Rihab Sawah
Scholar Rihab Sawah from St. Louis Community College will discuss differences between Islam and the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, on Thursday, March 31, at Roane State Community College’s Roane and Oak Ridge campuses.
The Roane County lecture will be held at 11:30 a.m. in room 101 in the O’Brien Humanities Building on the main campus in Harriman, 276 Patton Lane. The Oak Ridge lecture will be held at 3 p.m. in the City Room at the Oak Ridge campus, 701 Briarcliff Ave.
The lectures, presented by Roane State’s International Education Department and the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning, or ORICL, are free and open to the public.
The presentations will define Islam and the Islamic State and will contrast 12 main points that highlight the diverging point of view of ISIS in relation to Islam. Sawah will also present the historical roots of a movement such as ISIS and explain why the movement misuses Islamic ideology and how it serves ISIS leaders’ aim to establish their influence in the region.
Sawah teaches physics in Ferguson, Missouri, at St. Louis Community College-Florissant Valley, where she served for many years as the college’s global education coordinator. She also teaches Introductory Islam at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis.
In addition to her degrees in physics, engineering, and mathematics, Sawah has a master’s degree in Islamic/Arabic science history.
Sawah led a Fulbright-Hays group on a tour through Syria, and, until recently, she visited her home country every year to gather information and interviews for her radio show “Arab Music, Arab Culture.”
Sawah began presenting on topics related to Syria and the Middle East in her early 20s when Amnesty International invited her to speak about her father, who was a political prisoner in her homeland. She has spoken at numerous colleges, universities and other civic organizations around the country.
For more information, contact Adolf King at (865) 481-2000, ext. 2211, or [email protected].
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Andrew says
Hopefully someone in the audience will be able to turn this into an event about sharing Christianity with this Muslim woman, and she will believe and abandon Islam.
johnhuotari says
Hi, Andrew.
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Thank you,
John
Sandi Goldberg says
I know some people who should be mandated to attend. One such person just posted a comment.