News: Reading Muslims

Jeffrey 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 […]

Authors: Youcef Soufi, Anver Emon Anver Emon, Professor of Law and History at the UofT, sits down with Youcef Soufi for an indepth discussion on his latest book Jurisdictional Exceptionalism, co-written with Urfan Khaliq. The 1980 Hague Abduction Convention was intended to create international consensus over how to handle cases in which one parent absconded with their […]

Authors: Youcef Soufi, Sunera Thobani Baljit Nagra, Associate Professor at OttawaU’s Department of Criminology, discusses her book Securitized Citizens: Canadian Muslims Experiences of Race Relations and Identity Formation Post 9/11. Dr. Nagra discusses the findings of her research with educated second-generation Muslims in Toronto and Vancouver. Nagra analyzes Canadian Muslims’ exclusion from citizenship post 9/11. She […]

Author: 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 […]

Authors: Youcef Soufi, Sunera Thobani  Sunera Thobani, Professor in the Asian Studies Department at UBC, discusses her new book, Contesting Islam: The Inordinate Desire of the West (2021). Dr. Thobani recounts the historical constructions of Muslims and the West through an critical engagement with postcolonial theorists, race theory, feminism, and queer theory. Host: Youcef Soufi Date […]

Author: Mohannad Abusarah, Suzanne Marchand Professor Suzanne Marchand joins the Reading Practices Hub to discuss German Orientalism and the philological approach. She gives an overview of the history of German Orientalism and the reason for choosing it as a subject of her study. In the episode, Prof. Marchand also discusses the critique of philology and […]

Authors: Dr. Khaled al-Qazzaz, Sara Hamed Khaled Al-Qazzaz is an education and communications consultant. He holds a Masters of Applied Sciences in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto (U of T), and pursued a Doctorate of Education in Educational Administration at Walden University. In 2005, Khaled moved to Egypt and established a […]

Authors: Junaid Quadri, Mohannad Abusarah Professor Junaid Quadri joins the Reading Practices Hub to discuss theoretical questions related to the study of Islamic thought. He focuses on the connection between thought and practice in the Islamic tradition, especially in Islamic law. He also discusses the question of continuity and rupture in a way that he […]

Authors: Noah Saloman, Abdulla Majeed Professor Noah Salomon joins this episode of the Reading Muslims podcast to discuss the role texts and textuality came to play in his ethnography of the Islamic State in Sudan, For Love of the Prophet (Princeton University Press 2016). He reflects on what it means to approach texts not only as an […]

Authors: Nada Moumtaz, Junaid Quadri, Sadaf Ahmed, Sara Hamed At this joint book talk, we put two new and formidable books into conversation: God’s Property: Islam, Charity, and the Modern State (University of California Press, 2021), by Nada Moumtaz, and Transformations of Tradition: Islamic Law in Colonial Modernity (University of Oxford Press, 2021), by Junaid Quadri. Each of these works tells […]

Author: 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 […]

Authors: Fahad Ahmad, Khalidah Ali Dr. Fahad Ahmad discusses his dissertation, “Comparison of Muslim Civil Society Responses to Counter-radicalization Policies in Canada & U.K” with PhD candidate, Khalidah Ali, at the Institute of Islamic Studies. Comparing the cases of Canada and the U.K., this research shows how, in response to CR policy pressures, Muslim civil […]

Through 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.

The comparison between 19th- and 20th-century Islamic reformist thought and Protestantism is a common one within Western scholarship. Many authors compare the Muslim reform movements that started in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries to the Protestant Reformation, in the sense that it resembles the movement inaugurated by Luther in 16thcentury Europe.[1] These authors claim that Muslim reformers reinterpreted […]

Authors: Tazeen Ali, Iman Abdoul Karim Dr. Tazeen Ali joins the Anthropology of Islam Hub to discuss her upcoming book project, Authorizing Women: Islamic Authority at the Women’s Mosque of America with New York University Press. She lays out the gendered and racialized landscape of the U.S. Muslim religious authority and what is and isn’t new about Women’s Mosque of […]

Authors: Katherine Bullock, Sara Hamed Dr. Bullock explains the vision of Compass Books and how both her academic and activism careers inspired her to found the company. She elaborates various challenges in the book publishing industry, and the role her company aims to play in Muslim identity formation. She discusses how Compass Books walks a fine and […]

Author: Adil Mawani One hundred and fifty years ago the social reformer, Sir Sayyid Aḥmad Ḵẖān (d. 1898), had an opportunity to travel to Great Britain. I have often tried to imagine what he would have thought of the chance to visit the heart of the British Empire. A glimpse into his experience is possible […]

Authors: Mohammad Fadel, Anver Emon Dr. Fadel joins this special edition podcast to discuss his beginnings in academia, and his observations about the field of Middle Eastern studies over time. He is joined by Dr. Emon as the two come together to discuss their approaches to Islamic law and legal studies, where textuality (and debates […]

***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 […]

Author: Sara Ameri On Tuesday, 24 Dhu al-Qaʿda, 309 (922 CE), the people of Baghdad witnessed the public execution of Manṣūr al-Hallāj. He had been a well-known if controversial Sufi who had spent years travelling as far as Kashmir and Qocho, preaching and gathering people to his circle. After spending 8 years in the Abbasid […]

