EVENT: France’s leading philosopher and one of Europe’s most esteemed and best-selling writers, Bernard-Henri Lévy, author of “Who Killed Daniel Pearl?” will take part in public conversation about the controversial theories he espoused regarding the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped, then decapitated, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Jan. 30, 2002. Joining him in the discussion are University of Michigan professors Javed Nazir and Juan Cole.

Nazir, lecturer of communication studies, was editor of the Frontier Post, an English-language newspaper based in Peshawar, Pakistan. Peshawar sits on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and is a hotbed of militant Islamists. Fundamentalists torched the paper on Jan. 28 following the publication of a “blasphemous” letter. He faced charges of blasphemy and fled Pakistan.

Juan Cole, professor of modern Middle East and South Asian history, has written extensively about modern Islamic movements in Egypt,the Persian Gulf and South Asia.

LOCATION: Michigan League’s Hussey Room, 911 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor.

SPONSORS: Co-sponsored by the U-M’s Institute for the Humanities and the Center for European Studies in connection with the first Ann Arbor Book Festival. This event is free and open to the public.

936-3518 or e-mail humin@umich.edu