Feb. 12, 1998 Contact Pauline Austin (541) 346-3129 EUGENE--Shiite Muslim and religious historian Mahmoud Ayoub says Palestinians and Israelis can live as peaceful neighbors, but reconciliation won't occur until both sides concede that each has legitimate claims on the land. Ayoub, a professor of Islamic studies at Temple University, brings his message of reconciliation to the University of Oregon Wednesday, Feb. 18. The free public lecture will take place from 7:30-9:30 p.m., in room 100, Willamette Hall, 1371 E. 13th Ave. "I think it is possible for people to disagree and remain in relationships--for large-scale social transformations to take place without violence," says David Frank, co-chair of the UO Carlton Raymond and Wilberta Ripley Savage International Relations and Peace Committee. "Mahmoud Ayoub has spent much of his life working for a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict." Ayoub has been blind since infancy, a formidable obstacle for a child of poverty growing up in South Beirut. Ironically it was his blindness that led to Ayoub's lifelong pursuit of peace in his homeland. Unable to cope with the disability, Ayoub's parents sent him to a Christian missionary school for the blind. "They taught us the Bible," he recalls. "I still amaze my colleagues with how well I know the New Testament." Before long he converted to Christianity. Years later, when Ayoub returned to his Muslim roots, he began to study the similarities between Islam and Christianity--and between Islam and Judaism. He began to work for peace. "I am convinced in my mind that reconciliation is not only possible, but necessary. The problem is not one of room for everybody. It is a problem of having to adjust our beliefs," he says. Ayoub says the Islamic view is that God, not man, owns the earth. The Koran has a good deal to say about people's dwellings and reproaches those who drive people from their homes, he explains. Zionists must let go of their belief that God gave them sole sovereignty in Israel, he argues. "This is not a problem of religion and faith, but of idolatry," he says. "Muslims must abandon their belief that the abode of Islam is a political and geographical place and accept the idea that it lies in people's homes and neighborhoods. We must examine our common duty to give loyalty to God alone." The lecture is part of a year-long series of campus events dealing with peace in the Middle East. The year-long program will explore ways to support communication and peace-building efforts among Palestinians and Israelis through seminars and classes on the role of cross-cultural communication in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and public lectures by other visiting scholars. In the next campus lecture on Feb. 23, Chaim Seidler-Feller, who serves as Hillel Rabbi at the University of California at Las Angeles, will offer Jewish perspectives on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The UO Israeli-Palestinian Peace program is sponsored by the Carlton Raymond and Wilberta Ripley Savage Endowment on International Relations and Peace, the Office of the President, the Oregon Humanities Center, International Studies Program, Department of Anthropology, Department of Religious Studies, Office of International Affairs, the Robert D. Clark Honors College, the Provost's Office of Research and Graduate Education, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, and Portland State University's Middle East Studies Program. For information, call (541) 346-5087. -30- #P-6061/Local,A&E,OrDailies,PDX