News: Reading Muslims
Does Diversity Discourse Matter in the Integration of Muslim Minorities?
January 26, 2023Jeffrey G. Reitz,1 Patrick Simon,2 and Emily Laxer3 December 2022 Muslim immigrants’ religious affiliation and social integration in Western countries have been hot button issues particularly in the two decades of “war on terror” following 9/11, in response to attacks by persons claiming a global Islamic agenda in several countries and extensive media coverage keeping […]
Read this article⟶The Rimāḥ De-Marginalized: Sealing Sainthood and Ṭarīqa Formation in 19th Century West Africa
August 12, 2022Author: Farah El-Sharif In 1995, Islamic Africa specialist John Hunwick lamented that Kitāb al- Rimāḥ “lies unstudied by Africanists and Islamicists like a hard lump in the stomach, massive and undigested.” Enabled by the works of countless scholars who have made enormous inroads into the field of Islamic scholarship in West Africa today, my PhD […]
Read this article⟶From the Sidelines: Confronting Sunni Privilege in the Student Experience
December 1, 2021Author: Yasmeen Atassi The Islamic Holy book, the Quran, and the hadiths (reports about the Prophet Muhammad) serve as sources of guidance for Muslims, regardless of sect or school of thought. But though the origins of Islam in divine revelation are generally accepted among different Muslim groups, points of divergence exist because of human interaction with the text. The need for self-justification particularly impacts how we read texts and internalize them. It is these points of […]
Read this article⟶The Need of Protestantization: Reading Oneself Through European History
November 3, 2021Through a reading of several Muslim reformers from the 19th and 20th centuries, this article investigates the influence that historical narratives have on the reading of the self, identity of the other, the status of one’s tradition, and one’s future.
Read this article⟶Call for Applications: Senior Fellow(s) & Editor
August 23, 2021***Please note that only students enrolled at UofT are eligible to apply for the positions listed below. Please see the specific eligibility requirements for each position.*** A PDF version of this Call for Applications can be found here. Islamic Art and Material Cultures Collaborative (IAMCC)Senior Fellow The Institute of Islamic Studies issues a call for applications for […]
Read this article⟶Reading Muslims: Reflections on #OurLondonFamily
July 13, 2021The IIS is deeply grateful to everyone who held space to process and grieve, in the wake of the tragic murders in London, ON last month. During that time, the Reading Muslims network compiled and posted a series of reflections in solidarity with #OurLondonFamily. The compilation is now made available as a publication below. We […]
Read this article⟶Kamala Khan vs. The Women we Put in Refrigerators
July 8, 2021Author: Salwa Iqbal Muslim representation in the media is on the rise, and comic books are no exception. Traditionally, the representation of Muslim women in comics has been caricatural at best, and offensively orientalist at worst.((Examples of orientalist female characters include “The Veil”, a villain introduced in the X-Men series in 1991; Nicieza, Fabian. “The […]
Read this article⟶Queer and Muslim: Beyond the Normative Dilemma
March 7, 2021Author: Aaisha Salman In 2018, The Queer Muslim Project (TQMP), an online collective initiated by gender and sexuality rights advocate, Rafiul Alom Rahman, held a workshop in Delhi entitled “DIY Islam” (Do-it-Yourself Islam). As a part of this workshop, TQMP invited queer Muslims in the city to reflect on their experiences of Muslimness and faith, “both good and bad.”[1] On their Instagram page, TQMP archived this project […]
Read this article⟶Reading Muslims: Launch webinar on Jan 21
January 4, 2021We’re very excited to share some updates from the Reading Muslims project, as we develop the project throughout the year ahead. About Reading Muslims Reading Muslims is an interdisciplinary conversation on the role of texts and textuality within Islamic studies. The project re-examines the methodological assumptions surrounding the history and use of texts across a […]
Read this article⟶Reading Muslims podcast with Juliette Galonnier: “France’s Fears over ‘Islamic Separatism’ and Academic Freedom”
November 17, 2020On Oct 16th, a French schoolteacher in the suburbs of Paris named Samuel Paty was murdered by a Muslim man for showing his classroom caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The aftermath has placed Islam and Muslims under scrutiny with the government claiming that “Islamist separatism” is challenging the Republic’s values and unity. In this podcast, […]
Read this article⟶Press Release: Connaught Global Challenge Grant for Reading Muslims
August 5, 2020The Institute of Islamic Studies will launch in Fall 2020 a new research collected entitled Reading Muslims. Supported with a recently awarded grant from UofT’s Connaught Global Challenge Fund, Reading Muslims will be lead by Co-PIs Anver M. Emon and IIS Post-Doctoral Fellow Youcef Soufi. Over the next two years, Reading Muslims will host a […]
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