The Thinking Muslim

This week we invite back onto the show Dr Abul Izz Abdul Salam, a university professor and expert in comparative economics from Jerusalem Palestine to continue our series, today exploring property ownership. Capitalism places great emphasis on free enterprise, the orthodoxy states most property should be in the hands of private corporations, whereas radical socialism places a greater emphasis on collective ownership, looking upon property rights with scepticism. Until now, Muslims have oscillated between the two ideologies, many proudly describing themselves as Islamic capitalists or Islamic socialists. Yet Islam as the revelation from Allah (swt) came to help us reach salvation in the afterlife as well as harmony in our societies. So how do we define property in Islam? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We speak to a regular guest Dr Shadee Elmasry about division within the Muslim community. I ask him, how does Islam help us to navigate our differences? What makes a valid shari’ opinion? How do we know whether a scholar or commentator is sincere to sources of Islam? What makes a mujtahid and what are the limits of the muqallid (follower)? We discuss the recent trend amongst duat to call out and defame one another. We also discuss the duty of enjoining maroof and forbid munkar, how does a layman fulfil this duty? What gives the commoner the right to question even scholars on issues and what are the guidelines? How do we forbid wrong while transmitting respect and not exacerbating divisions? We look at the notion ‘only Allah can judge’ and the anger that pervades much of modern social media ‘da’wah’. What does it mean to be smart in conveying Islam? and does being smart sometimes come at the cost of being truthful? Access our podcast archive here: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Even if we don’t subscribe to the oft quoted phrase of Jordan Peterson that there is "a crisis of masculinity", we may accept that young men live lives in an era where their roles and responsibilities remain subject to intense scrutiny. Our guest today, Ameen from the popular Mind Heist podcast and the YouTube help channel Seera Masters is a young man trying to make sense of this world. Ameen set off on a journey to discover what Islam expects from a man and in his own words found conclusions that challenged his own preconceptions. He is currently working on writing a book on the subject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The environment we find ourselves in after 9/11 has made it very difficult for our community to simultaneously continue living an Islamic life and meeting the demands of our daily existence. This atmosphere has given rise to what can only be called a liberal inquisition, the constant reminder that we should be defensive about our faith and that what we believe is somehow out of sync with modernity.In this febrile atmosphere, some have called for more radical action to affirm the faith of our families and community. If the next generation is to survive, maybe we need to more proactively build community institutions that nurture true conviction and assert more readily our priorities, free from the tedious scrutiny of wider society. This is where Muslims have engaged with the Benedict Option of Rod Dreher.To discuss the notion of a Muslim Benedict Option we speak with Ismail Royer, an activist and thinker from America, Royer serves as a Director at the Religious Freedom Institute, a Washington, DC-based non-profit organization.Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslimOn Telegram: https://t.me/thinkingmuslim - and direct questions: https://t.me/jcontact And access our archive: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/podcast/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest this week, Dr Joseph Kaminski is associate professor at the Department of International Relations at the International University of Sarajevo. He has spent the last six years in the country, which he has now adopted as his own. Dr Kaminski has written a number of papers on Islam and governance and he is currently authoring a book on Islam and liberalism, a matter we discuss at the end of the podcast.Follow my thread evidencing how the West accepts Srebrenica as a human sacrifice: https://twitter.com/jalalayn/status/1282065107695144963?s=20Sign up to our free comparative ideas course: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/comparative-thought-liberalism-and-islam-10-week-course-starts-19jul-tickets-113103958986Sign up to this usul al-fiqh course: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/113242924636 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest this week, Imam Dawud Walid, although acknowledging the importance of activism within the Islamic tradition, argues that our community must tread carefully when developing lines of collaboration with progressive movements, lest we are utilised for problematic political and cultural aims. He argues that activism does not fall out of the purview of the revelation and if we are to make a change, this has to be rooted in an Islamic notion of justice and using means that accord with the prophetic sunnah. Forging alliances with the progressive left has come at a cost, he argues, the left are utilising the Muslim community to pursue their broader electoral aims.Website: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/podcastLaunchgood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/book_discover_the_islamic_alternative_to_feminism#!/Twitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslim Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The dress of Muslim women has been politicised by secular thinkers, left wing activists, conservatives, feminists and talk-show hosts that all believe their take on the subject will emancipate Muslim women. For centuries, an obsession with Muslim women’s dress has enabled an array of political projects.This week we speak to two guests, firstly Farhat Amin, who is working on a book project to address the twin challenges of Muslim confusion about their Islamic rights and feminism and then we discuss the long colonial history behind the politicisation of women's dress and how to view the hijab from the shari’ah rules with Ustadh Iyad Hilal, author and imam from the United States.Website: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/podcastLaunchgood campaign: https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/book_discover_the_islamic_alternative_to_feminism#!/Twitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslim Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Hijab or Khimar has been subject to ferocious scrutiny, with youtube influencers, journalists, politicians and academics all participating in what is now a regular feature in how liberal society would like Muslims to live.To address the subject Farhat Amin from our sister podcast, A Muslim Mom spoke to Emaan Abbasi, a writer and academic that recently penned a brilliant piece titled, “not my body, not my choice” for the online magazine Traversing Tradition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today, Hakeem Muhammad, grew up in the communities excluded by mainstream America. He argues that in our anger we should not undervalue the structural conditions that enable and safeguard those that treat their fellow man as sub-human. The structural racism that plagues American life comes from a broader ideology that shows disdain for non-European cultures and creeds. He argues powerfully that white supremacy cannot be separated from liberalism, in fact, liberal protagonists, from Locke to Jefferson, Kant to Rawls have all echoed the same mantra of America acting as a civilising force in the world. The atrocities of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo were conducted by the same people, nurtured within the same cultural climate.Hakeem Muhammad is a Public Interest Law Scholar from Northeastern University School of Law where he also holds a Juris Doctorate Degree.The Thinking Muslim Twitter @thinking_muslim https://twitter.com/thinking_muslimEmail info@thinkingmuslim.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Muslim’s that engage on social media often contribute to the online antagonism that reflects the coarse and crude trend of wider society. It goes like this, someone tweets a view, sometimes coherent and thought through and sometimes not and within a short space of time, it solicits a torrent of abuse.This week on The Thinking Muslim we look at ‘Muslim Twitter’, what causes the bitterness? how do we tone down the rhetoric and how can the revelation and our illustrious scholarly past help us to rectify our manners of engagement? We have invited Justin Parrot to discuss this matter, Justin holds an MRes in Islamic Studies from the University of Wales and is currently Research Librarian for Middle East Studies at NYU in Abu Dhabi where he is also a volunteer Imam for the Muslim Students Association. He also runs an amazing website with a unique accessible hadith repository, available here https://abuaminaelias.com.Access past content on our website - https://www.thinkingmuslim.com Contribute to our new exciting book project on Launchgood https://www.launchgood.com/project/book_discover_the_islamic_alternative_to_feminism#!/And sign up to our free course https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/comparative-thought-liberalism-socialism-and-islam-5-week-course-tickets-102518098392 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.