Social Sciences and Social Change An Islamic Perspective The 19th Annual Conference of the AMSS Dearborn, Michigan Rabi 'al Akhir 6-8, 1411/October 26-28, 1990

Abstract

The second decade of the association's existence culminated in a very
encouraging conference in Dearborn, Michigan this year.
The conference highlights included a keynote address by Ali Mazrui,
Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities, State University of New York
at Binghamton, and addresses by 'AbdulHamid AbuSulayman, past president
of AMSS and current rector of the Islamic University of Malaysia, and Munir
Ahmad Khan, director of the Pakstan Atomic Energy Commission. Mazrui,
who focused on the Gulf crisis, spoke about the double standards practiced
by the West in dealing with the Muslim ummah. AbuSulayman stressed the
need for reform of character at the individual level for achieving lasting social
change.
The Isma'il and Lamya' al Faruqi Memorial Lecture was delivered by
John Esposito, director of the Center for International Studies, Holy Cross
College, Worcester, Massachusetts and past president of the Middle East
Studies Association (MESA). He reminded the Muslim social scientists of
Isma'il al Faruqfs tradition, urging them to become activists and scholars
of Islam at the same time.
The conference proceedings were spread over nineteen panels which
offered a variety of papers on Islam and Muslim life by scholars from North
America and overseas.
The tradition that had been revived three years ago was maintained, and
thus the Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers (AMSE) also held
their annual conference concurrently with this year's AMSS conference. The
other tradition that continued was the trialogue between representatives of
the three Abrahamic faiths.
Another feature of the program was the incorporation of the AMSS
Business Administration seminar. This program featured two panels. In the
first panel, Ahmed M. Abo-Hebeish of Northrop Corporation discussed the
framework of debtor-creditor relations as the foundation of financial accounting
in Islam, and Mohamed A. El-Badawi of California State University addressed
the issue of computing zakatable funds.
The other panel (Session 5: Panel 10) in this discipline had four
presentations. The seminar chairman, Ghouse A. Shareef of Bellannine College
in Kentucky, spoke on "Acountability, Congruency, and Equilibrium as the ...