First Asian professor for Harvard university

NEW YORK (ANTARA): Indonesian professor Ali Shihab has been invited to become the first Asian intellectual to teach Islamic philosophy at the prestigious Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.

"I was asked to teach at Harvard as of July," he said from Connecticut, where he has worked for two years as a guest professor at Hartford Seminary.

Born in South Sulawesi, 52-year-old Ali earned his doctorate 1990 from Ain Shams University in Cairo for his thesis,Tasauf (mysticism) influence on Indonesian society.

He earned another doctorate from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1995 with the thesis, Islam-Christian relationships in Indonesia: A case study of Muhammadiyah.

Ali worked as senior researcher at Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions in 1995 and 1996.

Ali said he has accepted the invitation and would become the first Asian to teach Islamic ideas and thoughts at Harvard.

He hoped his presence at Harvard would pave the way for more Indonesians to study or conduct research there.

He would also attempt to further popularize studies of Indonesia, its religious and political life and its economy, he said.