The Thinking Muslim

The US elections are in full flow, with the two big parties focussing on the key swing states that will decide this election. In states like Michigan, a slight movement of voters can determine the outcome. And this means Muslim voters may play a decisive role. To help us understand the political and intellectual climate, I have invited back onto the show Imam Tom Facchine show. Imam Tom has been i...

To help us unpick the relationship between Western foreign policy and media our guest this week is Hamza Yusuf is a British-Palestinian writer and journalist whose work focuses on Palestine. He has reported on daily life under occupation for Palestinians, including home demolitions and forced expulsion and the conditions for Palestinians in Israeli prisons. He is an investigative journalist at Dec...

The Biden-Harris administration has aided and abetted genocide. The argument they still deserve our vote is not only politically naïve but is also built upon a bed of lies. We must show courage in this election and vote for a third party. This is not only morally the correct position; it is the only way to build long-term political leverage for the American Muslim community. Read Muhammad Jalal's...

Please subscribe ** Dr Yakoob Ahmed interviews your host, Muhammad Jalal. The genocide in Gaza and the need for enlightened activism was captured by the guests and content that came out on The Thinking Muslim. We had become accustomed to calls for immediate action, some of which were short-lived. But what The Thinking Muslim did was to place this activism within a sacred responsibility. That's why...

Is modern society failing our children? Has the quest for constant progress, through the use of technology and the desire to constantly engage our children with stimuli and keep them busy with lives that we have curated for them, been to the detriment of childhood? A recent global childhood report found that British children are the most unhappy in the Western world despite our relative material p...

Apologies for the slight deterioration in sound, especially in the first 30 minutes of the interview. Let me remind all viewers that to help us continue to engage critical thought at this time, Please consider becoming a Patron. https://www.patreon.com/TheThinkingMuslim The ongoing slaughter in Gaza and now the carpet bombing of Lebanon has at its backdrop the US elections. Both Kamala Harris and...

Join our Telegram channel Telegram: https://t.me/thinkingmuslim Let me remind all viewers that to help us continue to engage critical thought at this time, Please consider becoming a Patron. https://www.patreon.com/TheThinkingMuslim Sami Hamdi has been at the fore of the conversation about how Muslims should respond to the unparalleled attack upon Gaza. The brutality with which the Israelis now ac...

The Sunni Shia divide remains an open wound and a means by which our enemies meddle in our internal affairs. Since the war on terror, and the horrible sectarianism unleashed on Iraq, this divide has got even bigger and has often led to bloody violence. However, amidst this turmoil, we often hear voices from within the Ummah and beyond, dreaming of unity to confront the misery, humiliation, and suf...

It is said a people without a past are a lost soul. And in today’s turbulent world, the Muslim ummah has come to realise that we have, in many cases, been taught a version of history that fails to appreciate what the late Shabbir Akhtar called Islam as a imperial faith. Dr Yakoob Ahmed is an academic specialising in late Ottoman history. He was until recently a lecturer in Islamic history at Istan...

Please consider becoming a Patron. https://www.patreon.com/TheThinkingMuslim Gaza has been a hurtful experience. This year we saw the passing of a milestone, 100 years without a central leadership. The last Ottoman Caliphate, with all its faults, remained a global force and acted as a shield for this ummah. So why have we declined to such a degree that it seems our leadership is inept and our umma...

Today, The United States strides the globe as one of the world's most powerful empires ever witnessed. Its hegemonic ambition, devised after the Second World War and consolidated with the untimely fall of the Soviet Union, knows little limits. With a litany of military bases, a network of alliances, an international economic architecture that places it at the centre of the world economy and enormo...

For a conscientious Muslim, managing ones money in the West can be a difficult prospect. Islam has a series of rules to do with money, the prohibition of riba (interest) being the key one, and rules on trade that often places it at odds with a rather laissez faire Neo liberal model. Muslims feel a sense of unease when we place our money in banks or engage is investment opportunities that may contr...

Until last week, all the talk in the west was that of a developing ceasefire agreement for Gaza. That talk is now about a regional conflict. The lead negotiator, Ismail Haniyah, May Allah have mercy on him and accord to him the status of shahadah, was assassinated in an audacious attack in Tehran. This follows the death of a high-profile commander, Fuad Shukr, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Th...

