Academic freedom and the free expression of ideas are powerful tools for deepening our knowledge of many important issues. They have enabled the university to build and continue to grow a vibrant community of scholars, students and expert faculty engaged in the pursuit of an understanding of Islam and Muslim societies in their full diversity, complexity and richness. We encourage our students, community and others who seek an understanding of Islam as a religion and as a vocabulary to make use of the available intellectual resources at Stanford. Stanford will continue to offer courses, academic workshops and conferences, lectures and public seminars to promote and support the study of Islam on campus and, as the President and Provost encourage us to do, refute spurious opinions and challenge or engage political projects.
The Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies