2020: The Niqab Revisited
The pandemic has given rise to a new wave of interest in niqab wearing, a practice at the center of a string of public controversies. While it has previously been dissected from various cultural and…
Anti-Blackness in the Muslim World: Beyond Apologetics and Orientalism
Introduction There is a color line in the Muslim world. How and why? While there are multiple forms of racism based on notions of color and ethnicity that exist within the Muslim world – such…
Qur’anic Ethics and the Moral Imperative of Humanist Da’wa
My recent research has led to an encounter with a critical question for Muslims who live in and must now engage with an increasingly diverse religious landscape: what is da’wa (the Muslim mission to share…
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 Great Debate: Critical Race Theory and Muslims | Sapelo/Maydan Series on CRT
Sapelo Square and Maydan have collaborated to publish “The Great Debate: Critical Race Theory and Muslims,” a series of essays that examine Critical Race Theory through the lens of Black Muslims and Black Muslim communities in…
In Defense of Critical Race Theory: Islam, Race, & the Modern Public Intellectual
Prologue During the Abbasid Caliphate, Baghdad was the center of learning and scholarship in the Islamic world. Scholars from various religious backgrounds and academic disciplines flocked there to be part of a bustling society of…
Thomas Jefferson and the Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad
Introduction The revelation that Thomas Jefferson had a Qur’an and that Islam had influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States was groundbreaking. Inspired by the findings published by Denise A. Spellberg in Thomas Jefferson’s…
Islamic Studies and Ottoman Studies Panels at MESA 2019
As a resource for our readers, the Maydan presents panel, session and paper information related to Islamic Studies and/or Ottoman Studies at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana on 14-17…
Al Qamar Ensemble: The Heart-Routes of Islam and a Forgotten Qasidah
It’s been over a year since the cold winter morning when I picked up my phone to the buzz of a WhatsApp call from an unfamiliar number. It was Brother Ismail Hachim, originally from the…
An Interview with Farid Esack by Noah Black on Liberation Theology and Esack’s Scholarship | The Maydan Podcast
In 1994, South Africa had its first democratic election with South Africans from all races allowed to vote. With the African National Congress (ANC) victory, the racist system of apartheid began to be dismantled. Three…