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March 14, 2015 | Turkey Agenda
Zaytuna College: Accreditation and the Context of Education in America
A historical moment was ushered on March 7, 2015 as Zaytuna College and through it the American Muslim community received initial accreditation from WASC Senior College and University Commission. Zaytuna’s accreditation occasion is monumental and opens a much-needed space for Muslims at America’s academic table and with it the ability to offer unique perspectives toward…
De-Colonial Islam Islamic Education -
February 23, 2015 | Daily Sabah
Islam in countering violent extremism
In an L.A. Times editorial and a speech given at a three-day White House Summit focusing on Countering Violent extremism, U.S. President Barack Obama declared that the effort is “a battle for hearts and minds,” of the Muslim world. Obama maintained in the editorial: “Groups like al-Qaida and ISIS promote a twisted interpretation of religion…
Islam Islamophobia Race/Racism -
February 16, 2015 | Daily Sabah
Designer babies or playing God?
On Feb. 3, 2015 the British parliament voted to permit a new and highly controversial experimental medical procedure allowing genetic material from three individuals – two women and a man – for the “creation” of a healthy baby. Immediately after the story broke a number of ethical concerns emerged and the slippery slope that the…
Islam -
January 15, 2015 | Al JazeeraThe freedom to take offence
In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo murders, Ahmed Merabet’s brother Malek correctly declared: “My brother was Muslim and he was killed by two terrorists, by two false Muslims … Islam is a religion of peace and love. As far as my brother’s death is concerned it was a waste. He was very proud of…
Islam Islamophobia -
December 26, 2014 | Turkey Agenda
A Discourse on the Colonized Muslim Subject
Today’s events in the Muslim world chaotic and incoherent if we fail to account for the past two hundred years of modern history and the entanglement with colonialism and then the emergence of post-colonial nation-states. Often, Muslims are instructed to let go of the past and stop complaining about colonialism and using it as an…
De-Colonial Islam -
September 3, 2014 | Turkey Agenda
The ‘Randomness’ of Islamophobia at US airports
In June 2014, I traveled to Qatar to attend and present a paper at a conference focusing on Arab-US relations hosted by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, right before heading to Granada, Spain, to teach a summer course on Muslims in the West from pre-1492 to the present. The conference was well attended and…
De-Colonial Islam Islamic Politics Islamophobia -
August 12, 2014 | Turkey Agenda
Kill them all to rescue a dying colonialism
I wanted to write this article sometime ago but events and developments kept intruding and my attention taken away or stolen from the critical into the tangential. As more events unfold and the death rates in the Arab and Muslim world reach catastrophic levels and the region all up in flames. My pen can no…
De-Colonial Islam Islamic Politics Race/Racism -
July 6, 2014 | Turkey Agenda
From Fast to Feast: Meaning of Ramadan and the Global Poverty Crisis
Every year the month of Ramadan arrives ushering in fasting and spiritual contemplations about our words and deeds in this world and aspiration for the hereafter. During Ramadan, Muslims from all walks of life fast, pray and give charity as an expression of commitment to their faith and an articulation of a sense of collective…
De-Colonial Islam Islamic Education -
June 9, 2014 | Turkey Agenda
“Islamic Reformation” and the West living in our minds
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt commented in his book, The Future of Islam, that Islam needs to “work out for itself a Reformation,” resembling that which took place in Europe. Blunt points out that in Al-Azhar University (his writing concerning al-Azhar was in 1882, and afterward) the “basis of a social and political reformation has been laid.”…
De-Colonial Islam Islamic Law Muslim History -
June 5, 2014 | Turkey Agenda
Islam, Reform and the “Modern” Rational
At the gates of the 20th century, Muslims had already taken an intellectually defensive and at times hostile posture toward the “West” with a hegemonic colonial discourse slowly casting itself in many parts of the Muslim world. Across all regions Muslims found themselves at a military, economic and political disadvantage visa via the “West” and in…
De-Colonial Islam Islamic Politics Muslims in America
الدكتور حاتم بازيان
