Religion

Politics: Culture of dependency between American Islamophobes and ultra-religious Muslims

From Moustafa Bayoumi’s Men Behaving Badly: ‘The Islamophobes in the United States and the ultra-religious right in Muslim-majority countries need each other to survive. Each confirms to the other the need for his own existence. To the Islamophobes, all Muslims are extremists. The provocations Islamophobes produce are designed to elicit the very images we see.…… Continue reading Politics: Culture of dependency between American Islamophobes and ultra-religious Muslims

Religion

Religion: A ‘modernist’ Muslim for all those who think they’ve never existed

Saiyid Ahmad Khan was the founder of Islamic modernism, that is, the development in Islamic thought which bears comparison with the development of higher criticism and modernism in Christian thought. He was deeply concerned that Islam should make sense in the light of Western science; he was no less concerned that Muslims should be reconciled…… Continue reading Religion: A ‘modernist’ Muslim for all those who think they’ve never existed

Film-work

Speaking with Hamza Yusuf on American Identity

Location: Hamza Yusuf’s home, California Date: November 2008 Topic: American identity and Muslims in the USA Project: Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam Principal investigator: Akbar Ahmed Filmed by: Craig Considine © Akbar Ahmed

Commentary

The “Fundamentalist” Folk Devil

I just finished reading an interesting article given to me by Ronit Lentin titled ‘Islamophobia: a very (Post)modern fear?’.  It was written by Pnina Werbner as a presented paper at the Closing Conference of Cost A2 in Brussels, December 7-9, 1995. One particular point of Werbner’s stuck out from the rest, which is, the concept…… Continue reading The “Fundamentalist” Folk Devil