Peer Talks

LOUD THINKING   

#PeerTalks with Dr. Michael Barak on "Hezbullah and Hamas "  

Dr. Michael Barak is a researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) of Lauder School of Government Diplomacy and Strategy, at The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, and serves as the Team Leader of the Global Jihad & Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group and the Team Research Manager of the ICT Cyber-Desk In addition, He teaches as well in IDC courses on Terrorism and Islamic radical movements.  

Dr. Michael also serves as a researcher and a member of the Social Media Networks in the Arab World (Beehive) research board at The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies (MDC) in Tel Aviv University (TAU).  

Prior to his current post, he was the Team Leader of the Arabic, Turkish & Persian Online Media at The Arabic Press Archive of MDS, and a researcher assistant on Palestinian issues at the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at  TAU.  

He has been teaching Spoken and Colloquial Arabic for more than a decade at various institutes including the Arabic Language Department at TAU, the Delegation of the European Union to the State of Israel, as well others.  

Dr. Barak holds both a B.A. and an M.A. degree in “Middle Eastern Studies” and “Arabic Language” from Tel Aviv University. He has finished his Ph.D. at the School of History in Middle Eastern and African Studies, TAU. His Ph.D. dissertation is concerned with “Sufism in Wahhabi and Salafi Polemic Discourse in Egypt and the Mashriq (Arab East) 1967-2001”.  

He has published several articles in Hebrew and English on Modern Salafism and Sufism in Egypt and on prominent trends in the Social Media Networks in the Arab World. He has lectured in several research forums including the IDC, TAU, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.  

He has participated in several international programs including: “Study of Turkish Language and Culture” at Boğziçi University, Istanbul (2006), and “Study of the US National Security Policymaking” at the Institute for Training & Development (Amherst), USA (2014).  

#Hezbullah #Hamas

LOUD THINKING  

#PeerTalks with Professor Alexander Knysh on "A Clash of Islams: Sufism and Salafism in the Caucasus"  

The presentation examines the vicissitudes of Sufism’s recent history in the Muslim republics of Russia’s North Caucasus, the Russian Federation. Using this region as a case study, Alexander Knysh shows how Sufism’s role as “a mainstay of the international social order” (per Marshall Hodgson’s Venture of Islam) has come under critical scrutiny as well as verbal and physical attacks from a variety of quarters. Somewhat paradoxically, these attacks are motivated by Sufism’s former social, political, and cultural dominance in Muslim societies worldwide. Enmeshed deeply and inextricably into the very fabric of Muslim life, Sufism with its doctrines, practices, institutions, literature, and leadership structures has become a potent symbol of the status quo that reformers of various stripes sought to change or even to abolish altogether. The most potent challenge to Sufism’s doctrinal and devotional dominance has come from various Salafi-Wahhabi (“[neo-]fundamentalist”) movements. Does this “clash of Islam” represent a re-enactment, in Muslim communities worldwide, of the Protestant Reformation? Knysh will try to answer this question by using the Muslim societies of the North Caucasus as his case study  

Alexander Knysh is a Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Michigan and Academic Director of an Islamic studies program sponsored by the St. Petersburg State University, Russia. His academic interests include Islamic mysticism (Sufism), Qur’anic studies, the history of Muslim theological, philosophical, and juridical thought, and modern Islamic/Islamist movements from a comparative perspective. He has numerous academic and instructional publications on these subjects, including twelve books. His most recent books in English are Islam in Historical Perspective (London and New York: Taylor and Francis, Routledge, 2017) and Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2017). Alexander Knysh currently serves as section editor for “Sufism” on the Editorial Board of the Encyclopedia of Islam, Third Edition (E.J. Brill, Leiden, and Boston) and is Executive Editor of the Encyclopedia of Islamic Mysticism and the Handbooks of Islamic Mysticism series associated with it.  

#Sufism #Salfism

LOUD THINKING  

#PeerTalks with Prof. Yossi Shain on Muslim World's Normalization with Israel and the Future  

Prof. Yossi Shain (born September 21, 1956, in Israel) is the Romulo Betancourt Professor of Political Science at Tel Aviv University where he also serves as Head of TAU's School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs, head of the Abba Eban Graduate Studies Program in Diplomacy and Director of the Frances Brody Institute for Applied Diplomacy. He is also a Full Professor of Comparative Government and Diaspora Politics at Georgetown University, and the Founding Director of the Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC) at Georgetown. In 2007, he also served (pro-bono) as President of Western Galilee College. Shain earned his B.A. (Philosophy-1981 cum laude) and M.A. (Political Science-1983) degrees from Tel Aviv University and received his Ph.D. in Political Science (with distinction) from Yale University in 1988. In July 2016 professor Shain was appointed as a member of the Council for Higher Education in Israel, and he is now heading the national committee in charge of rejuvenating liberal arts and the humanities.  

#Peace #Israel #MuslimWorld

#PeerTalks with Mohammad Iftekhar Ghazali, President ATI (1995-96)  

Mohammad Iftekhar Ghazali was President of ATI ( انجمن طلبہ اسلام), The only leading non-partisan Sufi students organization in Pakistan. 

 #ATI #Sufism

#PeerTalks with Qazi Atique Rehman, President ATI (1999-2001)  

Qazi Atique Rehman is an educationalist by profession and was one of the most popular President of ATI ( انجمن طلبہ اسلام), The only leading non-partisan Sufi students organization in Pakistan.  

