Muslims, Jews, Christians Together Create Peaceful Societies Says Documentary
People working toward peace among Muslims, Jews and Christians in the 21st century can look to the past for a prime example of a society that thrived when the energies of those three great faiths were harnessed in the cooperative work of peace and prosperity, says Jacob Bender, producer of the award-winning documentary “Out of Cordoba.”
Bender will lecture in Huntsville and attend at screening of his film on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., in Oakwood University’s McKee Business & Technology Building
The McKee Building is on Adventist Boulevard N.W. at Wynn Drive N. W.
The lecture and screening are free and open to the public.
Bender, who is Jewish, uses the documentary to trace the lives and influence of two of the most important 12th century Western philosophers: Maimonides, who was Jewish, and his contemporary, Averroes, the great Muslim thinker, scientist and religious scholar. Both men lived, wrote and taught in Cordoba, Spain.
“Out of Cordoba,” written and directed by Bender and produced by Bender and MLK Producciones of Malaga, Spain, finds instructive answers to some of the persistent questions of contemporary time.
Is there really a “clash of civilizations” between the West and the Islamic world? Are Jews and Muslims incapable of peaceful coexistence? Do Islamic teachings contravene democracy? Does firm religious faith inevitably lead to violence?
Bender began the film soon after the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. Bender follows the ancient footsteps of Maimonides and Averroes around the Mediterranean in the time of the Crusades and up to the present time. He talks with Muslims, Jews, and Christians, all working for peace, who look to their religious traditions as sources of tolerance, democracy, and human rights.
The film has been screened as an official selection of many prestigious film festivals, including the 2010 Amnesty International Arts Festival, the 2010 Global Peace Film Festival, the Jerusalem Jewish International Film Festival in Israel, and others in Morocco, Spain, France and Italy.
The program is being coordinated by Oakwood’s Center for Adventist-Muslim Relations and by the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Office of Diversity. Contact the CAMR office for more details at 256-726-7885, CAMROU@oakwood.edu.
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