The Case for God (69 page)

Hackett Publishing Company: Excerpts from “Apology” and “Phaedo,” translated by G. M. A. Grube, and “Phaedrus” and “Symposium,” translated by Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff, from
Plato: The Complete Works
, edited by John M. Cooper. Reprinted by permission of Hackett Publishing Company.

Karen Armstrong is one of the world’s leading commentators on religious affairs. She is a best-selling author whose books have been translated into forty-five languages. Her early work focused on the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but she has since begun to explore the Eastern religions.

Since September 11, 2001, she has become known chiefly for her work on Islam and Fundamentalism, particularly in the United States. She has addressed members of the U.S. Congress on three occasions; lectured to policy makers at the U.S. State Department; participated in the World Economic Forum in New York, Jordan, and Davos; and addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., and New York. She has also advised members of the Dutch parliament about Islam and the integration of Muslim communities in Europe.

In 2005, she was appointed by Kofi Annan to take part in the United Nations initiative the Alliance of Civilizations, sponsored by the prime ministers of Spain and Turkey to counter the “clash of civilizations” theory; its object was to give practical guidelines to member states about how to stem the rising tide of extremism. She was one of the members of the High Level Group, a panel of twenty people from every region of the world who did not represent their countries but had been chosen for their expertise in this matter. Karen Armstrong is now a UN ambassador for the Alliance.

She is increasingly invited to speak in Muslim countries. In 2007 she was awarded a medal by the Egyptian government for her services to Islam under the auspices of the prestigious Al-Azhar madrassa, the first foreigner to have been awarded
this decoration. In the summer of 2007, she was invited by the Malaysian government to speak in Kuala Lumpur (even though her books are banned there!) and gave the Muis Lecture in Singapore. She also spoke at the Young Presidents’ Organization in Istanbul and later that year gave the keynote address at an international conference on Islamophobia there. In January 2008, she visited Pakistan, where she gave lectures on Islam in Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi to packed audiences.

Karen Armstrong was awarded the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Worship by the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (2008) and the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize, Tubingen University (2009). She is a Trustee of the British Museum and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Literature. In February 2008, she was awarded the TED Prize and is currently working with TED on a major international project to create, launch, and propagate a Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public, crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, which will be signed in the fall of 2009 by one thousand religious and secular leaders.