Abdal Hakim Jackson – Covering Islam and Muslims in America

Abdal Hakim JacksonAugust 9, 20070 comments

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Media & Representation Muslims in America Islamic Authority & Scholarship Fiqh & Islamic Law Modernity & Islam Islamic History Black American Muslims Quran & Sunnah

About this lecture

In this wide-ranging lecture, Dr. Sherman Jackson (Abdal Hakim Jackson) examines the diverse landscape of Muslims in America, tracing the roots of an ongoing authority crisis in Islam from the pre-modern era through modernity and into the American context. He explores how the marginalization of traditional Islamic legal scholarship, the rise of mass literacy, and competing cultural histories have created a fractured landscape in which questions of authenticity, representation, and who speaks for Islam remain deeply contested. The lecture also addresses media distortions of both Muslim ideals and realities, and closes with a candid Q&A covering topics ranging from Saudi influence to the role of the Fiqh Council of America.

Abdal Hakim Jackson

Dr Abd al-Hakim Jackson is a respected scholar and one of the foremost authorities on Shariah and Islam in America. Dr. Jackson is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Visiting Professor of Law and Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI). Dr. Jackson has authored several books including On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s Faysal al-Tafriqa (Oxford, 2002), the controversial Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Towards the Third Resurrection (Oxford, 2005) and most recently Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering (Oxford, 2009). Dr. Jackson received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) in 1991 and has taught at several institutions including the University of Texas (Austin, TX), Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) and Wayne State University (Detroit, MI). Dr. Jackson will join the faculty of the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) in 2011. Dr. Jackson has served as the Executive Director of the Center of Arabic Study Abroad (Cairo, Egypt). Dr. Jackson is a co-founder, Core Scholar, and member of the Board of Trustees of the American Learning Institute for Muslims (ALIM), an academic institution where scholars, professionals, activists, artists, writers, and community leaders come together to develop strategies for the future of Islam in the modern world. Dr. Jackson specializes in teaching Additionally, Dr. Jackson is a former member of the Fiqh Council of North America, form Presdient of the Shari’ah Scholars’ Association of North America (SSANA) and a past trustee of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). He has contributed to several publications including Washington Post-Newsweek blog, On Faith, and the Huffington Post. Dr. Jackson is listed by the Religion Newsriters Foundation’s ReligionLink as among the top ten experts on Islam in America and was named among the 500 most influential Muslims in the world by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

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