The Possibilities of a Digital Life in Islamic Studies “Activism, Advocacy, and Scholarship on Islam in the Digital Realm” (Boston University, September 16-17, 2016) Kristian Petersen | December 1, 2016 Critical Approaches About Critical Approaches Engagement via digital media and technologies has transformed how scholars and activists do what they do. Digital platforms and tools have opened up new horizons for doing work – producing, analyzing, archiving, communicating – but also pose new challenges that need to be addressed when working in digital environments... Read the rest of this entry
Convivencia Contested Al-Andalus between Historical Memory and Modern Politics Samuel C. Barry | November 10, 2016 Critical Approaches, Images & Intersections About Critical Approaches About Images & Intersections Beginning in the year 711 CE, Muslim armies based in North Africa took control of the vast majority of the Iberian peninsula, supplanting the Christian, Germanic Visigoths, who had themselves assumed power in the region in the wake of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Muslims named the land al-Andalus, and for the next five centuries, Islamic religious and legal discourse and Arabic cultural and intellectual trends were preeminent on the peninsula. By the middle of the thirteenth century, however, Christian armies had regained control of most of what is now modern Spain and Portugal... Read the rest of this entry
“Do Not Take Unbelievers as Your Leaders” The Politics of Translation in Indonesia Jeremy Menchik | March 31, 2016 Critical Approaches / Texts & Translations About Critical Approaches After achieving independence in 1945, Indonesian leaders began tackling the basic questions that faced all postcolonial state-builders: What principles would guide the state and nation? Communism or capitalism? Secularism or Islam? How could they craft a common national identity from a diverse population? It is against this backdrop that in the April 1954 issue of the popular Indonesian Muslim periodical Al-Muslimun, the editors published an unusual translation of a well-known verse from Sūrat al-Nisāʾ of the Qur’an from Arabic into Indonesian... Read the rest of this entry