When I first taught Shahzad Bashir’s interactive book, A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures, my students found it…
Shahzad Bashir’s invitation to plurality
Muslims
Revisited: The “good” and the “bad” Muslims of China
The slim crescent that rose above the skyline on July 9th signifies the beginning of this year’s holy month of…
I know I am, but what are you?
For Bouteldja, though boundaries of identity are real and significant, they are also porous, and they must be made ever…
Crossing legal and religious borders in Morocco
By using the records of Islamic legal institutions to do Jewish history, we gain insight into how Jews lived their…
Releasing the umma from geopolitics
Read as a work of care, Cemil Aydın’s book releases the umma-concept from its geopolitical formation. This leaves the umma…
From the Founders to Trump: The legalities of “Muslims”
Writing about the image of the “Muslim” at America’s founding, Denise Spellberg writes how debates on religious tests for office…
Competing inequalities
Saba Mahmood’s Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report is a luminous, fiercely argued book. It requires deep and…
The public voice of Muslim women
In an essay here back in 2011, I sounded the alarm about the ubiquity and mainstreaming of hate speech directed…
Why the West Fears Islam
Political scientist Jocelyne Cesari's recent book, Why the West Fears Islam: An Exploration of Muslims in Liberal Democracies, analyzes the Muslim…
Buddhists, Time, and religious unrest in Burma
At Religion Dispatches, Alan Senauke writes about Time magazine's July 1st issue and its consequences in Burma.