Author: Sara Hamed The words “Deeply Rooted and Standing Strong,” flashed on my screen against the image of a thick trunked tree with protruding roots stitched into the earth around it. It’s time for an authentic, genuine narrative that is grounded in our religion, to reflect our proud Canadian Muslim identity,” said the promo video’s […]

Author: Aaisha Salman In December 2019, Al Jazeera reported  that students protesting in India against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) found inspiration from celebrated Urdu poets, stating that “Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Habib Jalib and Allama Iqbal remain integral to popular protests against ‘anti-Muslim’ citizenship law.” Since December 2019, students have led the protests in India against a […]

The 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 […]

Author: 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 […]

Author: 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.[1] The inaccurate and objectionable representation of Muslim women in pop culture follows the general trend of badly written female characters. […]

Introduction The eleven reflections gathered here are in response to the attack in London, Ontario on Sunday June 6th that killed Madiha Salman, Salman Afzaal, Yumna Afzaal, and Talat Afzaal, and hospitalized 9-year old  Fayez Afzaal. Recognized as a “mass murder” and a “terrorist act,” the attack brought to public attention the problem of Islamophobia in […]

Author: Anver Emon Professor Anver M. Emon, co-author and principal research of “Under Layered Suspicion: A Review of CRA Audits of Muslim-led Charities” provides a walkthrough of the report. In each video he unpacks the careful reading and analysis of audit track records and public policies which give insight into the ways systemic biases and […]

Authors: Zeinab Farokhi, Yasmin Jiwani, Faiza Hirji, Kenza Oumlil, Tanner Mirrlees This panel brings together the contributors of a special issue of the Journal of Islamophobia Studies that addresses the operation and circulation of Islamophobic discourses on a transnational level through the realm of digital media. Zeinab Farokhi Zeinab Farokhi is a doctoral candidate at the Women […]

Author: Abdulla Majeed On February 11th 2020, the controversial Iraqi religious cleric and spiritual leader of the Sadrist Movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, ordered and announced the disbandment of the “Blue Hats” militant unit by tweeting on his official Twitter account. This disbandment came after the “Blue Hats” were involved in attacks on Iraqi protestors in Baghdad, Nasiriyah and […]

On February 16, 2021, French MPs approved a new law entitled “Reinforcing Republican Principles” to prevent religious extremism and what the French President, Emmanuel Macron, refers to as “Islamist Separatism.” The bill was proposed in the context of what I term “Charlie Hebdo-related violence,” which began in 2015 with the attacks on the satirical magazine […]

Author: Adil Mawani What did reading practices look like in early modern South Asia? To address this question, we must explore the processes that enabled the adoption and spread of print technology in South Asia. Interestingly, the innovation of print was established in Europe in the fifteenth century but did not come into use in […]

Authors: Anver Emon, Nadia Hasan, Zeinab Farokhi In this discussion, hosted by Zeinab Farokhi, Professor Anver Emon and Dr. Nadia Hasan share findings on how biases in Canada’s anti-terrorism financing and anti-radicalization regimes disproportionately target Muslim-led charities, leading to the revocation of their charitable status. The full report can be found at: layeredsuspicion.ca The authors also […]

Author: Khalidah Ali On November 16th, 2020, Motherboard published an investigation on data collection and surveillance. At the centre of this story was the Muslim prayer app Muslim Pro. The article entitled “How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps” written by Joseph Cox was shared widely, garnering Muslim reactions of outrage and betrayal aimed at […]

Author: Abdulla Majeed In the midst of his road rage, Amir—the taxi driver I often accompanied to one of the organizations I was conducting fieldwork with in East Amman- suddenly began to murmur and recite God’s name in tasbīḥ (praise) and istighfār (asking forgiveness) as he tried to calm his anger. I glimpsed at the traffic light and noticed […]

Author: 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 […]

Author: 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 […]

Author: Joud Alkonrani Not too long ago, I asked my supervisor roughly how long a dissertation chapter should be. “Between 8 and 10 thousand words,” she replied. Sorry to have asked, I sheepishly attached my 23,000-word chapter to my email in response. A few weeks later, I received from my committee detailed and thoughtful feedback […]

Author: Natasha Bakht Niqab-wearing women in liberal democracies have for some time been “read” in very particular ways that do not tend to coincide with their lived realities. Many people assume that by wearing the niqab, these women accept subordinate status to men, that they are forced into this attire, that they do not or cannot work in […]

Authors: Anver Emon, Ruba Kana’an, Nada Moumtaz, Youcef Soufi In this inaugural webinar, four scholars at the forefront of the Reading Muslims project explore the role of textuality in their studies of Islam across different disciplines. Dr. Anver Emon begins by introducing the origins, mandate, and scope of the Reading Muslim project as a Connaught […]

Authors: Anver Emon, Youcef Soufi Reading Muslims was born in the aftermath of a seminar on Islamic law at the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) in the fall of 2019. We were brainstorming about a research project that could bring together the diverse skills and interests of the inter-departmental cohort of scholars of Islam and Muslims of the University of Toronto. During the seminar, […]

Reading Muslims was born in the aftermath of a seminar on Islamic law at the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) in the fall of 2019. We were brainstorming about a research project that could bring together the diverse skills and interests of the inter-departmental cohort of scholars of Islam and Muslims of the University of Toronto. During the seminar, we noticed a palpable excitement […]

We’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 […]

On 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, […]

The 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 […]