Karen Armstrong + Imam Shamsi Ali

Karen Armstrong, the author of A History of God and Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time sits down with Imam Shamsi Ali, a leading figure of Islam in America, to compare thoughts on the formlessness of the divine.

Presented with The Interfaith Center of New York.
Karen Armstrong is a British author of numerous works on comparative religion who first rose to prominence in 1993 with her highly successful A History of God. Armstrong’s recent work is drafting a Charter for Compassion, focused on identifying shared moral principles across religious traditions in order to foster global understanding and peace.
Imam Shamsi Ali heads New York City’s 96th Street Mosque, the city’s largest. Citied by New York magazine as “the one imam who can mediate between the diverse and fractious elements of the 800,000-member Muslim community in New York” he has a reputation as a moderate and revered scholar of the Koran. Since 9/11, the Indonesian-born imam has often advised the city government on its approaches to issues affecting the Muslim communities.