The Thinking Muslim

Please REMEMBER to subscribe and consider making a donation, however small, to The Thinking Muslim to receive a share in the reward and to help us make a greater impact. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The anger we feel from Israel’s continued barbarous shelling of Gaza cannot be put into words. The impunity with which it acts and the green light given by the west just reminds us that the so-called rules-based order is...

When we consider the stance of the West over Israel’s actions these past weeks, many point out the blatant hypocrisy in applying their standards. We are constantly told that human rights are inviolable, that freedom of speech is sacrosanct, and that people have the right to self-determination. Westerners sermonise about how Muslims should embrace democratic norms. They pontificate about the rules-...

Please REMEMBER to subscribe and consider making a donation, however small, to The Thinking Muslim to receive a share in the reward and to help us make a greater impact. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ This episode was filmed a week ago before the grave atrocities including the slaughter at Al Ahli hospital. The Western propaganda machine is in full motion. Israel, aided by the west are conditioning western public opin...

The inhuman aggression by which Israel treats Palestinians is known to everyone who possesses an ounce of justice. This excludes, of course, Western nations for whom, apparently, history began last Saturday. However, they are very aware that the colonial outpost they set up in the Middle East is hell-bent on extracting as much land as possible to accommodate racist Americans and Europeans. They ar...

Sami Hamdi from the episode ‘Israeli’s in Riyadh’ answers the question why Palestine matters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do we revive a strong thinking scholarly tradition? Our guest this week is Dr. Shuayb Wani, he is the Director and Co-Founder of the Dār Al ‘Ilm Institute https://daralilm.org . His course on the Islamic worldview is currently running and is available online. He grew up in Indian occupied Kashmir and started his quest to learn Islamic ‘Ulūm during his schooling years. He completed his foundati...

Please consider making a donation, however small, to The Thinking Muslim, to receive a share in the reward and to help us make a greater impact. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can donate either through a one-time contribution:  https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/Donate or join our Patreon to get access to exclusive events:  https://www.patreon.com/TheThinkingMuslim/ You can now purchase our Thinking Muslim m...

Please consider making a donation, however small, to The Thinking Muslim, to receive a share in the reward and to help us make a greater impact. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can donate either through a one-time contribution: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/Donate To help us understand the great Salahuddin, I have invited Dr Abdul Rahman Azzam onto the show. Dr. Azzam has authored several books, including Saladin:...

Please consider making a donation, however small, to The Thinking Muslim, to receive a share in the reward and to help us make a greater impact. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can donate either through a one-time contribution:  https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/Donate or join our Patreon to get access to exclusive events:  https://www.patreon.com/TheThinkingMuslim/ You can now purchase our Thinking Muslim m...

Please consider making a donation, however small, to The Thinking Muslim, to receive a share in the reward and to help us make a greater impact. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/Donate You can now purchase our Thinking Muslim mug here https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/merch Sign up to our newsletter https://jalalayn.substack.com It is no exaggeration to say that in their quest to malign Islam,...

Please consider making a donation, however small, to The Thinking Muslim, to receive a share in the reward and to help us make a greater impact. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/Donate You can now purchase our Thinking Muslim mug here https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/merch Sign up to our newsletter https://jalalayn.substack.com The so-called Abraham Accords, delivered by the Trump Administrat...

Please consider making a donation, however small, to The Thinking Muslim, to receive a share in the reward and to help us make a greater impact. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/Donate You can now purchase our Thinking Muslim mug here https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/merch Sign up to our newsletter https://jalalayn.substack.com Check out our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f13...

India’s 200 million Muslims are at the mercy of an ultra-nationalist government that looks to create an exclusively Hindu Bharat or homeland. Since the rise of the BJP government, led by Narendra Modi, Muslims have been subject to discrimination, alienation, daily religious abuse, economic marginalisation, state-sanctioned mob violence and pogroms like in Gujarat in 2002. This Hindu nationalism is...

