Category: Intra-faith

Welcome to ShaykhaFest. Did you know that some of the greatest Islamic scholars such as Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Imam Ibn al-Jawzi, Shaykh-ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, Imam al-Dhahabi, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali and many other great Imams and scholars had female teachers? Even though it is not widely known, thousands of female scholars have enriched the Islamic tradition through out history. Shaykha Fest is intended to honor the legacy of female Islamic scholarship and draw attention to contemporary female scholars. At Shaykha Fest we will embark on an exciting journey into the past and learn from contemporary female scholars,…

At 27, new imam represents a homegrown American Islam – USATODAY.com. At just 27 years old, Asif Umar is the new imam of Daar-ul-Islam mosque, the largest mosque in the St. Louis area. The son of Indian immigrants is devoted to the city’s sports teams, marking the end of Ramadan with a St. Louis Blues hockey game.

An Interview with Prof. Abdullahi An-Na’im, Islamic Scholar at Emory University « The Future of Islam In the Age of New Media. As the must-read New Yorker article, The Moderate Martyr notes, “In 1967, a law student at the University of Khartoum named Abdullahi Ahmed an-Naim was looking for a way to spend a summer evening in his home town, a railway junction on the banks of the Nile in northern Sudan. No good movies were showing at the local cinemas, so he went with a friend to hear a public lecture by Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, an unorthodox Sudanese mystic…

Keeping Faith: Amaney Jamal – The Daily Princetonian. The following is the first installment of “Keeping Faith,” a six-part series of conversations between politics professor Robert George and University professors of various faiths.  Amaney Jamal is a politics professor and practicing Muslim whose work focuses on Middle Eastern politics, democratization and the politics of civic engagement in the Arab world.

Hoping To ‘Demystify’ Islam, Muslim Center Moves To Newbury Street | WBUR. a new Muslim cultural center in Boston’s most prominent shopping district — Newbury Street. It’s the new Boston home of a group of progressive Muslim activists, the American Islamic Congress. These Muslims are making a statement — that they are part of mainstream American society.

Slideshow: Ashura, the Unique Face of Shia Islam | Religion | FRONTLINE | PBS. The holy day of Ashura marks the martyrdom of Hussain ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Mohammad, in a historic seventh century battle. The Battle of Karbala, as it’s known, cemented the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims that arose from a succession dispute after the prophet’s death.  Every year around Ashura, the media is flooded with images of blood-soaked Shias self-flagellating. But Shias around the world — who make up between 10 to 13 percent of Muslims – observe the month in a myriad of ways.…

Imam Hussein (AS): “The Chief of the Youth of Paradise” « Simerg. Imam Hussein’s memory and death is commemorated in particular with great religious fervour and intensity during the first ten days of the Islamic month of  Muharram, known as Ashura, which simply means tenth in the Arabic language.  The 10th day marks the climax of the remembrance of Muharram.

An Interview with Haroon Moghul, Author, Academic, and Associate Editor at Religion Dispatches « The Future of Islam In the Age of New Media. “My name is Haroon Moghul and I’m the Executive Director of The Maydan Institute. I think that the Internet is going to be a very destabilizing force among Muslim communities worldwide. The reason I say that is because in the Muslim world right now, the biggest problem we have, and I’m speaking of the Muslim world in terms of communities in every part of the planet—the problem we have, is an absence of voices that are…

Intersections of Gender and Sexuality: LGBT Muslims in the U.S. » Muslimah Media Watch. The chronicle of this project, detailed and explained in the report, revealed reoccurring discursive themes, the most prevalent of them being the parallels between Muslim women’s struggle for gender equality and the LGBT community’s struggle for justice and inclusion. The report affirms that Muslim women and LGBT Muslims aren’t necessarily separate categories, but distinguishes them according to how the two are framed, rather than implying that the category of “Muslim women” excludes LGBT Muslims or vice versa.