Finding Spirituality in our Troubled World: Christian and Muslim Perspectives

Archbishop Michael L. Fitzgerald M.Afr.

Emeritus President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue

Michael Fitzgerald joined the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) in 1956 and pursued his theological studies from in Tunisia, where he began learning Arabic and acquiring his knowledge of Islam. He studied in Rome during the Second Vatican Council, and completed a BA in Arabic at the University of London in 1968, whereupon he became a lecturer at the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (PISAI). He taught courses on Islam at the University of Makerere in Uganda and conducted parish work in Sudan. In 1980 he was elected to the General Council of the Missionaries of Africa in Rome. From 1987 until 2002, Michael served as Secretary for the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in the Vatican (ordained a bishop by Pope St John Paul II in 1991) and then succeeded Cardinal Arinze as President of the Council (at which time he became an Archbishop). In 2006, Pope Benedict appointed Archbishop Fitzgerald as Apostolic Nuncio to Egypt in Cairo, where the highly influential Muslim Al-Azhar University is located. He retired from this position in 2012.

Associate Professor Salih Yucel

Fethullah Gulen Chair in the Study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic Relations, Australian Catholic University

Associate Professor Salih Yucel has recently been appointed as Associate Professor in the Fethullah Gulen Chair in the Study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic Relations at Australian Catholic University since April 2017. He has been teaching at Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation/Charles Sturt University since January 2015 and was a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Monash University between 2008-2014. Dr Yucel received his Bachelor of Islamic Divinity from the University of Ankara in 1982, completed a Master of Theology at the University of Sydney in 1996 and was awarded his Doctorate at Boston University in 2007. He worked as a Muslim chaplain at Harvard Medical Schools’ hospitals for seven years while he was studying at Boston University.

Dr Zuleyah Keskin

Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, Charles Sturt University

Zuleyha is the Course Coordinator at the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, Charles Sturt University. She is also a senior lecturer in Islamic Studies at CSU, lecturing on Islamic spirituality and contemporary Islamic studies. Zuleyha is also a Director at ISRA Australia.