The Thinking Muslim

My guest today, Hakeem Muhammad, grew up in the communities excluded by mainstream America. He argues that in our anger we should not undervalue the structural conditions that enable and safeguard those that treat their fellow man as sub-human. The structural racism that plagues American life comes from a broader ideology that shows disdain for non-European cultures and creeds. He argues powerfull...

Muslim’s that engage on social media often contribute to the online antagonism that reflects the coarse and crude trend of wider society. It goes like this, someone tweets a view, sometimes coherent and thought through and sometimes not and within a short space of time, it solicits a torrent of abuse. This week on The Thinking Muslim we look at ‘Muslim Twitter’, what causes the bitterness? how do...

Ertugrul is a show about the legendary father of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Sultanate. The show’s success in the Muslim world leaves many, especially those with liberal leanings, perplexed. Its recent airing in Pakistan has taken the country by storm. Prime Minister Imran Khan has tweeted about the show, suggesting all young Pakistani’s can gain a sense of lost history and Muslim unity. S...

Death has become a part of our everyday lives. Covid-19 and its spread have brought home to us the undeniable reality that we are mortal beings and our accumulation of wealth, prestige and power will come to an end. How we think about death impacts on how we think about life. So how should death be conceptualised? How should we really remember death, beyond the occasional thoughts about it? How do...

How should we understand the ahadith related to plagues and medicines? We are often deluged with cures for a host of ailments and some argue conventional pharmaceuticals have little value in the face of these solutions from sunnah. This week on the Thinking Muslim Podcast I have invited an imam and author Iyad Hilal from California, America to explain what is the prophetic sunnah and how should we...

This week I speak to Fadl Hejazi, a Muslim academic from India, about the crisis facing the Muslims of India. To cover its obvious failures, key Indian politicians and its RSS supporters opted to turn the country on its Muslim citizens, blaming the mounting cases on the Tablighi Jamat Ijtima (gathering) in Nizamuddin. What they dubbed  ‘Corona Jihad,’ an insidious campaign to spread the virus to H...

What is pronounced today in a post-truth world is the increase of non-experts on social media that forward their views and gain an audience upon conspiracy theories and half-baked truths. This week we invite Dr Naveed Syed from Public Health England and Dr Imran Waheed to unravel the truths behind the crisis and why so many people are susceptible to conspiracies. We look at the origins of Covid-19...

Since the Coronavirus lockdown became a daily feature of our lives, a number of commentators have speculated about the future of economic liberalism. Many on the left and some Muslims have concluded this period will presage the end to capitalism and the dawn of a new economic order. Such claims may fail to live up to proper scrutiny, instead we may be witnessing the acceleration of America’s posit...

As we hunker down and wait in anticipation for a Covid-19 breakthrough, we inevitably begin to think about our mortality and whether we have within us the ability to deal with this crisis. In the coming weeks we are going to explore the Covid-19 crisis and its implication upon us. Today I invite back onto the show, Dr Shadee Elmasry, an imam and Islamic scholar from the United States. We look at 1...

My guest this week, Dr Ovamir Anjum , although abhorring all that Isis may stand for, suggests that its brief rise to notoriety has opened up space for intelligent minded Muslim’s to reimagine a world with a just Caliphate. Dr Anjum calls for a new wave of thinking on the subject, grounded in revelation and aimed at showing both Muslim’s and non-Muslims how Islam’s thought should be considered as...

What is a man, what makes a man and what is masculinity? Dr Shadee Elmasry takes a look at toxic masculinity and Islam's response. Dr Shadee in this debate, stands out for his dedication to a nuanced and intelligent look at how revelation informs the Muslim conception of masculinity. How did the Allah and His Messenger's (saw) practice nurture an Islamic vision of masculinity? Follow the programme...

This week I speak to Dr Asher Siddiqui, an engineer from Delhi who has been at the epicentre of the  protests at Delhi’s Jamia Millia University. During the past two weeks, India has been rocked by countrywide demonstrations spontaneously driven by largely young Muslim’s energised by their mutual dislike for a new citizenship law designed to relegate Muslim’s as second class citizens. The law, the...

