This episode, I speak at length to the Arab Spring activist Iyad El-Baghdadi about his valuable experience, analysis and forecast about the years ahead. He rose to prominence in the aftermath of the Arab revolutions of 2011 before being summarily arrested and forcibly exiled from his home in the UAE in April 2014. Today he is recognized among the most influential and prominent Arab voices online. He lives in Oslo, Norway, where he has been granted political asylum, and writes regularly for both Norwegian and international media, and his Twitter account received over 180 million views in last year. He is also founder and editor-in-chief of the Arab Tyrant Manual, a platform for the study of authoritarian behaviour and tactics.For more information and to view our archive, visit https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/podcastFollow us on twitter Twitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslim/Presenter: https://twitter.com/jalalayn

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To help us understand the current crises in France, I am delighted to have on The Thinking Muslim Sheikh Yasir Qadhi. Dr Yasir Qadhi is well known in the Muslim community, he is a scholar and since 2001, he has served as Dean of Academic Affairs at the Al-Maghrib Institute, with a center in Houston, Texas.  He is currently the resident scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center in Texas.Dr Qadhi has raised some searching questions over the past few weeks about French policy towards Muslims, violence perpetrated by a minority of those Muslims and, he argues, the potential for the ‘French model’ to be exported to other countries where Muslims are a minority. We ask Dr Qadhi about Islamic justifications for violence, how we should defend the honour of the Messenger of Allah (saw), the position of minority communities, the role of scholarship in politics and raising awareness about these issues and we also speak about the current problem with many Islamic scholars who chose to remain silent instead of speak truth to power, less they lose their position, usually gained through political patronage or they lose their following. Inevitably the thorny subject of scholars and despotic rulers comes up, and Dr Qadhi gives his frank opinion on the matter.Website: http://thinkingmuslim.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslim/ Presenter: https://twitter.com/jalalayn Email: [email protected]

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To an outsider, the United States looks like it is in meltdown. In what seems like months, the farce of the US elections has dwarfed coverage of huge Coronavirus deaths, with most political pundits predicting a Biden victory. But with talk of potential challenge to the result, all signs indicate the possibility of a protracted period of uncertainty. American democracy today seems to be sinking under the contradictions, inequalities and culture wars that undermine the fabric of its political standing in the world. The ‘city on the hill’ today looks like a banana republic. This week we speak to Mohammed Hannini from the United States, Brother Mohammed has a B.A. in Islamic History & a Masters in Islamic Studies with a focus in Fiqh. Brother Mohammed is currently a lecturer at American Open University for Usul al Fiqh, and Islamic Contracts. He conducts classes in the local masajid in Raleigh, North Carolina and lectures for the Arqam Institute, currently co-presenting an illuminating course on usul al-fiqh. I wanted to get a picture of the politics in the country and how Muslims are approaching the election.Website: http://thinkingmuslim.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslim/ https://twitter.com/jalalayn Email: [email protected]

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As part of our Arab Spring series, we take a look at the events that shook the region at the beginning of 2011 and ask searching questions about where we are now. The Middle East today remains a cauldron of instability, yet the autocrats and their backers have successfully, for now, subverted a revolution that once filled Arabs and Muslims with hope.My guest this week is Dr Azzam Tamimi. Dr Tamimi is a Palestinian academic and activist and has for decades contributed to Islamic and political work. He has authored numerous books, detailing his analysis on events in the Muslim world including his doctoral thesis on Rachid Ghannouchi from An-Nahda Party and a detailed history of Hamas. Dr Tamimi currently hosts a show on Al-Hiwar TV.Website: http://thinkingmuslim.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslimEmail: [email protected]

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We are coming to the tenth anniversary of the Arab Spring, the momentous series of events that started in hope with the desperate act of a Tunisian vegetable seller. With the return of another pharaoh in Egypt, the impunity with which he has meted out retribution upon those that were opposed to the regime and the killing field of Syria, whose soil today stands soaked with the blood of martyrs, makes even the most optimistic person surmise that the Arab Spring has turned into what can be called a cold winter. Over the coming weeks and months, The Thinking Muslim takes a look at the tumultuous decade from multiple perspectives. What went wrong? How did an event that reverberated across Muslim capitals, with echoed chants go so horribly wrong? And what lessons can we learn from the mistakes made?Our guest this week is Dr Osman Bakash from Lebanon. Osman was very active on Arab media channels at the height of the Arab Spring and remains a inciteful commentator. This week we take a deep look at Egypt and Syria, unpicking the complex circumstances that led to both countries deepening their respective authoritarian rules.Website: http://thinkingmuslim.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslimEmail: [email protected]

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Malcolm X, the black American Muslim leader is celebrated around the world. His courage, intelligence and skill to persuade, makes him one of the greatest orators in history. Yet, today what he stood for has become unclear, as his image and message is co-opted into several political programmes that, if Malcolm was alive today, he would probably find questionable. Riaz Hasan of the Thinking Muslim Project speaks to Hakeem Muhammad, a lawyer and campaigner about his thoughts on Malcolm X, distilling the real man from the fiction created after his death.Website: http://thinkingmuslim.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslim

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Twenty years ago, the then UK Labour government led by Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced anti-terror laws that, in time, would expand the British security state. The raft of terrorism legislation that came as a result, have impacted the Muslim community and refashioned our relationship with institutions of government and the way we are perceived by wider society. Our guest today, Moazzam Begg from CAGE UK, is a brother that took a stand and through his public engagements gives hope to believers, presenting an unfiltered Islam, uncompromised by state patronage.Website: http://thinkingmuslim.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslimPresenter: https://twitter.com/jalalayn

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This week we invite back onto the show Dr Abul Izz Abdul Salam, a university professor and expert in comparative economics from Jerusalem Palestine to continue our series, today exploring property ownership. Capitalism places great emphasis on free enterprise, the orthodoxy states most property should be in the hands of private corporations, whereas radical socialism places a greater emphasis on collective ownership, looking upon property rights with scepticism. Until now, Muslims have oscillated between the two ideologies, many proudly describing themselves as Islamic capitalists or Islamic socialists. Yet Islam as the revelation from Allah (swt) came to help us reach salvation in the afterlife as well as harmony in our societies. So how do we define property in Islam?

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We speak to a regular guest Dr Shadee Elmasry about division within the Muslim community. I ask him, how does Islam help us to navigate our differences? What makes a valid shari’ opinion? How do we know whether a scholar or commentator is sincere to sources of Islam? What makes a mujtahid and what are the limits of the muqallid (follower)? We discuss the recent trend amongst duat to call out and defame one another. We also discuss the duty of enjoining maroof and forbid munkar, how does a layman fulfil this duty? What gives the commoner the right to question even scholars on issues and what are the guidelines? How do we forbid wrong while transmitting respect and not exacerbating divisions? We look at the notion ‘only Allah can judge’ and the anger that pervades much of modern social media ‘da’wah’. What does it mean to be smart in conveying Islam? and does being smart sometimes come at the cost of being truthful? Access our podcast archive here: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/podcast

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Even if we don’t subscribe to the oft quoted phrase of Jordan Peterson that there is "a crisis of masculinity", we may accept that young men live lives in an era where their roles and responsibilities remain subject to intense scrutiny. Our guest today, Ameen from the popular Mind Heist podcast and the YouTube help channel Seera Masters is a young man trying to make sense of this world. Ameen set off on a journey to discover what Islam expects from a man and in his own words found conclusions that challenged his own preconceptions. He is currently working on writing a book on the subject.

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