The Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity (ISIC) was the education and research arm of Barnabas Fund, a charity which provides aid for persecuted Christians in more than 50 countries. In the contemporary context of what it saw as increasing tensions between Islam and the West, ISIC aimed to present a robust and rigorous understanding of the relevant issues and their implications for Islamic and western societies from a Christian perspective.
Founded in 1989, ISIC provided research and publications on various aspects of Islam including its sources, history, Islamic law, Muslim minorities in the West, Muslim-Christian relations and non-Muslims in Muslim-majority societies.
ISIC staff included academics from the Middle East and Asia and aimed to help increase public understanding of the intricate world of Muslim-Christian relations and a resurgence of Islam.
ISIC was committed to human rights, religious freedom, equality and respect for all; and stood against all forms of discrimination and incitement to hatred.
ISIC's director was Dr Patrick Sookhdeo who did a PhD on Islam at the University of London. He is a commentator on jihadist ideology, and has lectured British and NATO military officers on radical Islam. He attended the CounterJihad Brussels 2007 conference.
This institute ceased to operate in June 2009.
Famous quotes containing the words institute, study, islam and/or christianity:
“Whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“A wise writer will feel that the ends of study and composition are best answered by announcing undiscovered regions of thought, and so communicating, through hope, new activity to the torpid spirit.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)
“It is our taste that decides against Christianity now, no longer our reasons.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)