My dissertation has been published online. To access it, please click here: Tradition as Flow: Decolonial Currents in the Muslim Atlantic.

Here is a slideshow with photos from my travels in Morocco and Southern Spain in 2018 and 2019. Enjoy!

I am honoured to be teaching this summer course in Morocco with my mentor and friend, Professor Ali Zaidi.

It is a full-credit course for Laurier University undergraduates , offered jointly by the Global Studies Department and the Department of Religion and Culture.

Overview:

​Spring 2019, May  20-24 at Laurier
June 1-18 in Morocco

Stay in the capital, Rabat

Take excursions to Casablanca, Tangiers, Fez, Meknes, and UNESCO sites

Experience Ramadan and Eid during 5-day homestay

Witness the effects of coloniality, capitalism and the refugee-crisis

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

The mausoleum of Moulay Ibrahim can be reached by car after a 90-minute drive south of Marrakesh, in the majestic High Atlas Mountains, whose snowy peaks are visible from the red city. Here is a quick biography of the saint followed by a gallery of photos I took during my trip there last Sunday.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulay_Brahim

Moulay Brahim or Moulay Brahim ben Ahmed Mghari (died 1661), also called Tayr Lejbel (Berber for 'bird of the mountain'), was a well-known Moroccan sufi saint. He was the grandson of Abdallah ben Houssein al-Hassani, who was the founder of the zawiya of Tameslouht, one of the greatest Zawiyyas in the region of Marrakech (founded ca. 1525). The zawiyya of moulay Ben Brahim was founded in 1628 during the reign of sultan Zidan Abu Maali in the village 'Kik', since called 'Moulay Brahim'. It lies a few kilometers to the west of Tameslouht.

References

• Mouna Hachim, "Maroc: Au-delà des Moussems, la vie des saints" retrieved on 04--22-2008
• Mouna Hachim; "Dictionnaire des noms de famille du Maroc" histoires et légendes, Casablancha, 2007, 500 p
• Deverdun G., "Tamesluht (Tameslouht)", the history of a religious center, Encyclopédie Berbère, 1986, no 38

THE ROAD TO MOULAY IBRAHIM (photo gallery)

And here is the mausoleum of Moulay Ibrahim:

This is his daughter Lalla Mahla's tomb, in an adjacent room: