PORTLAND — The father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is scheduled to speak at the University of Southern Maine on Monday.

Judea Pearl will appear alongside Islamic studies professor Akbar Ahmed for a conversation titled “Beyond the Clash of Civilizations: A Dialogue for Muslim-Jewish Understanding.”

The event, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at USM’s Hannaford Lecture Hall on Bedford Street, is part of an ongoing effort to initiate talk on divisions between Muslims and Jews, as well as Muslims and the West.

Daniel Pearl was reporting in Pakistan in early 2002 when he was kidnapped by an Islamic group demanding the release of U.S.-held prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was later beheaded and a video of his execution leaked onto the Internet.

His father, a professor at the University of California-Los Angeles, and Akbar Ahmed, a professor at American University in Washington, D.C., have appeared together at forums on Muslim-Jewish relations since 2003.

The talk is open to the public; there is no admission charge.