Author and scholar talks about 'Islam anxiety'

Author and award-winning historian Juan Cole believes Western society is suffering from “Islam anxiety” — the product of fearmongering and misinformation.

Cole will visit Grand Valley State University to talk about how the Obama administration can engage with countries like Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. He will also suggest how damage can be repaired caused by a “misguided and blunder-prone U.S. foreign policy of the Middle East.”

His talk, titled War and Peace: Obama’s America and the Muslim World, will be held Wednesday, March 31 at 7 p.m. in Loosemore Auditorium, at the DeVos Center on Grand Valley’s Pew Grand Rapids Campus.

The event is sponsored by Grand Valley’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, with support from Office of Multicultural Affairs, Padnos International Center, Honors College, Middle East Studies program, Van Andel Global Trade Center and the departments of history, criminal justice and political science. The event is free and open to the public.

In response to Cole’s presentation, a roundtable discussion will be held Thursday, April 1, from 10-11:30 a.m., at the Cook-DeWitt Center on Grand Valley’s Allendale Campus. Panelists include:

• Majd Al-Mallah, moderator, GVSU Middle Eastern Studies director
• Coeli Fitzpatrick, GVSU associate professor of philosophy
• Jim Goode, GVSU professor of history
• Brian Kingshott, GVSU associate professor of criminal justice
• Joel Westra, Calvin College assistant professor of political science

BACKGROUND
Juan Cole, a professor of history at the University of Michigan, has written extensively about Egypt, Iran, Iraq and South Asia. He has written numerous books including "Engaging the Muslim World" (2009) and "Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East" (2007). He lived in parts of the Muslim World for nearly 10 years before moving to Ann Arbor. Cole speaks Arabic, Persian, and Urdu; reads Turkish; and knows both Middle Eastern and South Asian Islam.

For more information, contact the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at (616) 331-2770 or visit www.allpresidents.org.