A Long and Distinguished Service

AMSS,"AMSS (UK) 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award" - Association of Muslim Social Scientists (UK) - London, UK Monday, November 3, 2008

Lifetime Achievement Award to Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The AMSS UK is pleased to announce that its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for 2008 was presented to Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr on 3rd November 2008 on the occasion of the 1st Catholic-Muslim Forum Conference, 4th-6th November 2008, Vatican City.

The Award was presented by Dr. Anas S. Al-Shaikh-Ali, Chair of AMSS (UK). The Award was given to Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr in recognition of long and distinguished service in the field of Islamic thought, science and spirituality.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, prolific writer, foremost expert on comparative religion, and one of the world’s leading scholars on Islamic science and spirituality.

Professor Nasr has devoted his life to the intellectual study of Islam, writing extensively on various disciplines including Islamic philosophy, history, civilization, exposition of Islamic spirituality, the philosophy of science, the environmental crisis, interreligious understanding, and Islamic art. His invaluable attempts to foster greater global understanding of Islam and Muslims, through numerous works, studies, and essays, have made him one of the leading Muslim thinkers of today.

The Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS UK) is a non-profit organization based in London and committed to the development of perspectives on contemporary local and global issues through research, scholarship, conferences and publications.

The AMSS UK presents two annual Awards, the Building Bridges Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award was inaugurated in 2000. The Award has been introduced to recognise and highlight the outstanding achievements of individuals who have made a significant contribution either to their field of expertise, or to the promotion of social harmony, to inter-cultural and interfaith dialogue or to Islamic thought.

Previous distinguished recipients have been Professor Ali Mazrui (2000), President H.E. Ali Izetbegovic (2001), Professor Zaki Badawi (2002), Professor Edward Said (2003), Dr. Martin Lings (2004), Professor Fuat Sezgin (2005), Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem (2006), and Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia (2007).

Building Bridges Award 2008
AMSS (UK) 2008 Building Bridges Award given to 'A Common Word' Project.

The AMSS UK is pleased to announce that its prestigious Building Bridges Award for 2008 was presented to ‘A Common Word’ project on 3rd November 2008 on the occasion of the 1st Catholic-Muslim Forum Conference, 4th-6th November, Vatican City.

The Award was presented by Dr. Anas S. Al-Shaikh-Ali, Chair of AMSS (UK) to Dr Muhammed Hashim Kamali, who received it on behalf of A Common Word project.

The importance of A Common Word Between Us and You, and Pope Benedict XVI’s esteemed support, signal a new era of mutual respect and harmony between the Abrahamic faiths. Living and working together in diversity is a challenge and religious beliefs and differences in cultures can sometimes give rise to deep-seated negativities.

The Common Word project is a superb initiative to not only generate awareness, understanding, and respect, but also, and most importantly, establish trust through promoting interfaith dialogue, conflict resolution and intellectual discourse.

[Pictures: [1] Award presented to Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr (right) by Dr Anas al-Shaikh-Ali, Chair of AMSS UK (left). [2] Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr (left), Dr Anas al-Shaikh-Ali, Chair of AMSS UK (centre), Dr Muhammed Hashim Kamali (right).]

[Click on the title of this article for pdf full press releases, a link to an article on Asharq al-Awsat (in Arabic) and more pictures].