Braving snow flurries and 31-degree weather, more than 800 people crammed the Baker University Center Ballroom Sunday to hear esteemed writer, speaker and scholar Cornel West.
West's speech was the keynote address of a two-day conference celebrating the 100th birthday of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, a Sudanese Muslim regarded as the founder of progressive Islam.
Addressing a standing-room-only crowd, West lectured on the universality of the human family
imploring listeners to adopt Taha's traits of humility and love.
Anyone who lives a life and never sheds a tear has never really loved. And anyone who has never really loved has never really lived West said, adding, When you love people you can't stand the fact of them being unjustly treated.
West is the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University and has published 19 books, including 2004's Democracy Matters, which has sold more than half a million copies.
We are deeply honored that Dr. Cornel West a most distinguished American scholar
would come to OU at this monumental time in history
said President Roderick McDavis, who added, It is a time of great significance in our country
especially as we prepare to inaugurate Barack Obama
the first African-American president in the history of our country.
West related the life and death of Taha to current political events in the Islamic world as well as in America.
We have some challenges here that have everything to do with the challenges of the weak
whether they be in Africa
Europe
Asia or any corner of the globe
he said.
West called the election of Obama the end of the age of Ronald Reagan
