Research

The term refugees has become the latest buzzword, causing people to eitherspew hate speech or extend a warm welcome – thereby creating a firmdividing line. There is so much discussion about refugees that peoplesometimes forget the very individuals who are forced to stand astride thatdividing line. Who are they? What are their stories? What does it mean tobe a refugee? How are they coping once they reach the United States?How are their lives impacted by this divisive debate? What are the strugglesthey continue to have? How are they influencing the larger communitieswhere they live? Catherine Besteman addresses all of these questions(and more) in her timely study, Making Refuge: Somali Bantu Refugeesand Lewiston, Maine.Besteman introduces the book by speaking of her yearlong stay in Banta,Somalia, as part of her anthropological fieldwork during the late 1980s, justbefore civil war broke out. She then immediately shifts the lens to Lewiston,Maine, in the year 2010, home to a large Soma...

Sinanović began by introducing IIIT to the diverse audience. He explained that the institute is devoted to the revival of Islamic traditions and the reform of Muslim societies. In addition to affirming that our sources and principles are unchangeable, he positioned IIIT as the institution dedicated to making our

The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) hosted two consecutivepanels at the annual Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) convention onMay 24, 2015.Ermin Sinanović (director, Research and Academic Programs) openedpanel 1, “Imam & Community Education,” by explaining that IIIT is committedto continuous professional development for imams and community leadersso that they can be effective in the United States. As opposed to the societiesfrom which they come, here they are expected to perform many non-traditionalroles, such as Islamic instruction, interfaith participation, counseling, dealingwith a pluralistic community, and catering to the community’s needs. All ofthese expectations and the difficulties that imams face in trying to fulfill them,he remarked, “explains the high turnover we have at mosques.”Several years ago, IIIT and Hartford Seminary designed a joint GraduateCertificate in Imam and Muslim Community Leadership program to trainimams in the necessary skills. T...

The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), in partnership with IstanbulUniversity’s Faculty of Theology, organized the Reform of Educationin Muslim Societies conference on March 18-19, 2016, in Istanbul, Turkey.The conference opened with memorial lectures by Hisham Altalib (vice president,IIIT) and Fathi Malkawi (regional director, Arab World) for Jamal Barzinji(d. 2015) and Shaykh Taha Jabir Al-Alwani (d. 2016), respectively. Thissession was moderated by Yaqub Mirza (president and CEO, Sterling ManagementGroup, Inc.).Session I: Contemporary Ethics of IslamZiauddin Sardar (chair, Muslim Institute, London) began his “Education Reform:From Islamisation of Knowledge to Integration of Knowledge” by relayingthree remarks from the imprisoned Anwar Ibrahim, a main force behindthe education reform project: (1) the crisis of education is universal, (2) Muslimsshould confidently engage with the West on equal terms, and (3) the discussionof reforming education needs to involve all ...

With so much focus on illiteracy, we sometimes forget the dire stateof affairs in our urban centers with regard to education. Educationin the Muslim world has increasingly regressed into an exercise ofrote learning, a mass of discrete knowledge, and a frenzied race towardwhat we deem “useful” skills. By showing the ground realityin private education in Karachi, Pakistan, this article strives to highlightthe cyclical and future-oriented trends in schools that are inimicalto the very spirit of education. In doing so, it emphasizes theneed to adopt thinking as the primary skill taught to students inschools, with everything else encompassed within its fold. WhileKarachi is a case study here, the importance of creating thinkingcultures within schools is a crucial and very relevant concept toschools everywhere in the world, including the United States.

This article strives to chart the intellectual history of Muslims and the trans-civilizational, discursive tradition of Islam spanning fourteen centuries. It chronicles the scholarly projects shaping Islamic thought as they developed in the wake of the Prophet’s (s) death and intensified in the ensuing centuries despite the numerous changes and tumultuous times the Muslim ummah encountered. Together with an accompanying map and visual timeline, it endeavors to empower students of Islam in general and Islamic Studies programs in particular with an appreciation of the breadth and depth of Muslim intellectual history. The article begins by tracing the foundation of early regional centers, the side-by-side formation of disciplines, the development of the various legal schools as well as the many strains of Islamic thought, and how they not only influenced one another but also became absorbed into mainstream Islam, ending with an overview of the impact of modernity on Islamic thought. Th...