible audience," and its
"coordinated media strategy [which] has had a decisive political
effect in terms of curbing political parties with an extremist agenda."
“Pathbreaking”
Exposé Helps
Derail Extremist
Agenda!
Support LibForAll's
Rahmatan lil 'Alamin (Blessing for All Creation) Network and help
magnify its powerful
results.
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LibForAll plans and executes its programs
in cooperation with like-minded Muslim leaders in the fields of religion,
education, popular culture, government, business and the media, and
is systematically building a global counter-extremism network that
unites top Muslim opinion leaders in each of these fields. This, in
turn, enables LibForAll to extend its reach to a grassroots level,
and helps eliminate the underlying causes of terrorism ~
by reconciling and integrating traditional Muslim societies with the
contemporary world.
LibForAll's
world-class achievements and leadership role have been widely
praised by international policy experts, government leaders and
blue-chip media outlets, who regard LibForAll as the pioneer in
developing and operationalizing an effective
counter-radicalization strategy worldwide. A window of opportunity
exists to deepen and expand these remarkably successful programs, and to
launch new initiatives, country-by-country, throughout the Muslim world.
Your support can help make this possible.
Leading Democrat and Republican
senators unite in praising LibForAll's pioneering work.
“The world's most populous Muslim nation
has, for an entire day, become a showplace for a hitherto unique
religious conference: the gathering on the holiday island of Bali
concerned itself entirely with religious tolerance and recognizing Nazi
persecution of Jews as an historical reality. Indonesia thereby
consciously seeks to distance itself from fundamentalist and radical
spirits.”
~
Die Welt (Germany) |
The
Grand Shaykh of al-Azhar blesses and supports LibForAll's mission
to promote a pluralistic and tolerant understanding of Islam, at
peace with itself and the modern world.
LibForAll hosts an historic religious
summit in Bali, whose participants affirm religious tolerance
as a "blessing for all creation."
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See how pop culture is helping to
rescue an entire generation of young Muslims from extremists who seek to
turn them into "holy warriors" and suicide bombers, and listen to a
"musical
fatwa" against religious hatred & terrorism that became the #1
hit in the country with the world's largest Muslim population.
The unique effectiveness of LibForAll’s "Musical Jihad"
program has been validated by renowned security experts and
international organizations, including the United Nations and
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and has been featured in
numerous blue-chip international media outlets including
CNN,
the
Wall Street Journal,
Rolling Stone,
Time, the
Washington Post, the
Sydney Morning Herald and
Serviam
magazine.
“This Muslim Rocker Preaches Tolerance to a Strong Drumbeat.” LibForAll
board member Ahmad Dhani is “creating his own jihad – for moderate
Islam.” ~ Wall Street Journal
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“A Muslim Solution
to Terror” Watch video now!
Listen
to a "musical fatwa" against religious hatred and
terrorism that soared
to #1 on Indonesian radio
and MTV Asia!
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“Education that teaches tolerance, the dignity and value
of each individual, and respect for different beliefs is a key element
in any global strategy to eliminate Islamist terrorism.”
~ The 9/11
Commission Report
Working with top educators, religious clerics, celebrities and
other opinion leaders, LibForAll provides education on pluralism and
tolerance to tens of millions of Muslim youth in both traditional
and non-traditional settings, through a variety of media including
books, articles, music, video/television and the internet. |
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 LibForAll Foundation works closely with many who embody the Islamic
tradition of mysticism
and tolerance, as well as their counterparts
from other
faiths.
LibForAll's
highly-innovative programs tap into an enormous reservoir of Muslim
spiritual and cultural authority that can help dampen, and
ultimately extinguish, the fires of religious extremism
that now rage throughout the Islamic world.
As
LibForAll Advisor K.H. Mustofa Bisri
has observed: “You can’t extinguish fire with fire. It
takes water.” You can't extinguish hated with hatred. It
takes love (agape), born of a profoundly spiritual view of life. |
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Our strategy is inspired by the example of ancient
Javanese culture, which triumphed over radical Islamist attempts to
annihilate it 500 years ago. In doing so, it produced the most
liberal and tolerant variant of Islam found anywhere on earth, and a
paradigm for defeating the ideology of hatred that underlies and
animates terrorism.
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Federally-recognized Nonprofit Organization
The LibForAll Foundation is a federally-recognized
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the culture
of liberty and tolerance worldwide. It was incorporated in North
Carolina and operates under its bylaws and board of directors.
Contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by
law.
Success Depends on Your
Support
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