The Thinking Muslim

Muhammad Jalal

This podcast is dedicated to exploring issues in some more depth and untangling the complexities of the world around us. We engage thinkers, academics, and scholars in conversation on a number of themes to appreciate the ideas that make up Islam as a system of thought. Follow us on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/TheThinkingMuslim

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Top 10 The Thinking Muslim Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Thinking Muslim episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Thinking Muslim for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Thinking Muslim episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Jordan Peterson, White Supremacy & the Perils of Engagement - with Yahya Birt

The Thinking Muslim

07/24/22 • 67 min

Is there a problem with Muslim public intellectuals and scholars that engage with the political right? My guest this week, Yayha Birt, believes that white convert scholars that interact with the likes of Jordan Peterson should evaluate whether they risk confirming their anti-Islam prejudices and a distasteful pro-white ideology that today undergirds the populist white nativist backlash. In a recent piece he penned, found here: https://www.ihrc.org.uk/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-being-convert-leaders-in-the-west-and-the-new-ethno-nationalism/ Birt, a Muslim convert, is critical of those that belong to the neo-traditionalist school, an Islamic persuasion he shares, who need to ask more profound questions about their outreach activities with the right-wing and whether by doing so they undermine second and third generation Muslims who face racial and religious hatred in the mainstream.

Yahya Birt is a research director at the Ayaan Institute in London and is a community historian who has taught at the University of Leeds. He has published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles on Islam in Britain and co-edited British Secularism and Religion (2016), Islam in Victorian Liverpool (2021) and The Collected Poems of Abdullah Quilliam (2021).

His most recent book on Abdullah Quilliam can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Islam-Victorian-Liverpool-Britains-Community/dp/1800119828/

More about Yahya Birt here https://ayaaninstitute.com/yahya-birt/

Thanks to the team: Riaz Hasan, Musab Muhammad, Reem Walid, Adeel Alam, Yusra Zainuddin, Ahaz Atif and Umar Abdul Salam.

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Prayer in UK Schools: Multiculturalism and Liberal Tyranny with Lord Bikhu Parekh

The Thinking Muslim

04/20/24 • 51 min

This interview was conducted before the most recent verdict in the High Court rejecting the right of a student to conduct Muslim prayers in British schools.

Over the past few years there has been intense debate about the place of Muslim practice in liberal western societies. Across the west, partly because of the war on terror, politicians talk of unwelcome cultural shifts and the the need to chasten Islam in public life. In many European capitals, theres a debate about whether multiculturalism, a policy coined in the 1960s to integrate migrants, has had its day. Here in Britain, even many on the Labour left today blame the policy for allowing migrants to feel comfortable in their ‘ghettos’ whilst the right wing press talk of ‘no go areas’ and isolationist tendencies. This febrile environment has led to leaders like David Cameron to talk of a muscular liberalism. One that demands much more from those that have origins in other countries.

My guest today is Lord Bikhu Parekh. Bikhu is a champion of a pluralist society, one where liberal dogma makes way for genuine multiculturalism where communities engage in a conversation, embracing the possible cultural shifts that may come with that. Bikhu is the emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Westminster and Hull, a distinguished scholar and prolific writer. Pertinent to today’s interview, he wrote ‘rethinking multiculturalism’.

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China’s Silent Uyghur Genocide with Abdureşid Eminhaci

The Thinking Muslim

12/23/23 • 79 min

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The plight of the Uyghur Muslims in East Turkestan has been described as a genocide. An entire ethnic, cultural and religious group is being erased. We hear stories of mass detention, the banning of Ramadan, and the closure and demolition of mosques. We also hear the disturbing reports of women being forced into marriage, forced sterilisation and children being removed from families and reassigned to Chinese couples.

But at the same time, people question these accounts. There is a disinformation campaign on social media and diplomatic circles, and many, even some government-paid Islamic scholars, have questioned the extent of the persecution, if not the persecution itself, especially since the Biden administration has adopted it as a cause, as part of their fight against an emerging geopolitical rival. So how do we know what to believe. Today we are joined by Abdureşid Eminhaci , he is the Secretary General of International union of The East Turkestan organisation, one of the largest Uyghur organisations in Turkey.

