This course gave an overview of the structure, themes, and guidance contained in each of the 114 chapters of the Noble Qur’an. This was achieved through the systematic study of each of the chapters.

In particular, we looked at how Surah names are related to each Surah and the historical contexts of their revelation (Asbab al-Nuzul);The inter-textual relationship and coherence (Nazm) between verses of each Surah and the relationship with preceding / following Surahs;cross-referencing to other parts of the Qur’an in order to demonstrate how the “Qur’an explains the Qur’an”;explanation of key passages in each chapter; practical guidance and lessons that can be derived from each Surah.

We also discussed the linguistic and stylistic devices (Balaghah) used in the Qur’an, and some of the problems with translation and having alternative plausible interpretations.

Date: May 12-13 and 19-20, 2018
Time: 10am – 6pm each day
Where: Conference Room, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Hafiz Abdullah Muhammad studied in an Islamic School and also memorized the Quran by heart at the age of 19. He has an MA in Islamic Studies (Distinction) from SOAS and also recently completed an intensive post-graduate course at the Al-Azhar University in Egypt. He is a qualified teacher of Religious Education and a Lawyer specializing in Employment law. He has done extensive researches on the Quran, published over a dozen articles and is the author of “The Best of Times in Islam” (IPCI, 2002). He spends most of his spare time delivering various Quran courses for the Quran Study Group and various course providers. He has been teaching this course for now 10 years in London and now first time in the USA.

Radically You! By Ifrah Mansour A Theatrical Presentation
A SPECIAL EVENT: At American Islamic College in partnership with Chicago Theological Seminary

RIOTcon, the biennial conference hosted by the InterReligious Institute (IRI) at Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS), is offering an innovative, immersive experience to counter anti-Muslim bias & Christian privilege.

We invite students, organizers, activists, faith leaders, educators, and professionals to this creative conference. Persons of faith and persons of no particular faith are welcome. Join us for two dynamic days of deep engagement through facilitated cohorts, interactive workshops, artistic performances, and plenary discussions, as participants and presenters generate new understandings and commit to actions to recognize and reduce anti-Muslim bias & Christian privilege in our communities. After the conference, the IRI will follow participants, offering support and tracking the effects of our time together. Come ready to learn, engage, and do the work of creating the Beloved Community.

https://www.ctschicago.edu/riotcon/2018/

SPECIAL EVENT: IFRAH MANSOUR PERFORMANCE
Thursday evening, we partner with our friends at the American Islamic College. We travel to the north side of the city where they bring to their stage Ifrah Mansour. A multimedia performance artist, her work is centered on the idea of displacement and Somali culture. Mansour, who lives in south Minneapolis, was named one of 10 Somali artists and entertainers to watch in 2015 by OkayAfrica, a global media hub that covers African culture. A talk-back session with the audience and other artists will follow her performance.

Date: Thursday, April 9, 2018
Time: 6pm Doors Open ; 7:00pm Theatrical Presentation
Where: AIC Theater, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Ifrah Mansour is a Somali, refugee, Muslim, multimedia artist residing in Minnesota. She explores trauma through the eyes of children to uncover the resiliency of black, Muslim, and refugees. She interweaves poetry, puppetry, films, and installations to illuminate the invisible stories of immigrants. Her critically-acclimated play “How to Have Fun in a Civil War“ premiered at Guthrie Theatre. Her first national museum piece; “Can I touch it” as part of “I am Somali” exhibit is currently on view at Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Her latest piece “Floating Refugee Aqal” is currently on display as part of Then and now, Somali Stories through artExhibit at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Learn more at facebook.com/ifrahmansourart/

Not your typical fundraiser, not your typical college! Join us on Saturday April 7th, 2018 for a unique experience and an opportunity to become a part of AIC’s story. Take a special journey and travel through different classrooms to get “schooled” by talented Muslim artists. Dinner will be provided by Kabul House.

Live Dance Performance by Amirah Sackett
Amirah Sackett is an internationally recognized hip-hop dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Amirah was honored as one of the first female hip-hop artists to receive the Jerome Travel/ Study grant in 2008 and traveled to Holland to study and train at a center in Europe for hip-hop artists. She continues to tour, teach, perform around the country and in her hometown of Chicago. Amirah believes hip-hop culture, as a whole, gives voice to those often unheard and is a way to uplift, inspire, and bring change to those communities that need it the most.

