The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol. 4, No. 2, 1987 329 

Conference Report 

Sixteenth Annual Conference of 
The Association of Muslim Social Scientists 

The Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) held its Sixteenth 
Annual Conference at the ISNA headquarters in Plainfield, Indiana, October 
9-11, 1987. Registration listed about 200 participants from the United States, 
Canada, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Trinidad, and other countries. The 
inaugural session on October 9 provided a hospitable setting for camaraderie. 
Eloquent and spirited speeches by Iqbal Unus, Conference Chairman; lbrahim 
Syed, AMSE Program Chairman; and Mushtaqur Rahman, AMSS Program 
Chairman, set the stage for the conference and the sessions. 

Chaired by Salahuddin Malik, AMSS Vice-president, the first session on 
Political Science was held on Friday evening after Salat-ul Maghrib. Hashem 
Al-Jaseem of the University of California was the first to present his paper 
on Islam and Politics. He was followed by Taysir Nashif of Essex County 
College, who pleaded for a Nuclear Free Zone in the Middle East. Louay 
Safi of Wayne State University concluded the session with his presentation 
of War and Peace in Islam. 

This session was so lively and discussions so absorbing that no time was 
left for the following session scheduled for the same evening. Conferees prefer- 
red to postpone the second session rather than to conclude the discussions. 
It was heartening that every conferee maintained the Islamic tradition of con- 
ducting debates in a spirit of good humor, disagreeing without being 
disagreeable. 

The first full day of the conference, Saturday, October 10, began with a 
Tilawat-e-Quran, and a session on Education. Chaired by M.A.W. Fakhri of 
Chicago State University, the session had two presentations. Hakim Rashid 
of Howard University opened the session with his paper on “Socializa- 
tiodEducation of Muslim Children in America”. He was followed by Nimat 
Hafez Barzangi of Cornell University, who presented her paper on “Percep- 
tions of the Islamic Belief System: The Muslims in North America. Following 
the session on education, two concurrent sessions were held on Sociology 
and History dealing with Muslim minorities. This was the first time the strategy 
of concurrent sessions was ever tried in the AMSS. The sociology session 
Chairperson, Ilyas Baynus of the State University of New York, first invited 



330 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol. 4, No. 2, 1987 

Hassan A. Yahya of Michigan State University to present his paper on Islamiza- 
tion of Sociology. He was followed by Mohammad Amjad of the Iowa Board 
of Parole who discussed the Elemem of Rehabilitation and Deterence in Islamic 
Criminal Justice. Farid Alattas of John Hopkins University was the session’s 
last presentor. His paper on Implantation of Social Sciences in the Muslim 
World was much appreciated and won the AMSS award for the graduate 
students. 

The other concurrent session was chaired by Mona Abul-Fadl of the In- 
ternational Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). The session dealt with aspects 
of Arab and Indian Islamic societies. Haider Ali Bhuiyan of the University 
of Manitoba discussed Islamization of Arab Society, and Omar Khalidi of 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology described the major Religio-Political 
Trends A m n g  Indian Muslims. 

The next session chaired by Mohammad Amjad also of the Iowa Board 
of Parole dealt with the Afro-Asian Islamic Experience: Historical Aspects 
and Future Prospects consisted of two papers. Ghayth Nur Kashif of the IIIT 
described the Afncan-American Dimensions of Islamic Conversions and Dennis 
Michael Warren of Iowa State University discussed the Spread of Islam into 
Central Ghana: A Century of Ethnic Migration and Islamic Impact Upon the 
Bono Ethnic Group. 

Saturday afternoon sessions began after the Salat-ul-Dhur and lunch. The 
Ecorwmics session, chaired by &tar Siddiqi of Indiana State UniveniQ, heard 
presentationsfrom Zaidi Sattar of Catholic University of America on Ethics 
of Profits in the Islamic Economic System and Ghouse A. Shareef of Bellar- 
mine College on Some Fundamental Concepts of Islamic Management and 
Accounting. 

The next session on American Muslims was chaired by Dennis Michael 
Warren of Iowa State University. In this session, Mohammad Arif and Kokab 
Arif of Clark University gave a joint paper on US M l i c  Opinion and American 
Muslims: A Case Study of the Muslim Community of ubrcester, Massachusetts. 
The paper represented great vitality and a new approach and was often cited 
as a model for other social scientists to follow to bridge the gap between local 
communities and Muslims. The Arifs were followed by Abu Bakr Shingeti 
of the University of Massachusetts, who discussed the Representation of 
Muslims in American Media. 

The sessions continued until late in the evening, again leaving very little 
time for the Workshop and the AMSS al-Friiqi Memorial Lecture. It was 
generally felt that the Program Committee should allow some time in between 
the sessions to enable the participants to exchange ideas and discuss relevant 
issues with the speakers, rather than schedule back-to-back sessions. 

Since the conference banquet was scheduled at 6:l5 p.m. and could not 
be changed, the al-Friiq?s lecture was rescheduled after the banquet. Sister 



The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol. 4, No. 2, 1987 331 

Mona Abul-Fad, gave the al-Friiqi lecture. Though it was late in the even- 
ing, the attendance was large, and the presentation was exceptionally scholarly. 

The last day of the conference, Sunday October 11, began with Tilawat- 
e-Quran and a business meeting. Since AMSS President, AbdulHam-d 
'AbbSulaymiin was in Saudi Arabia, Vice-president Salahuddin Malik dis- 
charged the duties of the President. Secretary-General, Abdul Hadi Omer 
presented the yearly report, and Treasurer Mohammad Arif gave the finan- 
cial report. The IIIT was cited for its financial assistance. 

Following the business meetmg, the second session on Sociology was held 
and chaired by Farid Alattas of John Hopkins University. Ilyas Bayunus of 
the State University of New York, Cortland, explored Islamic Thought in 
&ciology, and Surya Chandra Surapaty of the University of Michigan discussed 
Islamic klues, Positivism, and Sociology. 

The concluding session on Islamic Urbanism, Language and Literature 
was jointly chaired by G.A.K. Niazi and Ala'Edin Kharufa of Chicago. The 
first paper on Foundations of Islamic Urbanism: Unity and Interdependence 
was presented by Omer Ertur and LaDan Omidvar Rahmati of Iowa State 
University. Profusely illustrated, the paper attracted much attention and was 
much appreciated. The next paper by Rasha al-Disqui of the University of 
Wales was on Significance of Romantic Utterances and Islamic Truth. To con- 
clude the session and the conference, Abdul Hadi Omer of the University 
of Omdurman gave a paper on Arabic A s  a Religious and Zntellectual Heritage. 
The conference concluded with a D w h ,  and a determination to make the 
Seventeenth Annual Conference still better, Znsha Allah. 

Mushtaqur Rahman 
Program Chairman