Lesley Hazleton at TEDxRainier: “Muhammad, You and Me”
By Garibaldi, 08 December 2012
Lesley Hazleton, one of our favorite “anti-Loons” describes herself as the “Accidental Theologist” by which she means that even though she is an agnostic Jew she is fascinated by religion, theology and faith. Her fascination with religion has led her in recent years to be consumed by a study of Islam, particularly the Quran and the life and times of the Prophet Muhammad.
We first encountered Lesley when she gave her memorable speech in 2010 at TEDxRainier about her “extensive devotion to the study of the Quran”:
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7yaDlZfqrc[/tube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7yaDlZfqrc
The comment thread in our article on her speech became quite lively as you would expect.
Recently, Lesley was back at TEDxRainier and delivered another stunning speech, this time on the Prophet Muhammad (she has just completed a book on his life) and what he means today in light of those who like to cast him as the evil villain par excellence and his self-described devotees who sometimes move to excess in his “defense.”
Hazleton tells us that she was motivated to write the book because, in her words “how could she not? We’re talking about one of the most influential figures of all time. A man who radically changed his world and is still changing ours. So how can so many of us know so little about him?”
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aC7bUTBKv0[/tube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aC7bUTBKv0
http://www.loonwatch.com/2012/12/lesley-hazleton-at-tedxrainier-muhammad-you-and-me/ or http://bit.ly/SH238i