March 29, 2006 - Damansara - Brother Noryzal Zainal Abidin (see picture: He was standing beside Prof. Dr. Akbar S. Ahmad) attended Public Lecture entitled "Who Speaks for Islam in an Era of Globalization?" which was held at the Main Hall International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC-www.iiu.edu.my/istac). The speaker was a prominent speaker from USA viz Prof. Dr. Akbar S. Ahmad who is holding Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies and Professor of International Relations, School of International Services, American University, Washington D.C.
The lecture was very enlightened and the speaker discussed on the concept of Assabiyyah popularized by Ibn Khaldun in his Muqaddimah. The Muqaddimah, or the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun (Arabic: مقدّمة ابن خلدون), records an early Muslim view of 'universal history'. Many modern thinkers view it as one of the first works of sociology. The Arab historian Ibn Khaldun wrote the work in 1377 as the preface or first book of his planned world history, the kitab al-ibar, but already in his lifetime it became regarded as an independent work.
