{"id":18307,"date":"2013-10-04T16:20:01","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T20:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=18307"},"modified":"2013-10-24T14:43:45","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T18:43:45","slug":"arab-warrior-scholar-statesman-inspires-fresh-biography-and-essay-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/arab-warrior-scholar-statesman-inspires-fresh-biography-and-essay-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Arab &#8216;warrior-scholar-statesman&#8217; inspires fresh biography and essay contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n{font-family:Arial;\npanose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073711037 9 0 511 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";\npanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n{mso-style-unhide:no;\nmso-style-qformat:yes;\nmso-style-parent:\"\";\nmargin:0in;\nmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\nfont-size:12.0pt;\nfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}\nspan.booktitle\n{mso-style-name:booktitle;\nmso-style-unhide:no;\nmso-style-parent:\"\";\nfont-style:italic;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n{mso-style-type:export-only;\nmso-default-props:yes;\nfont-size:10.0pt;\nmso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;\nmso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;}\n@page WordSection1\n{size:8.5in 11.0in;\nmargin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;\nmso-header-margin:.5in;\nmso-footer-margin:.5in;\nmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n{page:WordSection1;}\n-->A town in Iowa is named for Emir Abd el-Kader (1808-1883). The Lincoln White House sent him an honorary gift. Victor Hugo supported his release from prison. The <em>New York Times<\/em> eulogized him as \u201cone of the few great men of the century.\u201d And four biographies of him have been published.<\/p>\n<p>Yet el-Kader, whose most recent biographer, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.johnwkiser.com\/author.php\">John W. Kiser<\/a>, describes as \u201can Arab warrior-scholar-statesman respected and admired from the Missouri Territory to Moscow to Mecca,\u201d has little name-recognition in the West today \u2013 a situation the author of <em>Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader<\/em> (2008), hopes to remedy.<\/p>\n<p>Kiser, who organizes an annual <a href=\"http:\/\/abdelkaderproject.org\/contest\/\">student essay contest based on el-Kader<\/a>, told an audience this week at Eastern Mennonite University that he hopes el-Kader\u2019s life could serve as \u201can anti-islamophobia pill\u201d for non-Muslims as well as \u201can anti-radicalization pill\u201d for Muslim youth \u2013 citing a French Muslim former delinquent who credits el-Kader\u2019s example with changing his life.<\/p>\n<p>El-Kader grew up in the Sufi tradition, in a prominent western Algerian family. After the Ottoman Empire lost Algeria to France, el-Kader, elected chief of a tribal confederation, became an emir (\u201ccommander of the faithful\u201d). For 15 years, he fought for Algeria\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n<h3>Possible model for Muslim radicals<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2013\/09\/10\/emir-abdelkader-jihad-islam-column\/2795857\/\">Kiser wrote in a September USA Today column<\/a> that el-Kader\u2019s \u201clegacy of heroic \u2014 and honorable \u2014 resistance to Western interference in Islamic lands is a model for how Muslim nationalists today can put their region&#8217;s interests first without becoming monsters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although no pacifist, el-Kader scrupulously followed what Kiser calls \u201cIslamically correct rules\u201d of warfare that foreshadowed the Geneva Conventions. He forbade harming civilians, decapitating enemies or mistreating prisoners. Yet when El-Kader surrendered to the French, based on the promise that he could leave Algeria freely, he and his followers were imprisoned in France. Confined indefinitely in the \u201ccold, clammy\u201d former castle of Henry IV, several sickened and died.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually \u2013 thanks to admiration el-Kader inspired in many (including Hugo) \u2013 Napoleon III released him. Lincoln\u2019s gift of two pistols reached him in Damascus after el-Kader had saved several thousand Christians from a rampage there.<\/p>\n<p>Kiser, after a secular upbringing in New York and Chicago, became attracted to what he calls the \u201cmonastic\u201d lifestyle at the Groton school. Holding an MBA from the University of Chicago, his first career was as a \u201ctechnology broker,\u201d heading a research firm, before a \u201chuman technology\u201d interest sparked his writing. On his website today, he describes himself as one who has moved &#8220;from being an agnostic to a believer in the omnipresence of divine wisdom \u2013 accessible if our antennas are tuned, and requiring ceaseless effort.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>&#8220;Contrarian&#8221; books<\/h3>\n<p>He writes on his website about being drawn to \u201ccontrarian\u201d book topics, beginning in 1989 with <em>Communist Entrepreneurs<\/em>, about technological innovators under Soviet rule. Soon what he calls his \u201cunintentional Abrahamic trilogy\u201d started with a biography of author Stefan Zweig. Next, his <em>Monks of Tibhirine<\/em> depicted harmony between Muslims and neighboring Christians despite the unsolved slayings of seven Trappist monks. Kiser calls the 2011 Oscar-nominated film <em>Of Gods and Men<\/em>, based on that book, \u201cgood as far as it goes,\u201d but regrets it omitted episodes of kindness crossing barriers.<\/p>\n<p>Kiser did most research on el-Kader in France, finding a wealth of material, though he also spent time in Algeria and Damascus.<\/p>\n<p>On his website, Kiser said el-Kader combined deep religious faith with chivalrous humanism and intellectual openness. He posted these quotes from el-Kader, dated 1860:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All the religions of the Book rest on two principals\u2014to praise God and have compassion toward his creatures.&#8221; -and &#8211; &#8220;All creatures are part of God\u2019s family, and those most loved by God are those who do the most good for His family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>We&#8217;re all Muslims?<\/h3>\n<p>Kiser\u2019s EMU talk sparked theological discussion among the small but lively interfaith audience. \u201cHow many of you say the Lord\u2019s Prayer?\u201d he asked. He then announced, \u201cYou\u2019re all Muslims.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kiser offered his view that true \u201cIslam\u201d is not \u201ca noun\u201d signifying an institutional \u201creligion,\u201d but \u201ca gerund\u201d meaning, simply, \u201cdoing the work of God.\u201d As in the Lord\u2019s Prayer: \u201cThy will be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kiser cited another misunderstood Islamic term, \u201cjihad,\u201d as primarily meaning a spiritual struggle.<\/p>\n<p>Kiser, who lives in Rappahannock County about an hour northeast of EMU, is pleased that favorable reviews have been posted on some Islamic websites and that an Arabic translation and possible film are in the works.<\/p>\n<p>The essay contest for high-school and college students, which bestows awards ranging from $500 to $1,500, is based in Elkader, Iowa &#8212; named in 1846 by a country lawyer inspired by the \u201cvaliant Arab chieftan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/interfaith\/\">EMU&#8217;s Center for Interfaith Engagement<\/a> sponsored Kiser&#8217;s campus visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A town in Iowa is named for Emir Abd el-Kader (1808-1883). The Lincoln White House sent him an honorary gift. Victor Hugo supported his release from prison. The New York <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/arab-warrior-scholar-statesman-inspires-fresh-biography-and-essay-contest\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Arab &#8216;warrior-scholar-statesman&#8217; inspires fresh biography and essay contest<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":18324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4515,13679],"tags":[15127],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-18307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-center-for-interfaith-engagement","tag-emir-abd-el-kader"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Arab &#039;warrior-scholar-statesman&#039; inspires fresh biography and essay contest - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/arab-warrior-scholar-statesman-inspires-fresh-biography-and-essay-contest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arab &#039;warrior-scholar-statesman&#039; inspires fresh biography and essay contest - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A town in Iowa is named for Emir Abd el-Kader (1808-1883). 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