CHILDRENS HOSPITAL OF LOS ANGELES

Islam and Nationalism

The College Commons: Transnational Charisma and Traveling Spirits

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 : 12:00pm

University Park Campus
University Club

Free


USC College's Laurie Brand and other Middle East scholars explore the meanings of charisma and liberation in the Muslim world.

The Arabic word for charisma, baraka (the source of our president's name), refers to a god-given power to lead people on a holy struggle for liberation. While Islamic liberation has reached the West primarily as a war against "American imperialism," it is also present in such disparate practices as Sufi dances and whirling dervishes, the spiritual quest for transcendence.

 

Sumaya Abubaker
(213) 740-8562

http://college.usc.edu/the-college-commons/