LYNNFIELD — The library is daring residents to ask the hard questions this month.
Award-winning journalist and photographer Robert Azzi will host his presentation “Ask a Muslim Anything” on the evening of Jan. 25 at the library, which seeks to give space to the uncomfortable questions we do not know if we should ask. Using the knowledge he has gained traveling through New England as well as living in Beirut, Cairo, Jeddah, and New York, he hopes to bridge the divide between Muslim and non-Muslim communities.
Rather than speak as a journalist or as an academic, he speaks as a neighbor and a person of faith — both lowering the stakes and easing the tension. He speaks about his life, what it’s like to be Muslim in America, how he came to convert to Islam, about the religion of Islam and its history, especially in the United States, and associated political and social issues.
“People don’t know that they don’t know,” Azzi typically tells his audience. “I want to open up new perspectives for my readers – especially for those who don’t often agree with me – and expose them to points of view I believe are important and which they might not have previously considered.”
Azzi, an Arab American Muslim and New Hampshire native, writes and speaks about issues such as identity, conflict, and Islam with a focus on their impact in the Global South and Middle East. He was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University, a member of the Leadership Council of the Harvard Divinity School, and an advisor to Tufts University’s Fletcher School committee on Islam and South-West Asia. Currently, he is a board member at the American Civil Liberties Union New Hampshire (ACLU-NH).
“He is just a wonderful speaker,” said. Assistant Director Marita Klements. “He really does mean, ‘Ask a Muslim anything’ — he can handle any question, and he is a delightful person to talk to.”
Azzi’s presentation will take place Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Mezzanine. Register online at the Lynnfield Library website.
