“What Does It Mean to Be at the Table?” - Maryam Kashani on Muslim Study and Survival

This is the conclusion of our two part conversation with Maryam Kashani on her book Medina by the Bay: Scenes of Muslim Study and Survival

Among other things, in this conversation we talk about the impact and meaning of 1492 to the Muslim world. We discuss Kashani’s concept of the Blues Adhan by way of Clyde Woods. We discuss the experiences of women muslims, and women scholars in Kashani’s book. We talk about the two jihads and other Muslim practices such as zakat and the contradictions between Islamic thought and practice and those demanded by the capitalist and carceral state. It’s a rich discussion that I hope folks find as interesting as I did. 

Make sure you also catch the first part of this conversation which is linked in the show notes.

Kashani is an associate professor in Gender and Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is in the leadership collective of Believers Bail Out, a community-led effort to bailout Muslims in pretrial and immigration incarceration towards abolition. 

Believers Bail Out has a fundraiser to bail out Muslims during Ramadan which we will link in the show description. We really encourage folks to kick in what they can to support that initiative. 

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Links:

first part of this conversation

fundraiser to bail out Muslims during Ramadan

Medina by the Bay: Scenes of Muslim Study and Survival

More on the Blues Epistemology in this interview with César “che” Rodriguez

Zakat fir-Riqab: Becoming Muslim in Colonial Racial Capitalism and its Carceral Regimes by Maryam Kashani