Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists Rabi al Awwal 18 -20, 1409/October 28-30,1988

Abstract

The Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Association of Muslim Social
Scientists was held Rubi‘ul Awwal 18-20, 1409/October 28-30, 1988, at Iowa
State University, Ames, Iowa. “Development of Contemporary Islamic
Thought: Theory and Application” was the theme that attracted over 120
participants from United States, Canada, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco,
Trinidad and India, as well as numerous student “drop-ins”.
The conference broke new grounds and topped all former annual
conferences, in the size of meetings, quality, and diversity of presentations,
and set a number of records that may stand for many years to come. Most
of the discussions were scholarly and conducted in a spirit of good humoroften
disagreeing without being disagreeable.
The program included 26 papers, in addition to special sessions. Although
the sessions were spread over three days, as many as 16 sessions had to be
held concurrently to accommodate the participants. Topical divisions of
concurrent sessions were successful at holding "session-hopping“ to a minimum.
The array of papers covered almost all subdisciplines and current research
orientation in Islamic social sciences. Abstracts of the papers given in the
program were helpful in planning and choosing which session to attend. After
the sessions, there was an array of opportunities to widen one’s experience.
The banquet, and the dinners and lunches at Iowa State University Memorial
Union allowed for a relaxed, yet stimulating, setting. Those who preferred
more tension in their leisure, continued their discussions in small groups.
For the first time, the conference began with a session on “Western and
Muslim Women” chaired by Salahuddin Malik of the State University of New
York, Brockport. Sharifa Alkhateeb of the International Institute of Islamic
Thought surveyed “Feminist Issues and Their Implication for Islamic Women,”
explaining how Western feminist values were incapable of successful
transplantation to Muslim Societies. She pointed out the existing numerous
values in Islam while recognizing the need for social change of traditional
non-Islamically based mores. Vanessa Khadija Payton, of Morgan State
University, discussed “Polygamy and American Muslims.” Her paper focused
on the cultural indoctrination of American male and female Muslims and
the practicality of polygamy amongst these groups. Sadekka Arabi of the
University of California, Berkeley, presented her wellreseamhed paper Western ...