Ladies and gentlemen, it was suggested to me when I first began toconsider the subject of this lecture that I should take comfort from theArab proverb: "In every head there is some wisdom." I confess that I havefew qualifications as a scholar to justify my presence here in this theatre,where so many people much more learned than I have preached andgenerally advanced the sum of human knowledge. I might feel moreprepared if I were an offspring of your distinguished university, ratherthan a product of that "Technical College of the Fens," though I hope youwill bear in mind that a chair of Arabic was established inseven-teenth-century Cambridge a full four years before your first chairof Arabic at Oxford.Unlike many of you, I am not an expert on Islam, though I amdelighted, for reasons that I hope will become clear, to be a vice patron ofthe Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. The Centre has the potential to bean important and exciting vehicle for promoting and improvingunderstanding of the Islamic world in Britain, and one which I hope willearn its place alongside other centres of Islamic study in Oxford, like theOriental Institute and the Middle East Centre, as an institution of whichthe university, and scholars more widely, will become justly proud.Given all the reservations I have about venturing into a complex andcontroversial field, you may well ask why I am here in this marvelousWren building talking to you on the subject of Islam and the West. Thereason is, ladies and gentlemen, that I believe wholeheartedly that thelinks between these two worlds matter more today than ever before,because the degree of misunderstanding between the Islamic and thewest ...
Islam and the West