The Durban University of Technology invites members of the media, the public and its staff, students and alumni to a Public Lecture on the Future of Islam. Puritanical or Progressive? Intolerant or Inclusive? by Professor Taj Hargey.
The lecture will be held at the University’s Hotel School Conference Centre on the Ritson Campus, corner of Ritson Road and Winterton Walk at 18H30 on Tuesday, 03 June 2014.
Professor Hargey was born in Cape Town, matriculated at Sastri College in Durban and was the top student in his year at the University of Durban Westville (now University of KwaZulu-Natal).
Professor Hargey is a distinguished Oxford academic specialist on Islam and the Middle East. His scholarly expertise incorporates the study of African history, comparative religion, interfaith relations and a contemporary analysis of the Muslim diaspora in the West. For this scholastic achievement, he was the recipient of a merit bursary to undertake a postgraduate study in Egypt. Following the acquisition of his Master’s degree in Islamic Studies in Cairo, he was awarded a prestigious scholarship to Oxford University, becoming the first Muslim from South Africa to be awarded a doctoral degree from this renowned seat of learning. Thereafter, he held several academic appointments at tertiary institutions, including South Africa, Sudan, United Kingdom and United States, where he focused on the teaching and research of Islamic Studies and Middle East history.
Professor Hargey has also been a visiting Professor in Sri Lanka, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia. His extensive travels throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, the Indian sub-continent and South East Asia enables him to identify what is inimical to the interests of Muslims in the West. Aside from teaching innovative courses on Qur’anic hermeneutics, Islam history and Middle East politics in Oxford, he is also the Director of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (MECO); a progressive and pluralistic think tank dedicated to the promotion of pristine Qur’anic Islam.
He also serves as the Imam of the Inclusive Oxford Islamic Congregation, the most diverse body of Muslims in the UK. In addition to his academic work and scholarly writings, Dr Hargey’s forward looking and liberal perspectives on Islam are regularly published in the UK media and he is frequently interviewed on major radio and television stations, including BBC, Channel 4, Sky, Russia Today and Al Jazeera. Dr Hargey is a leading proponent of an enlightened, erudite and egalitarian Islam and is committed to the full integration (not insularity) of all Muslims in Western Society – without compromising their religious identity and authenticity.
– Noxolo Memela
Pictured: Professor Taj Hargey.