In our short lives it is inevitable that we shall experience the death of our loved ones. Psychologists claim that there are five stages of grief, and for some to come to terms with the death of a partner, son, daughter or close friend may never be reconciled. We hear of many whose hearts are never settled and who live a shadow of their former lives. Many fall into depression as a consequence and...

My guest this week has been working in the field for over twenty years, Dr Imran Waheed is a consultant psychiatrist and looks at what is mental illness and why is it on the increase? How does Islam help us to deal with our mental health and build resilience to deal with the travails of life? And why has the liberal west failed to enhance the human mind? Follow the programme on Twitter @thinking_m...

This week I ask Dr Abul Izz Abdul Salam, a professor and expert in comparative economics from Jerusalem Palestine, to take a look at how Islam deals with the creation of wealth and at the same time address the problem of stagnant money that remains the prize of the rich 1%. It is common in the west to find multi-billionaires hoard vast amounts of wealth or invest their capital in financial markets...

This week I talk to Dr Abul Izz Abdul Salam, an academic and thinker of Islamic and comparative economics and a university professor from Jerusalem Palestine. We take a look at how Islamic Economics differs from the dominant liberal economic order that creates enormous wealth inequalities and perpetuates poverty. Follow the programme on Twitter @thinking_muslimhttps://twitter.com/thinking_muslimDo...

This week I talk to Uthman Badr, academic, speaker and activist from Sydney Australia, on secularism, its origins, meaning and its impact upon the Muslim World. Follow the programme on Twitter@thinking_muslimhttps://twitter.com/thinking_muslimDonate to help us promote the podcast using PayPal here https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=B6WZTV3E6LUYN&source=urlAnd read...

This week I talk to Asim Qureshi, Research Director at the advocacy group CAGE, on the securitisation of the Muslim community and the making of an ‘enemy within’.Follow the programme on Twitter @thinking_muslim [https://twitter.com/thinking_muslim]Donate to help us promote the podcast using PayPal here [https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=B6WZTV3E6LUYN&source=url]A...

My guest this week is Hakeem Muhammad, he argues that narratives about the slave trade barely mention the Muslim origin of many African’s that were enslaved, their courageous attempts to remain Muslim despite severe repression and indeed the role Islam played as a basis of defiance and the driver behind many of the slave rebellions on plantations. Hakeem charts the role of Christianity in legitimi...

Www.thinkingmuslim.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

@thinking_muslimFor over three years, Britain’s political establishment and much of the country has been in, what can only described as political meltdown. The 2016 referendum called by David Cameron resulted in the extraordinary outcome to leave the EU, despite all political predictions to the contrary. Since then Britain has been battling with the issue, triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treat...

This week we look at Islam’s perspective on wealth. In many ways how we view wealth and its accumulation has an impact on how we think, our likes and dislikes and how we engage with the world. It is accepted that religious people shun wealth, "the meek will inherit the earth" is the famous biblical passage. Many Muslims also have an uneasy relationship with wealth, it is often associated with fahi...

This week I speak to Fadl Hejazi, an India based academic in Islamic sciences, currently pursuing his doctoral studies in the energy economies of the Arab world. Fadl has extensively travelled across India and he is also a regular visitor to Kashmir. In this second part podcast, more than 2-weeks since the Indian government’s actions in Kashmir, I want to explore the doctrine that underpins Modi’s...

This week on The Thinking Muslim Podcast I interview Dr Omar Khan, a political analyst and expert in South Asian affairs. Dr Khan provides a fascinating understanding of the political and geopolitical reasons behind PM Modi of India’s decision to repeal Article 370 and 35A that has led to an almost total lockdown in the region. He takes a deep dive into why Modi decided to take this move now, the...

This week we shall be looking at the situation of the Muslim’s in China. Welcome to the first podcast of The Thinking Muslim, follow the show on @thinking_muslim and do remember to subscribe. For the past few years news about the plight of the Uyghurs in the restive north-western region of Xinjiang, known as East Turkestan, has gradually worsened. The destruction of Mosques; the use of techno...