The Rumi Forum presented “Prospects and Challenges in Pakistan after the Elections” with Dr. Qamar-ul Huda Senior Program Officer in the Religion and Peacemaking Program at the United States Institute of Peace.
The February 18th elections in Pakistan was a popular demonstration for returning to democratic institutions and the reinstatement of civilian leadership. In today’s talk, Dr. Huda presented a detailed list of events during the year 2007 leading up to the elections. What are the prospects for President Musharraf and his political party, PML-Q? As stated today, many of Musharraf’s policies, including the “War on Terror”, have been for naught, as the new ruling party seeks to charge him on treason. Dr. Huda also discussed what the implications were during 2007, when 26 attempts on Musharraf’s and 2 on Bhutto’s life, threatened to lead the country down instability. The challenges faced within last year will continue to guide Pakistan this year, after the elections.
Qamar-ul Huda is a Pakistani scholar of Islamic studies and Comparative Religion, and is the Senior Program Officer in the Religion and Peacemaking Program at the United States Institute of Peace. Dr. Huda’s area of interest is on Islamic theology, intellectual history, ethics, mysticism and the history of Qur’anic hermeneutics.
He is currently examining comparative ethics, the language of violence, conflict resolution and non-violence in Islam. His earlier work on Islamic mysticism studied the political, theological and social history of the Suhrawardi Sufism—which was published as Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual Exercises for Suhrawardi Sufis.
He has written extensively on medieval Islamic texts, mystical treatises, inter-faith dialogue. Dr. Huda taught Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion at Boston College’s Theology Department and in the Religious Studies Department at the College of the Holy Cross. He was an Adjunct Professor of Islamic Studies at Brandeis University. His articles on Islamic studies and comparative religion have appeared in The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, The Muslim World, Theological Studies, The Journal of Islam and Christian-Muslim Affairs, Journal of Islamic Studies and several other journals. On the subject of contemporary Islamic ethics and thought, some upcoming publications are: Contemporary Muslim Thought on Conflict and Peace, Knowledge for Encountering God: Al-Suhrawardi’s ‘Awarif al-Ma‘arif, and a special issue editor of The Muslim World on “Qawwali: Poetry, Performance, and Politics.”
Dr. Huda earned his doctorate in Islamic intellectual history from University of California, Los Angeles, and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Colgate University in International Relations and Comparative Religion.