ITHACA, N.Y. -- Khaled Abou El Fadl, recently appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom by President George W. Bush, will deliver a free public talk titled "Islam and Human Rights" Friday, Sept. 19, at 5 p.m. in Auditorium D of Goldwin Smith Hall on the Cornell University campus.

Abou El Fadl, a visiting professor at Yale Law School and professor of law at the University of California-Los Angeles, is one of the leading authorities in Islamic law in the United States and Europe. He teaches Islamic law, Middle Eastern investment law, immigration law and courses related to human rights and terrorism. He also works with various human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and the Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights.

"The Department of Near Eastern Studies is delighted to once again be directly involved in bringing a distinguished Muslim scholar of Islam to Cornell," said Shawkat Toorawa, assistant professor of Near Eastern studies at Cornell. "There is an urgent need for us all to hear and heed the voice of intellectuals such as Khaled Abou El Fadl, a prominent public intellectual who has been bravely speaking out and writing, at a high personal cost, against radical Islam and terrorism since 9/11."

Abou El Fadl often serves as an expert witness in international litigation involving Middle Eastern law and in cases involving immigration law and political asylum claims. He was trained in Islamic legal sciences in Egypt, Kuwait and the United States, and he holds a B.A. from Yale University, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University. Following law school, Abou El Fadl clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Justice James Moeller.

Abou El Fadl is the author of numerous books, including Reasoning With God: Islam and the Challenge of Democracy (Princeton University Press), which is due out in January. He also is the author of Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women (2001), And God Knows the Soldiers: The Authoritative and Authoritarian in Islamic Discourse (revised edition 2001); Rebellion and Violence in Islamic Law (2001) and The Place of Tolerance in Islam (2002), among others.

The talk is sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Studies in collaboration with Cornell Law School's Clarke Fund for the Middle East, the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, the Department of Government, the Ithaca College Department of Politics, Cornell United Religious Work, the Muslim Educational and Cultural Association, the Cornell Arab Association and Cornell Faculty Programs in Residential Communities.