There are still some places left in the course I will be teaching next winter (in sha Allah), but I am glad to see it is filling up fast. I am really happy to be teaching this course. I think teaching intro level courses is a really important part of an academic's tasks. These courses can lay the foundations of so much in the lives of the learners. It was an intro to Islam course taught by my dear mentor Sheila McDonough nearly three decades ago that opened the way to my becoming a specialist in Muslim Studies.
Here is the description from the Laurier University website: MZ200 Introduction to Muslim Studies 0.5 Credit This course provides an overview of the aims, methods, and central issues in the Muslim Studies field. In particular it will investigate the diversity of contemporary Muslims, ideational currents that are influencing them, and the major debates about Islamic identity.
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My book review of The Sultan and the Queen: The Untold Story of Elizabeth and Islam, by Jerry Brotton, has just been published in Nūr: The Newsletter of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies — Fall 2017 (Vol. 3, No. 1). The Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, at St. Bonaventure University, is directed by Fr. Michael D. Calabria, OFM, PhD. I had the pleasure of meeting him last April, at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern International Region of the American Academy of Religion. That is when he suggested I write a review of this book.
http://www.sbu.edu/docs/default-source/franciscan-institute2/Center-for-Arab-Islamic-Studies/nur-fall-2017.pdf?sfvrsn=0 I am presenting a paper today at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the CSSR, part of the broader Congress of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Science, held this year at Ryerson University in Toronto.
Title of presentation: Decolonizing Canadian Diversity: A View from the Internal Muslim Periphery Abstract: This paper examines human diversity in Canada from a decolonial Muslim perspective. First, it examines the thought of Ramón Grosfoguel (UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies). He contends that while post-colonialism represents a Eurocentric critique of Eurocentrism, decolonialism adopts peripheral epistemologies to critique the modern/colonial world-system. Grosfoguel challenges Muslim academics like the author of this paper to think critically from an Islamic perspective rather than simply to think about Islam. Second, this paper applies Grosfoguel’s framework to Canadian Muslims, situating them as one of many peripheral minorities living in the core of the world-system. Eurocentric depictions divide Muslims into anti-modern fundamentalists and progressive modernists. Unfortunately, many Muslims adopt these categories. Instead, this paper argues that Canadian Muslims must reject such binaries and draw upon the dynamic, adaptable, and pluralistic dimensions of their tradition to help build a decolonial future, in solidarity with other peripheral communities, from far and wide. If we examine North American Islam from a social science and humanities angle, using the usual Eurocentric intellectual canon, we will end up asking very different questions than if we draw upon a canon of Muslim authors. In the first case we will enter a mandatory conversation with authors like Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Foucault, Derrida, Gramsci, Hodgson, Schimmel, Lewis, and Esposito. In the second case, we might choose from a list of names like ʿAbd al-Qâdir al-Jazâʾirî, `Abd al-Wāḥid Yaḥyā (René Guénon), Seyyed Hossein Nasr, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Malcolm X), Abdal Hakim Murad (Timothy Winter), Aisha Al Adawiyya, Hamza Yusuf, Zaid Shakir, Anse Tamara Grey, and Hatem Bazian. Authors from both lists offer penetrating insight and rich conceptual tools for scholars of North American Islam. But they address similar issues in very different ways because they have very different concerns.
This is the name of the paper I will present insha Allah at the Institute of Islamic Studies Student Council Graduate Student Symposium at McGill University in good old Montreal. The symposium lasts from April 28 to 29. I am scheduled to present at 11:15 on Friday 29. Here is the link for the symposium: https://sites.google.com/site/miisscsymposium/2016-symposium/preliminary-program
Here is the abstract for my paper: This paper explores the intersection between decolonialism and Islam in contemporary scholarship. It is inspired by the work of ethnic studies professor Ramón Grosfoguel (UC Berkeley). The first section introduces decolonialism as a type of world-systems analysis produced from peripheral epistemologies. Grosfoguel argues that this is different from postmodernism and postcolonialism, which remain epistemically Eurocentric critiques of Eurocentric modernity. For scholars of Islam, decolonialism entails responding to the problems facing humankind today as Muslims or with Muslims, rather than simply producing scholarship about Muslims. It entails considering Islam an epistemic perspective from which to actively generate critical thought, rather than a passive object of study. Moreover, decolonialism engages in inter-epistemic ‘pluriversal’ communication, and seeks to avoid Eurocentric universalism, Islamic takfiri discourse, and other forms of exclusivism. The second section examines Grosfoguel’s contention that epistemic Islamophobia is a constitutive element of the “modern/colonial capitalist/patriarchal western-centric/Christian-centric world-system.” He argues that modern social sciences and globalized structures of knowledge are deeply rooted in the four genocides/epistemicides of the long sixteenth century (against Jews and Muslims in Al-Andalus, indigenous peoples in the Americas, African victims of the transatlantic slave trade, and European women accused of sorcery). The third section discusses the contributions to decolonial Muslim thought by three intellectuals from Berkeley, California. After further consideration of Grosfoguel’s work, Hatem Bazian is introduced. He is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States, where he works as a professor of Islamic law and theology. Furthermore, he lectures on Islam in America and Islamophobia at UC Berkeley. Dustin Craun, the third figure to be discussed, is an anti-racist educator, communications consultant, editor, and writer. He is also the founder and CEO of Ummah Wide, a San-Francisco based digital media and film production start-up focused on Muslim issues. C'est le titre d'une présentation que je donnerai dans le cadre d'un atelier au CEETUM (Centre d’études ethniques des universités montréalaises) à Montréal.
I will be presenting a paper at the graduate symposium of the CEETUM (Centre d’études ethniques des universités montréalaises) in Montreal. Voici les coordonnées : Here is the information for the workshop: Salle 530-1-1 Atelier 12 (1re partie) Islam, islamophobie et migrants musulmans 18 mars, de 9 h à 11 h (partie 2 de 11 h 15 à 13 h) Islam Pacification and surrender to the divine Looking for the moon as a sign And following the sun as it crosses the sky It's not about making time for some worship It's about synchronizing my time to the divine Following the holy flow The drumbeats and chanting of the cosmos Paralyzing the limiting mind Performing acts that first seem senseless to the selfish senses Preparing to break free By the grace of Allah I am happy to announce that the book Sufism and Social Integration is now published. With 23 chapters including mine on decolonial Sufism as well as a preface by Seyyed Hossein Nasr. http://www.amazon.com/Sufism-Social-Integration-Connecting-Boundaries/dp/1567444326/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428370251&sr=8-1&keywords=sufism+and+social+integration
I prefer the term 'North Africa and Southwest Asia' (NASWA) to 'the Middle East' (the region is only the Middle East from a Western European perspective but not, say, from a Chinese one). Nevertheless, despite its problematic title, this website is a very good source of poetry from the region, updated regularly with new entries. Any effort to celebrate the beauty and diversity of the cultures found in this region is to be encouraged at a time when they are under existential threat from violent extremists of all sorts, from inside the region and from abroad.
Here are the links: http://middleeasternpoetry.tumblr.com/ https://www.facebook.com/middleeasternpoetry |
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