Live Poetry by Jacinda Bullie
An activist by temperament, the daughter of a Choctaw woman, Jacinda Bullie aka Jah da Amp Mouth is a humunist, wife, moms, and practicing Muslima. Prior to rhymes, Jacinda was a natural critique of circumstances, interrogating the world through Hip Hop Poetics. In ’96, Jacinda aka JahdaAmpMouth, alongside Jaquanda V. and Leida GM., co-founded Kuumba Lynx, a Hip Hop art & culture collective. Jacinda is currently a co-curator of the Chicago Hip Hop Theater Fest. Jah recently co-authored a poetic coloring book entitled FILLINZ…Put Some Respect on It!

Live Reading by Dr. Su’ad Abdul Khabeer
Su’ad Abdul Khabeer is a scholar-artist-activist who uses anthropology and performance to explore the intersections of race and popular culture. Su’ad is currently an associate professor of American Culture and Arab and Muslim American Studies at the University of Michigan. She received her PhD in cultural anthropology from Princeton University and is a graduate from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and completed the Islamic Studies diploma program of the Institute at Abu Nour University (Damascus). Her latest work, Muslim Cool: Race, Religion and Hip Hop in the United States (NYU Press 2016), is an ethnography on Islam and hip hop that examines how intersecting ideas of Muslimness and Blackness challenge and reproduce the meanings of race in the US. She has also written for The Root, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Ebony Magazine, the Huffington Post, Religious Dispatches and Trans/Missions, and has appeared on Al Jazeera English.

Live Ebru class with Sevim Surucu
Sevim Surucu is an Ebru (Turkish Paper Marbling) artist living in Chicago, IL. She graduated from Istanbul University with a Bachelor of Art degree in Landscape Architecture. After working as a landscape architect for a while in Turkey, she moved to the United States. In 2004, she started studying the art of paper marbling because she wanted to combine her love of nature with her love of Turkish Traditional Arts and sharing her prosperous culture to others. In her marblings, she utilizes traditional flower forms and contemporary designs as well as designs of her own. She held many art fairs, where she got awarded many times as an “Outstanding Artist” at the art fairs.

Followed by inspiration by Hind Makki & Ustadh Ubayd’ullah Evans
Hind Makki is an interfaith educator who develops and delivers workshops on active citizenship and community empowerment. An internationally recognized speaker, she has spoken on the subjects of interfaith cooperation, civic integration, and developing Muslim women’s leadership throughout the United States and Western Europe. Hind is also the founder and curator of Side Entrance, a website that documents women’s prayer spaces and experiences in mosques, and she serves on the Islamic Society of North America’s Mosque Inclusion Taskforce. Her work is focused on challenging misogyny, racism and sectarianism in Muslim communities across the country, and has been featured in a wide variety of media including ABC News, Al Jazeera English, National Public Radio, and The New York Times. Hind is an alumna of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute and holds a degree in international relations from Brown University.

Ustadh Ubaydullah Evans is ALIM’s first Scholar-in-Residence. He converted to Islam while in high school. Upon conversion, Ustadh Ubaydullah began studying some of the foundational books of Islam under the private tutelage of local scholars while simultaneously pursuing a degree in journalism from Columbia. Since then he has studied at Chicagoland’s Institute of Islamic Education (IIE), in Tarim, Yemen, and Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he is the first African-American to graduate from its Shari’a program. Ustadh Ubaydullah also instructs with the Ta’leef Collective and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) at times.

Date: Thursday, April 9, 2018
Time: 6pm Doors Open ; 6:30pm Program begins
Where: Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Date: Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Time: 6:00pm Light Refreshments; 6:30pm Talk
Where: Conference Hall, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Mark Dike DeLancey is an Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture and Director of the Islamic World Studies Program at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois (USA).

He wrote an article within the Cameroon chapter of a soon-to-be-published book about African Architecture (DOM Editions), which is how I heard of him (I had written and compiled information for the chapter). As I got to know him via Facebook, I became curious about his background, as he appeared to have extensive ties to Africa in general and Cameroon in particular, beyond his academic specialty.

Dr. DeLancey was born in South Carolina, USA. His family moved to Cameroon when he was two years old, in 1975. Both mother and father were Professors of African Studies; as Dr. DeLancey recounts it: “They became interested in Africa as a result of being stationed in Buguma for 2 years with the Peace Corps. His mother’s doctoral fieldwork was on the relationship between women in the workforce and fertility. One and a half years later, the family moved to Nigeria, where his father taught at the University of Nsukka. Mark DeLancey received an Igbo middle name from the headmaster of the school where his parents taught, in Buguma, Sir B.M Okororie (who named his own child DeLancey Okororie), and became Mark Dike (Dike meaning “strong or courageous person”).