To help us understand the situation in Bangladesh after the student protests, journalist and commentator Dilly Hussain joins us. Dilly is known for his public engagements, his fearless contribution to Muslim conversation, and his editorship of 5pillars. Let me remind all viewers that to help us continue to engage critical thought at this time, please consider becoming a Patron. https://www.patreon...

The Quran is the majestic word of Allah (swt), it gives Muslims life. In the Quran, Allah speaks to all human beings and those that read the Quran revere the majesty of its style and prose. Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem is the Professor of Islamic Studies and director of the Centre for Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University, as well as editor of...

This week, I invite Riaz Hasan, an economist and data scientist who has worked with me throughout this period on the elections. Riaz and I worked together over these past weeks to inject some data into the conversation about Muslim electoral weight. He was instrumental in offering the communities advice on moving forward, using the clarity of numbers to run good-quality local campaigns. Let me rem...

A question many Western analysts have attempted to answer is whether Islam is a political faith. To help us understand the subject, we have invited an Dr. Fadhl Hasan. Dr Fadl is a Co-Founder of the Dar Al Ilm Institute. He was born and raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he memorised the Quran and attained his foundational knowledge of Arabic and Islamic sciences. He runs a publishing solutions...

Urgent Call: To help leanne’s campaign in the last few days head to https://airtable.com/appE47RFg1wKrv41... This is probably the most important political campaign in the country. Leanne Mohamad is looking to cause a massive political upset for Labour this election night. Leanne Mohamad is a British Palestinian organiser and politician who is looking to win a seat in the UK general election on the...

How do we conceptualise where we are, the international situation and what comes next. To help us understand ourselves and the world, we are happy to invite back onto the Thinking Muslim our friend Sami Hamdi. Let me remind all viewers that to help us continue to engage critical thought at this time, please consider becoming a Patron. https://www.patreon.com/TheThinkingMuslim You can also support...

At a time when the youth of the world are rising up for Gaza, it is probably not uncontroversial to say that Muslim students on university campuses are lagging behind. Dr. Ayo Khalil is a medical Doctor, community worker, and former student activist who spearheaded student political campaigns against Islamophobia, racism, and Israeli apartheid. He was also a VP at Fosis in 2020, leading their poli...

Until recently, lawyer Tasnime Akunjee was standing to be an MP in the British Westminster Parliament – standing in the seat of Bethnal Green and Stephney. I say until recently, because in order to prevent a split vote he did the honourable thing and stood down – sparking praise across the country. In Britain’s 4 million strong Muslim community, Tasnime’s behaviour is a model for how we should act...

The Thinking Muslim team was honoured to host this exclusive event at Gatton Road Mosque, London with two lucid and outstanding thinkers. Ahmed Paul Keeler and Imam Tom Facchine discussed Muslims in an Age of Crises. Recording from 19th April 2024 Join our Patreon to get access to exclusive monthly Zoom calls:    / thethinkingmuslim   You can also support The Thinking Musl...

Our guest this week has been dismayed at the negative media coverage given to Muslims who place Gaza as a voting concern. Terms like fifth column and insurrectionists have been evoked to claim the Muslim vote should be deeply feared. Peter Oborne writes principally for the Middle East Eye, among other outlets. His books include "The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong about Islam” and “The Assa...

Dr Amina Shareef is Assistant Professor in Education at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research seeks to understand how Muslim people are unmade as tawhidic subjects—subjects forged in relation to tawhidic worldview in which there is no god but God—and remade as liberal subjects by anti-Muslim racism. Join our Patreon to get access to exclusive monthly Zoom calls: https://www.patreon.com/Th...

Imam Tom Facchine is the research director of the Department of Islam and Society at Yaqeen Institute. And a prolific speaker and commentator on Islam and philosophy. He discusses the US empire, American exceptionalism, liberalism and US Muslims abandoning Biden. Join our Patreon to get access to exclusive monthly Zoom calls:    / thethinkingmuslim   You can also support T...