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The Muslim Mindset and Islam’s Mission with Dr Sohail Hanif

The Thinking Muslim

02/17/24 • 95 min

Our guest this week, Dr Sohail Hanif, argues that we need to reconnect with not just our relationship with our umma but also have to reorient our lives to live like the murabitun of the past, those who saw themselves as within a wider objective of thinking about deen and the umma and their part within this rubric. In this endeavour, to change our mentality, we have to reconfigure how we view some of the fundamental Islamic ideas of zakat, ummah and jihad. Are we in the west manning an outpost of this umma. And has Gaza taught us a wider lesson about reorienting our mentalities.

Dr Sohail is the National Zakat Foundation’s Chief Executive. Prior to this, he held the position of Lecturer at Cambridge Muslim College. He also was the Head of Sciences at Qasid Arabic Institute in Amman. He has expertise in Islamic law, having studied extensively with traditional scholars, and holds a PhD from Oxford University. Listen to the audio version of the podcast:

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Exposed: The Plot to Murder Dr Aafia - with Clive Stafford Smith

The Thinking Muslim

04/04/24 • 46 min

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You can email Clive on [email protected]

Please send your letters to Clive. Make them more than a couple of lines.

Clive also needs a team of lawyers to help him in Texas.

If you want to help fund Dr Aafia’s legal costs, below is Clive's paypal campaign

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The case of Aafia Siddiqui remains an open wound for us all. It symbolises the inhumanity and barbarism of US foreign policy. The incarceration of this brilliant academic and mother of three, has become a marker of its excesses, of which there were many. She languishes in prison, serving an 86-year sentence for an offence that looks barely credible, the attempted murder of two US officials in Afghanistan in 2008. Her whereabouts before that date has been hotly contested, but her lawyers and activists have patched together the conspiracy surrounding Dr Aafias ordeal. Sadly the welfare of her youngest son Suleman – who has not been seen since her detention in 2003 remains unknown. Presumed dead.

The last time I spoke with Dr Aafias lawyer Clive Stafford Smith he had returned from her prison in Forth Worth Texas – where she had been reunited with her sister Fozia for the first time in 20 years. If you haven’t watched that programme, I would highly recommend you do to give you the backstory to this horrific case. Clive has just returned from a factfinsding mission to Afghanistan, and he has some considerable updates on Aafias case.

Clive has helped secure the release of 86 prisoners from Guantánamo Bay and still acts for the remaining numbers. Since the early days of the War on Terror, he has worked tirelessly to force the Americans and other Western powers to adhere to the rule of law. He has sought to uncover the secret prisons and ghost prisoners that stain the reputation of powerful states – who presented their wars in benevolent terms.

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Gaza: Resistance and Betrayal with Sami Hamdi

The Thinking Muslim

10/12/23 • 109 min

The inhuman aggression by which Israel treats Palestinians is known to everyone who possesses an ounce of justice. This excludes, of course, Western nations for whom, apparently, history began last Saturday. However, they are very aware that the colonial outpost they set up in the Middle East is hell-bent on extracting as much land as possible to accommodate racist Americans and Europeans. They are aware that in the process, Israel slowly squeezes Palestinians and of the daily humiliations – the trigger-happy border guards that maim and murder. They know all of this yet remain deaf to the cries. They give the murderous state weapons of war, instruments of torture, and diplomatic cover. Just this past week, the main political parties on both sides of the Atlantic were falling over each other to give Israel the green light. In an age of impunity, Israel has a free pass.

But what lay behind the events last week, and what can we expect in the coming weeks from regional and international actors? To help us untangle the political issues, we once again invite Sami Hamdi back on the programme. Sami Hamdi is the managing director of the International Interest and a ME commentator.

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Will Gaza Change The World? With Sami Hamdi

The Thinking Muslim

06/23/24 • 99 min

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.

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Silicon Scholars: AI and The Muslim Ummah with Riaz Hassan

The Thinking Muslim

09/29/23 • 69 min

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The 80's movie Terminator depicts a bleak world where a cyborg assassin is sent to the past to eliminate the mother of an unborn child who holds the key to humanity's salvation. The frightening prospect of machines that can teach themselves and, in the worst-case scenario, machines that are more intelligent than human beings has led senior scientists to raise the alarm about the ethics of Artificial Intelligence and its potential destructive force. For Muslims, AI raises many ethical questions about human society, the economy and, indeed, the potential for AI-inspired ijtihad, machines that tell us how to live our Islamic lives. Are scholars and orators about to go out of business as might taxi drivers and couriers in the coming technological age.

