To Friends of Islamic Progress and Peace:
Attached is a Proposal I wrote in 1977 while a Professor of Social Theory in Government at New York University. It was dispatched to Tunis with a student friend of mine, Moncef Boussetta, to excite interest. He did not succeed. Nor did I. But, just now, there is a controversy raging in New York City as to whether an Islamic Center should be established in the neighborhood of the great tragedy of the World Trade Center. I believe that the concept of an Islamic University of Ibn Khaldun, one of the greatest scholars, veritably a founder, of Western as well as Islamic civilization of today, fits the Idea and the Locale perfectly, and beg all persons of means and energy to give themselves to the project.
Alfred de Grazia |
