Ubaydullah Evans: Culture: What is it good for?

http://www.alimprogram.org/articles/culture-what-is-it-good-for/

(reflections on the Mipsterz video controversy)

New Book: Zareena Grewal: "Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority"

In Islam Is a Foreign Country, Zareena Grewal explores some of the most pressing debates about and among American Muslims: what does it mean to be Muslim and American? Who has the authority to speak for Islam and to lead the stunningly diverse population of American Muslims? Do their ties to the larger Muslim world undermine their efforts to make Islam an American religion?

Offering rich insights into these questions and more, Grewal follows the journeys of American Muslim youth who travel in global, underground Islamic networks. Devoutly religious and often politically disaffected, these young men and women are in search of a home for themselves and their tradition. Through their stories, Grewal captures the multiple directions of the global flows of people, practices, and ideas that connect U.S. mosques to the Muslim world. By examining the tension between American Muslims' ambivalence toward the American mainstream and their desire to enter it, Grewal puts contemporary debates about Islam in the context of a long history of American racial and religious exclusions. Probing the competing obligations of American Muslims to the nation and to the umma (the global community of Muslim believers), Islam is a Foreign Country investigates the meaning of American citizenship and the place of Islam in a global age.

Zareena Grewal is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Religious Studies at Yale University and Director for the Center for the Study of American Muslims at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.

Amazon

NYU Press

Interviews and Reviews of "Light Without Fire" on the first year of Zaytuna College

Interviews
Interview  on Muscat
Interview on Illume Magazine

Interview with Religion Dispatches

Interview in the Christian Century
Interview with Hussein Rashid in the Revealer (including audio)

Reviews
Review by the "Caffeinated Muslim"
Review in the New Yorker

Mention on the Immanent Frame

Video of Discussion with Scott Korb and Imam Khalid Latif on CSPAN/Book TV (hour and ten minutes)

Amazon link

The 2nd Revised Edition of Muhammad, Messenger of Allah, the translation of ash-Shifa by Qadi 'Iyad

http://diwanpress.com/online-store.html?page=shop.product_details&category_id=24&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=123

https://www.facebook.com/events/408697605900459/

A Review of Abdal Hakim Murad's Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions by Riyaz Timol

http://www.1stethical.com/2013/11/14/commentary-on-the-eleventh-contentions-of-abdal-hakim-murad/

Amazon link for the book

Some of the courses at Cambridge Muslim College

Modern Muslim History
 
Presents the major events and trends of the last two centuries with a focus on understanding contemporary debates surrounding religion, state and political participation in the Muslim world. Students will analyse the shaping of the Muslim world during the colonial period and the impact of reformist thinkers whilst relating these to the contemporary situation of the Muslim world, including the rise of the modern Islamic movements.


Modern Religious Thinkers

Introduces the main trends and figures in recent Western theology, examining the notion of a public theologian and how it differs from the Islamic classical roles of a scholar. Various Western theologians are considered, together with their responses to challenges from the Enlightenment and modernity. Figures discussed include Hans Kung, Martin Buber, Richard Niebuhr and Paul Tillich.

Religious Ethics in the Modern World

Analysing contemporary questions of scientific innovation, climate change and ethics, this module aims to view these issues through an engagement with Islamic thought and jurisprudence. Students will relate the concepts of ijtihad and fatwa, together with Islamic legal experts, to examine these contemporary discussions.

http://www.cambridgemuslimcollege.org/diploma/modules/

Abdal-Hakim Murad Interview (March 2013)

Congratulations on entering your fifth year at the Cambridge Muslim College, what was your vision for the college and has this been fulfilled?

Our sense when we founded the college was that the first significant generation of British Muslims had the honour of building the mosques and now the time has come to work on the message being given in the mosques. Often listeners complain that our imams are not dealing with the real issues of modern British Muslim men and women, and especially the youth. Their culture is too different. So the College was created to produce a new generation of relevant Muslim leaders who really understand modernity, British culture, and the issues of the youth.

http://www.fifteen21.com/shaykh-abdal-hakim-murad/

New Book (2012): Muslim Youth: Challenges, Opportunities and Expectations

Many Muslim societies, regardless of location, are displaying a ‘youth bulge', where more than half their populations are under the age of 25. An increasingly globalized western culture is rapidly eroding ‘traditional' ideas about society, from the family to the state. At the same time, there is a view that rampant materialism is creating a culture of spiritual emptiness in which demoralization and pessimism easily find root. For young Muslims these challenges may be compounded by a growing sense of alienation as they face competing ideologies and divergent lifestyles.

Muslim youth are often idealized as the ‘future of Islam' or stigmatized as rebelling against their parental values and suffering ‘identity crises'. These experiences can produce both positive and negative reactions, from intellectual engagement and increasing spiritual maturity to emotional rejectionism, narrow identity politics and violent extremism. This book addresses many of the central issues currently facing young Muslims in both localized and globalized contexts through engaging with the work of academics, youth work practitioners and those working in non-governmental organizations and civic institutions.

http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/muslim-youth-9781441119872/

New: Montmorency's Book of Rhymes by Abdal-Hakim Murad

Join dear Montmorency as he indulges his sweet tooth, the Pasha of Salonica whose family fears for his health, Aisha Featherstone-Pugh who is having trouble with her ablutions, and the Masjid Mouse from Merry Lane who never forgets his prayers in a delightful collection of rhymes relayed in the style of the classics. Using rich and vibrant language, T.J. Winter transports us to a fabulous world of unforgettable characters while Anne Yvonne Gilbert brings the rhymes to life through her heartwarming illustrations, ensuring this book its place as a treasured classic amongst children living in both the East and the West.

Amazon
Kinza Press

RIS Day 2 Review

http://mezba.blogspot.ca/2013/12/ris-2013-day-2-review.html?m=1