Trick or Treaters

So it was a busy day on Franklin with many a costumed kid and many a costumed adult  as well.

We did have our favorite trick or treaters - of whom we photographed the following

Of Translation and Bridge-building

Not only is Chicago the cross-roads for our friends to visit, for book signing visits to indie-stores, but also BYU lecturers. Tonight our stake fireside featured Daniel C. Peterson a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University and currently serves as editor-in-chief of BYU's Middle Eastern Texts Initiative. He is a member of the executive council of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University He has spearheaded the taking of major Islamic literature and allowing them to have voice in English, for prominent Muslims of the past to come forward and add once again to our community of thought.

It was an interesting lecture and sparked interest in me to re-read the F.A.R.M.S text Mormons and Muslims; and to find one or two of these Arabic texts, recently translated to read; thinking I'll start with the "Incoherence of the philosophers". Let me know if you have read it.

Some interesting comments:
* he spoke of his ability to be glib : to talk learnedly upon things which he knows nothing
* The importance of knowledge is stressed by the Holy Prophet Muhammad - "Knowledge is the stray camel of the believer; it benefits him regardless from where he takes it"
* western and Islamic conflict has been rooted in a shared geography, philosophy and values where those same overlappings haven't occurred in sino-relationships

Too late to expound more but an enjoyable presentation and some bridge-building that the world could use more of