You can also watch this programme on Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zbOe1pDdHkA Newsletter: https://jalalayn.substack.com/ Japan is a country that is known for its deep connection with tradition. Much of its rich culture comes from its adherence to two religious beliefs, Shintoism and Buddhism but it has also been influenced by Confucianism. The Japanese value purity and cleanliness. Unlik...

There is a growing interest in Ottoman history. This has come from a recognition that an understanding of our Islamic history is necessary to carve our common Islamic future. But then the question arises, who writes this history? How do we know whether Ottoman historians, East and West, are purveyors of an orientalist narrative, slanted to match political interests? To untangle the facts from fict...

We often hear from Muslims that our ummah suffers from disunity on a local, national, and international level. Slight differences of opinion can cause major divisions. Our countries remain deeply divided between themselves and there is an impression that has consolidated that we will not be able to recover our position. This situation has led to despondency. Helplessness and in the extreme an acce...

You can write to Dr Aafia via her lawyer on email clive@3dc.org.uk The deadline for the first round of letters is 1/8/23 - you can still send letters after this date for future visits. Please place in the subject of the email: Thinking Muslim letter for Aafia. Clive has set up a crowdfunding page for a monthly standing order/debit for Aafia; this is to pay for a young Pakistani researcher to help...

France’s estimated six million strong Muslims are subject to daily inhuman treatment at the hands of a militant secular state. Islam as a faith has long been traduced and othered, exceptionalised as a religion that must be chastened by French enlightenment. It is this context that we observe with horror the recent episode of brutality. Seventeen year old Nahel Merzouk was killed at point blank ran...

Theres a growing movement in Europe and North America to reconsider where the future of Muslim communities lie. In recent years, a host of security and social concerns have brought to question just how much Muslims can maintain their commitments to Islam and leave peacefully in a society that constantly looks for opportunities to marginalise Islamic practice. The Liberal state is intent on secular...

Many Muslims living in the West have become aware that the ideas of tolerance, individualism, liberal multiculturalism and freedom of religion – all liberal notions — have their limits when it comes to our community. A series of tensions, from depictions of the Messenger (saw) in offensive cartoons and the teaching of sexual practices at odds with our faith in schools, has brought into focus how t...

The issue of the caliphate has recently made a resurgence within Muslim discourse. For nearly 100 years the Muslim ummah has been without a caliphate, and many have come to the view that the world of empires is behind us, and we now must embrace the era of nation-states. Yet the issue remains a live one, Islam and Muslims have remained tortured by our lack of ability to resolve some of the most in...

For twenty years, the United States fought an unwinnable and ultimately self-defeating war in Afghanistan – only to withdraw in a humiliating way in 2021. The conflict ended what many saw to be a colonial enterprise. We explore that war, where it leaves Afghanistan, the region's geopolitics, Afghanistans relationship with Pakistan and the role of the Taliban. Many see the austere Islamic group...

This week we explore the issues Farhat Amin raises in her new book ‘Smart Teenage Muslimah, an inspirational guide for Muslim Girls’. Farhat is concerned with Muslim girls' challenges in the West and how society impacts their sense of identity and self. Farhat Amin addresses the challenges Muslim women and girls face in Western societies through her engagements. Her writings delve into the unf...

We often see people claim an action to be kufr (disbelief), for example, neglecting prayer, or they designate a use of language to be a term of disbelief. This leads to questioning a person's iman. A politician endorses a reprehensible act, or a Muslim academic calls for the reform of Islam – these are all discussed as attributes of kufr. So what is disbelief and what is belief, and does every...

There has been an uptick in the number of people converting to Islam recently. This was very noticeable in Ramadan, when it just seemed every day, a young man was becoming Muslim. Imam Ashraf, who leads a congregation in the inner-city London borough of Lewisham, discusses why so many British youngsters are turning to Islam. His Mosque saw over 60 conversions in Ramadan alone. I ask him about the...