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Human rights expert David Little to discuss religion, terrorism and national security

By Carole Leigh Engblom
September 9, 2002

How far will America go in its quest to quell terrorism? Would a U.S. war against Iraq "open the gates of hell," as Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa warns? How could President George W. Bush's plan to "fundamentally change" national security affect the privacy and diversity that Americans hold dear?

David Little
Little
These are among the difficult questions that will be addressed by Harvard University Professor David Little in a talk titled "Religion, Terrorism and National Security" at St. Olaf College on Thursday, Sept. 26, 7 p.m., in the Buntrock Commons Black and Gold Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.

An expert on human rights and religion in international affairs, Little writes and lectures extensively on American foreign policy and moral rhetoric, comparative religious ethics, church-state relations and religious freedom, Islamic activism and U.S. foreign policy, and Western and Islamic perspectives on religious liberty.

"In the area of international ethics, human rights and religious conflict, few scholars can match David Little's extraordinary combination of theoretical sophistication and practical experience," says St. Olaf Professor of Religion Edmund Santurri. "He is a superb philosopher who has thought substantially about universal human rights and how such rights might comport with the moral claims of religious traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism."

Little remains critical of the Bush administration's domestic and international response to the events of last Sept. 11, noting that one of the foreign policy concerns is the escalating situation in Iraq.

"Public emergencies such as those caused by the acts of Sept. 11th must be responded to with great care by any administration," Little says. "This response calls for great sensitivity and thoughtfulness. It's a tightrope act, really. Some of the things our administration has done have been acceptable and commendable - others have not. We need to be scrupulous in our assessment of how we're doing. We must hold ourselves to very high standards."

A member of the Harvard faculty since 1999, Little is the T.J. Dermot Dunphy professor of the practice in religion, ethnicity and international conflict, and director of initiatives in religion and public life at Harvard Divinity School, as well as a faculty associate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

In recent years, he has traveled as an adviser and researcher to the Sudan, Sri Lanka, Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Israel - areas of the world in which religion and ethnicity play a central role in social conflict. Little offers seminars and courses on religion, nationalism and peace; religion and social theory; and religion and human rights at Harvard Divinity School.

Little has served as a senior scholar at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., a congressionally funded research institute. He established the institute's working group on religion, ideology and peace. He also has served on the U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad.

He was a professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia for 15 years and has taught ethics at Yale Divinity School and Amherst College, among other academic institutions. Little received a bachelor's degree from the College of Wooster, a bachelor of divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York and a doctorate of theology from Harvard.

"St. Olaf College's mission directs our attention to the ways in which religions contribute to the variety of cultures in our world," says DeAne Lagerquist, associate professor of religion. "David Little's vast knowledge of religion's role in global conflicts and his experience in matters of state will enrich our understanding of religion's powerful consequences in public life."

Little's lecture is co-sponsored by St. Olaf College's O.C. and Patricia Boldt/NEH Distinguished Chair in the Humanities and the St. Olaf religion department.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.