Islamic Law and Religion to be Examined During Donald C. Clark Jr. Law and Religion Lecture at Rutgers-Camden Law on April 12

CAMDEN -- Khaled Abou El Fadl, the Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law, will deliver the Donald C. Clark Jr. Program in Law and Religion Lecture at the Rutgers School of Law–Camden at 4 p.m. Monday, April 12.

A global authority on Islamic law and Islam, and a prominent scholar in the field of human rights, Abou El Fadl will discuss “Law and Religion:  An Islamic Perspective” during his talk, which is free of charge and open to the public.

Abou El Fadl was awarded the University of Oslo Human Rights Award, the Leo and Lisl Eitinger Prize, and was named a Carnegie Scholar in Islamic Law.  He was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, and also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch.  He regularly works with human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (Human Rights First) as an expert in a wide variety of cases involving human rights, terrorism, political asylum, and international and commercial law.  Abou El Fadl is noted for his scholarly approach to Islam from a moral point of view.  He writes extensively on universal themes of humanity, morality, human rights, justice, and mercy, and is well known for his writings on beauty as a core moral value of Islam.  He is one of the foremost critics of puritan and Wahhabi Islam. 

The Donald C. Clark Jr. Program in Law and Religion Lecture is supported by Donald C. Clark Jr., a 1979 graduate of the Rutgers–Camden law school who generously contributed an endowment to advance the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion and other programs at the Rutgers law school.  A former litigation partner in some of Chicago's largest law firms, and former managing partner of his own litigation boutique, Clark now provides legal counsel and representation to clergy, churches, and religious judicatories throughout the country in his role as nationwide special counsel of the United Church of Christ.  

Founded in 1999, the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion is a student-run organization at the Rutgers–Camden law school whose primary purpose is to publish a journal of legal scholarship with a focus on religion.

The event will be held in the School of Law Building, located at Fifth and Penn Sts. on the Camden Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.  A reception will follow.

To register, contact Terry Moffett via email. 

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Media Contact: Mike Sepanic
(856) 225-6026
E-mail: msepanic@camden.rutgers.edu