#ATI #Sufism

LOUD THINKING   

#PeerTalks with Dr. Michael Barak on "Cyber Terrorism"  

Dr. Michael Barak is a researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) of Lauder School of Government Diplomacy and Strategy, at The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, and serves as the Team Leader of the Global Jihad & Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group and the Team Research Manager of the ICT Cyber-Desk In addition, He teaches as well in IDC courses on Terrorism and Islamic radical movements.  

Dr. Michael also serves as a researcher and a member of the Social Media Networks in the Arab World (Beehive) research board at The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies (MDC) in Tel Aviv University (TAU).  

Prior to his current post, he was the Team Leader of the Arabic, Turkish & Persian Online Media at The Arabic Press Archive of MDS, and a researcher assistant on Palestinian issues at the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at  TAU.  

He has been teaching Spoken and Colloquial Arabic for more than a decade at various institutes including the Arabic Language Department at TAU, the Delegation of the European Union to the State of Israel, as well others.  

Dr. Barak holds both a B.A. and an M.A. degree in “Middle Eastern Studies” and “Arabic Language” from Tel Aviv University. He has finished his Ph.D. at the School of History in Middle Eastern and African Studies, TAU. His Ph.D. dissertation is concerned with “Sufism in Wahhabi and Salafi Polemic Discourse in Egypt and the Mashriq (Arab East) 1967-2001”.  He has published several articles in Hebrew and English on Modern Salafism and Sufism in Egypt and on prominent trends in the Social Media Networks in the Arab World. He has lectured in several research forums including the IDC, TAU, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.  He has participated in several international programs including: “Study of Turkish Language and Culture” at Boğziçi University, Istanbul (2006), and “Study of the US National Security Policymaking” at the Institute for Training & Development (Amherst), USA (2014). 

#Cyber #Terrorism

#PeerTalks with Pir Fida Hussain Hashmi, President ATI (2011-12)  

Pir Fida Hussain Hashmi is an Advocate of Law by profession and was the President of ATI ( Anjuman Talaba e Islam), The only leading non-partisan Sufi students organization in Pakistan.  

#ATI #Sufism

LOUD THINKING  

#PeerTalks with Professor Alexander Knysh on "Internal Peace versus Being in Society: Sufi Dilemmas"  

Alexander Knysh is a Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Michigan and Academic Director of an Islamic studies program sponsored by the St. Petersburg State University, Russia. 

His academic interests include Islamic mysticism (Sufism), Quranic studies, the history of Muslim theological, philosophical, and juridical thought, and modern Islamic/Islamist movements in a comparative perspective. 

He has numerous academic and instructional publications on these subjects, including twelve books. 

His most recent books in English are Islam in Historical Perspective (London and New York: Taylor and Francis, Routledge, 2017) and Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2017). Alexander Knysh currently serves as section editor for “Sufism” on the Editorial Board of the Encyclopedia of Islam, Third Edition (E.J. Brill, Leiden, and Boston) and is Executive Editor of the Encyclopedia of Islamic Mysticism and the Handbooks of Islamic Mysticism series associated with it.  

#SufiDilemmas #InternalPeace #Sufism #Mysticism

Humaray Aslaf

Khawaja Noor Mohammad Maharvi, Mahar Shareef

Guest: Sahibzada Mohammad Amin Mahmood

Sahibzada Amin is a descendant of Great Sufi Hazrat Khawaja Noor Mohammad Maharvi, and Chairman of  Tehreek e Paighaam e Sufiya  

 #PeerTalks #MaharShareef #Sufism

LOUD THINKING   

#PeerTalks with Dr. Michael Barak on "Al-Qaeda and ISIS"  

Dr. Michael Barak is a researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) of Lauder School of Government Diplomacy and Strategy, at The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, and serves as the Team Leader of the Global Jihad & Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group and the Team Research Manager of the ICT Cyber-Desk In addition, He teaches as well in IDC courses on Terrorism and Islamic radical movements.  

Dr. Michael also serves as a researcher and a member of the Social Media Networks in the Arab World (Beehive) research board at The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies (MDC) in Tel Aviv University (TAU).  

Prior to his current post, he was the Team Leader of the Arabic, Turkish & Persian Online Media at The Arabic Press Archive of MDS, and a researcher assistant on Palestinian issues at the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at  TAU.  

He has been teaching Spoken and Colloquial Arabic for more than a decade at various institutes including the Arabic Language Department at TAU, the Delegation of the European Union to the State of Israel, as well others.  

Dr. Barak holds both a B.A. and an M.A. degree in “Middle Eastern Studies” and “Arabic Language” from Tel Aviv University. He has finished his Ph.D. at the School of History in Middle Eastern and African Studies, TAU. His Ph.D. dissertation is concerned with “Sufism in Wahhabi and Salafi Polemic Discourse in Egypt and the Mashriq (Arab East) 1967-2001”.  

He has published several articles in Hebrew and English on Modern Salafism and Sufism in Egypt and on prominent trends in the Social Media Networks in the Arab World. He has lectured in several research forums including the IDC, TAU, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.  He has participated in several international programs including: “Study of Turkish Language and Culture” at Boğziçi University, Istanbul (2006), and “Study of the US National Security Policymaking” at the Institute for Training & Development (Amherst), USA (2014).  

#AlQaeda #ISIS