Interfaith discussion of religion and extremism set for UNF this week

A representative from the world’s largest Muslim-majority country will appear in Jacksonville this week on the University of North Florida campus to discuss religious extremism, international terrorism, ISIS, and more.

Ardian Wicaksono, the counselor for political affairs at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Washington D.C., will be the featured speaker at the school’s panel discussion Thursday, titled “Religion and Extremism: A Cross-Cultural Conversation.” E-tickets are available here. 

Also scheduled to speak: Indonesian Muslim clerics Imam Shamsi Ali and Ustadzah Fauziah Fauzan; Dr. Ronald Lukens-Bull, UNF professor of anthropology and religious studies; and Dr. Julie Ingersoll, UNF professor of religious studies. The facilitator will be Dr. Parvez Ahmed, UNF professor of finance and a frequent writer about the American-Muslim experience.

Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, with more than 200 million adherents. Very generally speaking, the practice and interpretation of Islam in Indonesia is a much less austere form than that followed throughout much of the Middle East.