BY INVITATION ONLY

Date: 24^th – 27^th January 2020
Venue: Concorde Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

Organizer: Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) 

Welcoming Remarks:
Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Farouk Musa (Director, IRF)

Keynote Lecture:
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar (President, JUST)

Speakers:

1. Tajul Islam (University of Leeds)
2. Shabbir Akhtar (University of Oxford)
3. Junaid Ahmad (University of Leeds)

The project reform and renewal of contemporary Islamic philosophical, legal, and ethical thought has always been one complex and contentious task. While the primary sources of the Muslim weltanschauung, that is the Qur’an and Sunna, continue to be rigorously consulted and used as guidance by Islamic scholars today, the methodological apparatus and conceptual tools to read such texts are always in the process of reconstruction and contestation. This is mainly because the era that the Muslim is living today, one marked by the globalized condition of modernity and capitalist expansion, produces a set of concerns that are very different vis-a-vis to the pre-modern settings.  Given this background, many progressive scholars of Islam have called for a more integrated and holistic approach in developing a reformist understanding of Islam that involves scholars of the Text (ulama’ an-nusus) from diverse Islamic traditions and scholars of the context (ulama’ al-waqi’ ) from various natural and human sciences to engage in an intellectual exercise that infuses the insights and concerns from both disciplines. This is in accordance with Ebrahim Moosa’s ‘poesis’ imperative, or sometimes described as ‘the act of poetic creation’, which involves an approach that maintains a healthy level of criticism towards Islamic traditions with the emphasis on creative thought and the absolute requirement to interpret it in the light of contemporary Muslim subjectivities and challenges.

It is in this spirit that the works of Critical Muslim Studies (CMS) becomes very relevant. As stated in their manifesto, their studies into the contemporary Muslim discourses are characterized by a series of ‘epistemological orientations’ which can be grouped into four broad currents within contemporary intellectual developments; (a) critique of Eurocentrism, (b) suspicion of positivism, (c) recognition of the significance of the critique of Orientalism, (d) embrace of postcolonial and decolonial thinking. While the modernist school are generally more occupied with criticism of traditional authority and ossified Islamic traditions in their intellectual projects, CMS and its practices of critical theory is more closely link with ‘critical engagements with the tradition are the core both of a living Islam and of approaches to Islam as a discursive tradition, attentive to the play of power in its formations and reformations’. Given the diverse conceptual and analytical frameworks, drawn from various disciplines and intellectual traditions, CMS provides valuable insights into the understanding of Islam and Muslims in today’s context.

Thus, in this IRF SUMMER SCHOOL 2020: ISLAMIC REFORM AND CRITICAL MUSLIM STUDIES (CMS), the important discourses related to Islam, reform, and critical perspectives in examining Muslim majority societies will be discussed with the selected participants. The program aims to introduce some of the frameworks, ideas, and concepts within the broad themes of CMS and it can be link to the project of Islah (reform) and Tajdid (renewal) in today’s world. We hope to bring together the younger generation of leaders and future scholars in the region into the program so that these ideas and debates can further inspire more innovative analysis and understanding of Islam and Muslims vis-à-vis to the contextual challenges faced by their respective communities.

Training Modules & Speakers

The study modules to be used in the course will be based on the categories listed in the following table;

Programs

Day 1 (Friday, 24^th January 2020)

Saturday, 25^th January 2020

Sunday, 26^th January 2020

Monday, 27^th January 2020

Trainers’ biographies:

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is the President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), an international NGO based in Malaysia, which seeks to critique global injustice guided by universal spiritual and moral values. He has published extensively on civilizational dialogue, international politics, religion, human rights and Malaysian society. Among Chandra’s latest publications are, A World in Crisis: Is There a Cure? and Reflections on Malaysian Unity and Other Challenges. Apart from his role in JUST, Chandra sits on the board of a number of international NGOs concerned with social justice and civilizational dialogue. Chandra is the recipient of a number of international awards related to his scholarship and social activism.

Dr. Tajul Islam is a Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Department of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Leeds and also Co-Director of the Iqbal Centre for Critical Muslim Studies. He specialises in kalām, uṣūl, tafsīr, ḥadīth and taṣawwuf. His areas of research interest include sectarianism, ecumenism, scholastic traditionalism of the Subcontinent (Barelwi, Deobandi, Ahl-i-Hadīth, Jaʿfarī Shiism etc.). In particular he is interested in the promotion of Critical Madrasa Studies.

Dr. Shabbir Akhtar is an associate member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He is also an associate fellow of the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies. His current research interests include the Christian and Islamic responses to Western secular modernity; the work of Søren Kierkegaard; Paul’s letter to the Galatians; the Qur’an and the New Testament; and freedoms of speech, conscience, and faith. His publications include The Quran and the Secular Mind (2007), Islam as Political Religion (2010), and The New Testament in Muslim Eyes: Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (2018). He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in philosophy from the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. from the University of Calgary.

Dr Junaid S. Ahmad is a PhD candidate in Islam and Decolonial Thought at the University of Leeds. He is also a secretary-general of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST). He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the College of William and Mary and a fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA-Istanbul). He is also the director of Center for Global Studies at the School of Advanced Studies, University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore, Pakistan.

Dato’ Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa is a Founder and Director of the Islamic Renaissance Front, an intellectual movement and think-tank promoting reform and renewal in Islam, democracy, good governance and human rights. He is actively involved in civil society and the emerging discourse on post-Islamism. He is also involved in interfaith dialogues especially with regard to Christian-Muslim relations and intra-faith dialogues especially the Shi’i-Sunni discourse. He has presented papers at numerous international meetings including at the Symposium on Islam and Contemporary Issues in Tehran, Iran, in March 2017 and ISEAS Yusuf-Ishak Institute, Singapore, in August 2019.  Professionally, he is an academic researcher at the School of Medicine, Monash University Malaysia. He is currently a Commissioner at the Commonwealth Initiative for the Freedom of Religion or Belief (CIFoRB) based in Westminster, London and a Research Fellow at Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat Islam (STFI) Sadra, Jakarta. He was a Director at the Centre for Combating Corruption and Cronyism (C4) and a former Deputy-Chairperson of BERSIH 2.0, a strong civil movement working for a free and fair election.