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Our specific objectives are threefold:

to develop research on Islamic thought in Japan

to establish an open and flexible place for joint research

to encourage the next generation of researchers and achieve results which will be helpful to the next generation.

　Our methods for achieving these objectives are willing and open-minded discussion, an open-door policy of free exchange, and bridge-building between eras and generations. I am tempted to say that the object of the research is to "Broaden our horizons and deepen our knowledge" but perhaps that is too abstract.

Our five concrete objectives are:

to gain an understanding of the totality of contemporary Islamic thought

to get a clear picture of contemporary Islamic thinkers

to organize theoretical arguments and focal points of contemporary Islamic thought in general and specific categories

to build a bridge between traditional (classic) Islamic knowledge and contemporary thought and

to build a bridge between contemporary thought and Islamic thought on a global scale.

　Though these are very difficult objectives, we would like to begin this historically large-scale project with high aspirations.

　We would like to take "thought", the object of our study to have a broader meaning than is generally associated with it so as to have it include literature etc. "Contemporary" is generally taken to mean the twentieth century, although the nineteenth century is sometimes included as historical background. Our concern for building bridges between eras and generations that I mentioned above includes being aware of connections and comparisons to the classics. In addition, we define Islamic thought broadly to include Muslim thinkers on topics both related to and unrelated to Islam and non-Muslim thinkers on topics related to Islam.

We will, of course, put effort into studying the thought itself. However, because the Project sees the subjects of its research as dynamic entities, we will also seriously study the conditions and dynamic relationships between thought and society. In addition, the theme of Research Unit 1 is "Thought and Politics", therefore we will pay careful attention to political thought and the relationship between thought and politics.

　Although we would like to do many unique things, our research methods include only very traditional methods such as reading books and thinking, traveling abroad to conduct studies and meeting together and discussing. The work that we conduct cooperatively is centered around research seminars. There are two types of these research seminars. They are informational seminars and book review seminars. We would like to use the following five patterns.

(a) Research seminars on theories and points of contention (by subject), called Theoretical Point Seminars

(b) Research seminars on thinkers (by thinker), called Thinker Seminars

(c) Research seminars on the dynamism between thoughts and regions (by region/country), called Region Seminars

(d) Research seminars on book reviews (Japanese and Foreign books), called Book Review Seminars

(e) Research seminars on original texts (Philosophical writings and research texts written in the language of the region), called Original Text Seminars

　The above is the framework for group activities and does not include the content of the seminars. We hope to have everyone's participation in creating the content. We hope to make it easy for everyone to be active in these seminars, so please don't hesitate to participate.