The Sydney Morning Herald contacted me for a comment on former judge Anthony Whealy's suggestion to imprison terrorists and terrorist advocates indefinitely till proven de-radicalised. A short quote from my interview can be read here. Yet I wish to explain my strong objection, as a scholar whom knows well the process of radicalisation within prison, against that advice. First allow me to... Continue Reading →
As director, I am pleased to inform you that today the website for the Study Contemporary Muslim Lives Research Hub at Macquarie University was officially launched. Study Contemporary Muslim Lives (SCML) is a research hub based within the Department of Anthropology at Macquarie University. It undertakes research on social, cultural and political aspects of contemporary... Continue Reading →
Dear all, I have not written for a while in my blog nor podcasted on my Ipadio's channel. The reason is that I have moved (yes again!) from NUS in Singapore to finally Australia (as was planned since the time I left Aberdeen)This time I have landed at Macquarie University, in Sydney, and I... Continue Reading →
The Worldwide Association for the Study of Religion is an association for scholars studying religion or with an interest in religion that aims to develop a platform accessible to any scholar or student wherever he or she might live. The goal of the association is to study religion in all of its forms and not... Continue Reading →
After nearly ten years of membership and $2000 US dollars, I have finally decided to leave the American Academy of Religion, the most important association representing scholars from different fields of the study of religion. I pondered my decision for a while, hoping that my doubts, questions and suspicions might have been answered and clarified.... Continue Reading →
I am pleased to inform you that my publisher Berg has decided to join the Social Science Open Access Repository and to make my first book, Jihad Beyond Islam(2006) available legally for download with no costs but strictly under the Creative Common License. In this first work I discussed through an anthropological approach how we... Continue Reading →
Dear all, A couple of flus and packing my home to move back to Australia (more information later) made my blog inactive. Yet I will post something soon. Today I wish to announce a new idea. I have started some twitter-lectures: a short number of tweets discussing a specific topic and then opening the topic... Continue Reading →
I was a very young scholar, in the second year of my PhD, when I noticed how difficult it was to find an international academic journal that focused on social scientific, and multidisciplinary, approaches to contemporary Islam and Muslim lives. I then moved from reading articles to publishing them, and again, I discovered that although... Continue Reading →
Some of you may have noticed a new feature added to the sidebar of my blog. It is called Audio Thoughts. Audio Thoughts are very short (between five to ten minutes) podcasts which will focus on social, cultural and political news regarding the Muslim world as well as personal reflections or further commentaries on the... Continue Reading →
