Hacking Islamic Law
Rumee Ahmed is a brilliant Islamic legal expert at the University of British Columbia. He is both traditionally and academically trained. His book “Sharia Compliant: A User’s Guide to Hacking Islamic Law” was published in…
The UAE-sponsored “Islams”: Mapping the Terrain
Though we conceptualize the political and the religious as distinct, in practice, they remain very intertwined, especially in many Muslim-majority countries. Understanding one is crucial in understanding the other. In the case of Muslim-majority countries,…
The Modernist Roots of Islamic Autocracy: Shaykh Abdullah Bin Bayyah and the UAE-Israel Peace Deal
Shaykh Abdullah Bin Bayyah’s justification for Islamic autocracy is far from a throwback to an imagined premodern world of Muslim scholars united with pious sultans, but rather, deeply indebted to the reformist idioms of Islamic…
Why the Muslim World Matters: Building a Home with the Homeless
Introduction Anyone who has been homeless can tell you it is not a place you want to be. The pangs of hunger, the cold, lonely nights roaming the street or countryside, the uncomfortable position of…
A Place for Marxism in Traditionalist Fiqh: Engaging the Indonesian Thinker Muhammad Al-Fayyadl
In Indonesia, like elsewhere, Islam and Marxism have an historical relationship largely characterized by opposition. Notably, there was an historical moment during the late colonial and early independence eras when a tradition of Islamic communism…
The Importance of Being a Hajji: Muhamed Krpo and the Wonders of Pilgrimage
While browsing through old journals we often encounter a name that repeats itself frequently enough to be noticed, yet buried away from the allure of the front page. Throughout many months and years, these semi-visible…
Voicing Queer Adjustments in a Progressive Muslim Community
Since January 2016, I’ve been conducting ethnographic research on the progressive Muslim community globally, both face to face in six North American groups and in three online groups. Some of this work, which I report…
[Book Review] lslam and Good Governance: A Political Philosophy of Ihsan by M.A. Muqtedar Khan | Reviewed by Thomas Parker
M.A. Muqtedar Khan. Islam and Good Governance: A Political Philosophy of Ihsan. (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).pp.279. $29.99 paperback. DOI : 10.1057/978-1-137-54832-0 The outbreak of the Arab Spring clearly demonstrated a need to reformulate…
[Book Review] Unsaying God: Negative Theology in Medieval Islam by Aydogan Kars | Reviewed by Mehmet Emin Gulecyuz
Aydogan Kars. Unsaying God: Negative Theology in Medieval Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019). 343 pages. $99.00. Unsaying God presents the first book-length study of negative theological strategies in Islamic thought, with a focus…
Four Khans Everyone Must Read
The name Khan is trending. One Khan – Imran Khan – is now the PM of Pakistan, another, Sadiq Khan, is the Mayor of London, and in the US, Khizer Khan, a five star dad,…