There is much to-do in popular culture today about Critical Race Theory (CRT), whether it should be rejected or embraced. Champions of CRT accuse those who oppose it of not knowing what it is. The truth is that most of CRT's champions and opponents appear to have no clear idea of what it is. That's not really their fault.
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American Muslim activism should focus on doing good
American Muslims have tragically erred by putting an imbalanced focus on demanding rights for themselves instead of living out their Islamically-rooted commitment to the common good. In doing so they've obscured the truth & good of Islam & contributed to the secularization & polarization of America.
Eric Voegelin on Averroes (Ibn Rushd)
In his Incoherence of the Incoherence (Ar. تهافت التهافت), Ibn Rushd, known to the West as Averroes, included a severe warning against spreading knowledge among the common people that was beyond their capacity to understand: الكلام في علم البارئ تعالى بذاته وبغيره ممّا يحرّم على طريق الجدل في حال المناظرة فضلا عن أن يثبت في … Continue reading Eric Voegelin on Averroes (Ibn Rushd)
“Keys of Heaven”: the Origins of an Arabized Quranic Word
By Ismail Royer Allah says in Surah az-Zumar 39:63: له مقاليد السماوات والأرض To Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth. Ibn Katheer said this means: أن أزمة الأمور بيده ، له الملك وله الحمد ، وهو على كل شيء قدير That the control of all things is in the Hand of … Continue reading “Keys of Heaven”: the Origins of an Arabized Quranic Word
Video: In which I debate an “ex-Muslim”
The founder of Atheist Republic, Armin Navabi, was kind enough to have me on his show to discuss belief in God, atheism, extremism, and so on.
Video: Dealing with Atheism
In this talk with some youth I discuss my journey from atheism to belief.
Classical Maliki jurisprudence and sentencing factors for the crime of hirabah
To what extent should a sentence reflect the characteristics of the criminal and not merely the crime? An example of how classical Islamic jurists addressed this question is found in the work of jurists of the Maliki madhab concerning the crime of hirabah.
Letter on Progressive Muslims
The source of Muslims’ predicament in the United States is their profound anxiety over being accepted as “real” Americans, and the tendency of this anxiety to overcome their confidence in the truth of their religious principles.
Muslims, the Bladensburg Cross, and the Preservation of Order
American Muslims must seek to preserve the American constitutional settlement against encroachments by totalitarian secularism because doing so means preserving what remains of a civilizational order that proceeds from belief in God.
Video: Islamic Law, the Nation State, and the Case of Pakistan
Most Muslims today live in political systems that operate on a nation state model. By contrast, classical Islamic jurisprudence developed in the context of empire and a robust and relatively independent scholarly class. Is there something about the nation state that makes “Islamization” unworkable? In what contexts might "Islamization" be most successful? Is there a role for classical Islamic law in Pakistan, and, more generally, for Muslims living within the framework of modernity? This event, hosted by the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars and the Religious Freedom Institute, addressed these questions and more.
A good tree 