ICCNC - Muharram 2010 Programs

ICCNC invites all those who stand for justice, peace, and freedom in the world to the following special programs to remember the sacrifices of Imam Hussain (AS) and his followers to uphold the true message of Islam during the Islamic month of Muharram in year of 680 AD (61 AH).

Friday Dec. 10 at 7:00 PM - Prayer, light dinner, English lecture by Dr. Hamid Mavani "Promoting Sectarian Identity in Muharram: Demonization of the 'Other'"

Saturday Dec. 11 at 5:00 PM -Prayer, dinner, English lecture by Dr. Hamid Mavani "Promoting Sectarian Identity in Muharram: Demonization of the 'Other'", and Farsi lecture by Mr. Bazargan (Farsi)

Tuesday (Night of Tasua) Dec. 14 at 6:00 PM - Special Women Program (Farsi) by Ms. Shahnaaz Hirbod

Tuesday (Night of Tasua) Dec. 14 at 7:00 PM - Prayer, dinner, Farsi lecture by Dr. Ahmad Sheikh Bahaie, English lecture TBD, and Azadari (Eulogy)

Wednesday (Night of Ashura) Dec. 15 at 5:30 PM - Prayer, dinner, Farsi lecture by Dr. Mohsen Kadivar "قیام حسینی : دین در عرصه عمومی ", English lecture TBD, Azadari (Eulogy)

Thursday (Shame-Ghariban) Dec. 16 at 5:30 PM - Prayer, dinner, Farsi lecture by Dr. Mohsen Kadivar "قیام حسینی و فتنه", English lecture TBD, Azadari (Eulogy)

Friday Dec. 17 at 7:00 PM, Anniversary of Ayatollah Motazeri Demise- Prayer, dinner, Farsi lecture by Dr. Mohsen Kadivar "منتظری و فقه رهائبخش"

Bio of the Speaker for Muharram 2010 at ICCNC

Mr. Abdulali Bazargan has spent much of life devoted to the study and teaching of the Quran. He was one of the founders of Tehran University Islamic Societies Cooperation. He has authored many books on Islam in Farsi. Currently he resides in Orange County and lectures about Quran and Islam at many places in the U.S. and Canada.

Dr. Mohsen Kadivar is a distinguished Shia Muslim thinker and one of the most original, courageous and prolific leading intellectuals of the Iranian reform movement. He reached the terminal stage of Ijtihad (permission to issue legal judgments) under the supervision of the grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in Qom Seminary in 1997. Two years later he obtained a doctorate of Islamic Philosophy and theology from the Tarbiate Modarress University in Tehran and started a decade of teaching at the faculty of philosophy of that University. He was sentenced to spend 18 month in Evin Prison in Tehran because of his writings and was released in July 2000.

In 2007 political pressures forced Dr. Kadivar to leave his teaching appointment for a position at the Research Center of Iranian Institute of Philosophy. He was a visiting professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia (2008-2009) and currently he is a visiting professor of Religion at Duke University. This versatile theologian, philosopher and intellectual historian has written 13 books (in Persian and Arabic) and over 50 articles in Islamic Studies (Philosophy, theology, jurisprudence and political thought).

Dr. Hamid Mavani is Assistant Professor of Religion, Islamic Studies at the School of Religion, Claremont Graduate University. He has been active at the academic and community level in promoting interfaith dialogue, inter- and intra-Muslim dialogue, religious pluralism, civil society, democratic governance, reform in the Islamic legal tradition, gender and religion, and environmental ethics. His primary fields of interest include Islamic legal reform, Muslims in America, Twelver Shi’ism, Qur’anic studies and Contemporary developments in the Muslim world.

Dr. Ahmad Sheikh-Bahai serves as a Consulting Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, CA and an adjunct professor/visiting professor and member of the University of California at Berkeley's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Industrial Advisory Board. He received his Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, University of London in 1988 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1993. He had formal Islamic philosophy and sciences education in Tehran and has lectured on Islam at various Islamic centers and organizations in the U.S.