To help us understand the world of AI, we have invited Riaz Hassan onto The Thinking Muslim. Riaz is works in the field of innovation for many years and has had direct and extensive experience in the use of AI and the commercial use of ChatGPT. He has worked on using AI and robotics on one of the largest infrastructure projects in this country. He has responsibility for looking at the wider dimensions of innovations with its associated impacts on our economy.

As always, you can comment your thoughts below.

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#TheThinkingMuslimPodcast

The Thinking Muslim Podcast Episode 112

Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction

02:40 - Should we be afraid of AI?

03:38 - What is AI?

05:53 - What differentiates AI from other technology?

07:15 - Types of AI

08:15 - What is generative AI?

10:08 - What is AGI? (Artificial General Intelligence)

11:57 - What to expect after ChatGPT?

14:13 - The issue with driverless cars

15:40 - Imam Ghazali's version of the trolley problem

18:02 - Islamic values in AI

22:08 - Dystopian features of AI

26:50 - America vs. China

29:29 - What professions are going to be replaced?

34:34 - Labour and economy

38:48 - Redefining work

44:26 - Concerns around AI

49:08 - AI in the wrong hands?

51:04 - AI in warfare

53:04 - Can AI do ijtihad?

57:33 - Can acquire consciousness?

1:01:25 - Why AI cannot replace human intelligence

1:06:10 - Tackling crises in faith

1:07:01 - Can a supercomputer become Khalifa?

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Debunking the Myth: Muslim Politics in the West with Dr Asim Qureishi

The Thinking Muslim

11/16/23 • 78 min

Come election time, Western Muslim communities have been asked to support mainstream political parties in exchange for representation. Some commentators have praised the multiculturalism of countries like the UK, where the party system has integrated many Muslims into the political system. Here in London, we have Sadiq Khan, arguably the highest-ranking elected Muslim official in the Western world. In the United States, there’s a similar push for Muslims to support the Democrats and even the Republicans, and some have broken the glass ceiling and represent the parties at local and national levels.

But does Muslim representation really work? On Gaza, we have seen the limits of the ‘Muslim voice’. What are the structural compromises the system will always want to solicit from Muslim representatives? Does the system only support particular types of candidates, and does the system change the people who set out to change the system?

To explore this topic, I have with me in the studio today Dr Asim Qureishi. Dr Asim Qureshi is the research director at CAGE, a UK-based advocacy organisation working to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror. He has a background in International Law and is the author of the books "Rules of the Game" and "A Virtue of Disobedience".

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The UAE's Bloody War in Sudan with Sami Hamdi

The Thinking Muslim

03/09/24 • 60 min

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At the time where our attention is fixed on Gaza, rightly, another conflict is taking place with horrendous cost to human life. Sadly As always, our ummah has become subject to the political ambitions of egotistical actors and their outside backers. Sudan is burning. There are 8 million people on the move, escaping the indiscriminate murder, rape and pillage of what can only be described as two warlords that thwarted a people’s revolution – aided by external powers.

Today we explore these two conflicts. In a way, they are one. They are recent episodes of a Muslim world in crisis. Our ummah today lives in a perpetual state of conflict, can we escape this dire situation. We are now 100 years since the formal demise of the Ottoman state, what does the next 100 years look like.

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FAQ

How many episodes does The Thinking Muslim have?

The Thinking Muslim currently has 195 episodes available.

What topics does The Thinking Muslim cover?

The podcast is about Islam, Islamic, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Podcasts and Muslim.

What is the most popular episode on The Thinking Muslim?

The episode title 'Ottoman Decline & Muslim Collective Amnesia with Dr Yakoob Ahmed' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on The Thinking Muslim?

The average episode length on The Thinking Muslim is 68 minutes.

How often are episodes of The Thinking Muslim released?

Episodes of The Thinking Muslim are typically released every 7 days, 3 hours.

When was the first episode of The Thinking Muslim?

The first episode of The Thinking Muslim was released on Aug 12, 2019.

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The Thinking Muslim

Muhammad Jalal

Top 10 The Thinking Muslim Episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does The Thinking Muslim have?

What topics does The Thinking Muslim cover?

What is the most popular episode on The Thinking Muslim?

What is the average episode length on The Thinking Muslim?

How often are episodes of The Thinking Muslim released?

When was the first episode of The Thinking Muslim?

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