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Professor Richard T. Antoun was a Christian American anthropologist and specialist in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. His work centered on religion and the social organization of tradition in Islamic law and ethics, among other things. He was stabbed to death at his office at Binghamton University by a Saudi graduate student in 2009.

Education and academic work

In 1959 Antoun began his career with ethnographic fieldwork in Jordan. Over the next two decades, he lived intermittently in Kufr al-Mah--a small Sunni Muslim village, studying the Qur'an with the local self-educated preacher.

Antoun received a doctorate from Harvard in 1963. During his career he taught at the University of Chicago, Manchester University in England, Cairo University, and Binghamton University. He joined the Binghamton faculty in the early 1970s. He was “a sociocultural anthropologist who has conducted research among peasants in Jordan, urbanites in Lebanon, peasant farmers in Iran and migrants in Texas and Greece”. He retired in 1999 as professor emeritus.

Publications

He wrote Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements in 2001. Sally K. Gallagher reviewed it for Sociology of Religion, writing that the book: "is a readable overview and introduction to how conservative elites and communities in three monotheistic religious traditions orient themselves to modernity." Peter A. Huff, in reviewing it, said that Antoun wrote about how: "his presence became increasingly problematic as the climate of the cultural environment dramatically changed. Dialogue turned argumentative, and outspoken villagers, especially young men, attempted to convert him to Islam. From Antoun's perspective, he was witnessing the birth of a local strain of fundamentalism." Scott R. Appleby, in reviewing it for the Middle East Quarterly, wrote: "There is much to commend in this general and accessible overview".

He later wrote Documenting Transnational Migration: Jordanian Men Working and Studying in Europe, Asia and North America, published in 2005. Ronald R. Stockton, writing in , observed that Antoun examined the sons of a Jordanian village who had been sent abroad and returned:

"He found a range of experiences, many different from what one might expect... Some findings are surprising, for example, comparing Jordanians in the Gulf with those in Pakistan or the West. Jordanians share language and culture with the Gulf but were "encapsulated in residence, work, and leisure activities" and saw "surprisingly little of the indigenous inhabitants" ... In Pakistan, because they did not speak Urdu, they were isolated and restricted to campus life. The Pakistani family structure also made it difficult to meet local women.... In the West, in spite of religious and cultural differences, they found it easier to meet local people. Greece was the most open society they encountered.... The students "acculturated rapidly, and assimilated to Greek society and culture".... Six of the nine married Greek women, four settling permanently in Greece. In Pakistan only one of 27 married a Pakistani. In Saudi Arabia the number was zero."

Murder

Binghamton University campus police were called about 1:41 p.m. December 4, 2009, to Antoun’s office. Antoun, who had been stabbed a number of times in his office, died. Abdulsalam S. al-Zahrani, a 46-year-old Binghamton University anthropology graduate student from Saudi Arabia with whom Antoun had worked and whom he had known for quite some time, was charged with second-degree murder and held without bail at the Broome County Sheriff’s Correctional Facility after his arraignment in Town Court in Vestal, New York.

References

2. Gallagher, Sally K., Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements (book review), Sociology of Religion September 22, 2003, accessed December 6, 2009
3. Parallels in Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Fundamentalism.(Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Movements) (book review), The World and I, December 1, 2004, accessed December 6, 2009
4. Appleby, R. Scott, Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Movements (book review), Middle East Quarterly, January 1, 2003, accessed December 6, 2009
5. Stockton, Ronald R., Documenting Transnational Migration: Jordanian Men Working and Studying in Europe, Asia and North America (book review), The Middle East Journal, January 1, 2006, accessed December 9, 2009
6. Baker, Al, "Student Held in Killing of Binghamton Professor", The New York Times, December 5, 2009, accessed December 6, 2009

• Binghamton University faculty