With the increase of various religions across the United States, the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH), along with the American Library Association (ALA), has created the “Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys”.
Each participating library, including Ouachita’s, Arkadelphia High School’s and Henderson State University’s, received 25 books, 3 films and access to the Oxford Islamic Studies Online.
The program is designed to meet the need and desire of the United States in addressing Muslim beliefs and practices along with the cultural heritage.
To celebrate the recent endowment, OBU, HSU and AHS libraries are hosting a film viewing on Monday, March 11 at 7 p.m. in HSU’s Garrison Lecture Hall.
“With the grant we were given public viewing rights with the films and wanted to take advantage of that unique opportunity,” said Lacy Wolfe, library assistant.
The film entitled Islamic Art: Mirror of an Invisible World will be followed by a discussion led by Dr. Raouf Halaby, professor of art.
“Ouachita is privileged to have Dr. Halaby as a resource and we are able to utilize his art history expertise to supplement the screening with an expert discussion,” said Wolfe. ‘Through this documentary students will have the unique opportunity to gain insight into and appreciation of Islamic art which will be enhanced by Dr. Halaby’s discussion.”
Also inspired by the grant, a class will be offered in the fall semester for students interested in the subject of Muslim and Islamic religion. The program will consist of reading and discussion over the books received from the grant.
“While this program would be of interest to students of art history and Christian studies majors, it is open to any student with a desire to learn about other cultures,” said Wolfe.
This lecture will be the first among the planned series. Bridging Cultures “Bookshelves” are planning to create more material that highlights American life and civility to bring the humanities to the public. OBU, HSU and ASU will create a series for each of the newly released material to encourage learning and the importance of public libraries.
“There may be no institution more civil than the public library,” said Jim Leach, chairman of the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf project. “Libraries are centers of learning that offer a welcome space where members of the public can learn about the history we share and express different points of view in an ethos of openness and mutual respect.”