Date: Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Time: 6:30pm Light Refreshments; 7:30pm Talk
Where: Conference Hall, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Sahibzada Sultan Ahmad Ali is Chairman of the Muslim Institute, a research-oriented think-tank based in Islamabad, Pakistan whose mission is to work for unity, stability, and leadership among Muslims. He is descendent of, the eminent 17th century Sufi of the sub-continent, Hazrat Sultan Bahoo and works to promote the Sufi message for the betterment of humanity. In addition, Sultan Ali Ahmad’s academic background in Persian literature and Sufi studies enables him to communicate the relevance of Sultan Bahoo’s teachings to a broad audience.

Sultan Ahmad Ali also serves as Chairman of Advisory Board of Muslim Perspectives, the peer-reviewed quarterly research journal of the Muslim Institute, as Chief Editor of monthly magazine Mirat-ul-Arifeen International, and as Chairman of Al-Arifeen Publications Group.

Sultan Ahmad Ali is extremely active as a public speaker, writer, and public intellectual working on issues such as Islamic spirituality, Pakistan Studies, social and ethical reforms, and global trends as they impact the Muslim world.

Under his leadership, the Muslim Institute organizes numerous international and national conferences, seminars, roundtable discussions and online debates that address topics related to Islamic thought and spirituality, as well as social and global issues.

This lecture highlighted the numerous measures undertaken by the Soviet government to co-opt Islamic architectural heritage in Caucasus and Central Asia into the communist ideological project. It discussed the institutional framework of heritage politics in southern republics of the Soviet Union, the criteria for preservation and demolition, and the methodology of restoration developed in the USSR for Islamic architecture.

Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Time: 6pm Light Refreshments; 6:30pm Talk
Where: Conference Hall, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Dr. Igor Demchenko is a part-time professor of architectural history at Illinois Institute of Technology. He received a doctoral degree in architectural history from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2015. His doctoral dissertation explored the politics of heritage preservation and the restoration of medieval Islamic monuments in Soviet Central Asia. His research was supported by Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – MPI, Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship, Canadian Center for Architecture, Aga Khan Program for Islamic architecture, and Dumbarton Oaks Research Library. He presented at numerous conferences in the US, Europe and the Middle East, published several articles, and is currently working on turning his dissertation manuscript into a monograph. His publications and presentations explore the questions of non-Western architectural expertise and the problems of historic preservations in Islamic world.

Crystal T. Laura is an educational policy scholar whose research has focused on the social and academic well being of Black children in the “school-to-prison pipeline.” In this talk, she offered a summation of key contributors to the school-to-prison pipeline and how educators can intervene.

Date: Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Time: 6pm Light Refreshments; 6:30pm Talk
Where: Conference Hall, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Crystal T. Laura, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of educational leadership and co-director of the Center for Urban Research and Education at Chicago State University, and a volunteer teacher at St. Leonard’s Adult High School for formerly incarcerated men and women. Among her publications are Being Bad: My Baby Brother and the School-to-Prison Pipeline (2014) and Diving In: Bill Ayers and the Art of Teaching Into the Contradiction (co-edited with Isabel Nunez and Rick Ayers, 2014). She explores leadership preparation for learning in the context of social justice with the goal of teaching school administrators to recognize, understand, and address the school-to-prison pipeline.

Termed ‘First Responders’ to effectively understand and respond to psycho-social issues among American Muslims. This course oriented participants to basic empathic listening (preliminary counseling) to American Muslim individuals, couples, and families. The course provided a framework for how to intervene during initial crisis, effectively interact and establish a therapeutic relationship, identify limitations/boundaries, understand mandated reporting, clergy rights, how to screen and identify for the possible presence of mental illness, and an orientation to the process of referral to mental health professionals. This course also laid out an Islamically integrated model of counseling and the sequence of topics will highlight practical treatment approaches within the model by integrating modern clinical psychology. This was an experiential course that involved lectures, discussions, modeling/demonstrations of technique and role-play.

Date: Sunday, February 4, 2018
Time: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Where: American Islamic College

The term ijtihad is often invoked in public discourse to mean not only the disciplined method by which jurists arrive at answers to matters of law, but also a general ethos of innovative and independent thought. When deployed in this way, there is often a cultural critique at play that casts doubt on the ability of Islam to “keep up with the times.” This presentation examines how ijtihad was understood and argued for by Hanafi jurists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, paying particular attention to the ways in which these jurists’ conceptualization of the term was conditioned by modernist critiques of the period.

Date: Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018
Time: 6pm Light Refreshments; 6:30pm Talk
Where: Conference Hall, Main Bldg, American Islamic College

Dr. Junaid Quadri teaches courses in Middle Eastern civilization, Islamic intellectual history, and colonialism and modernity in the Muslim world. In addition to his appointment in History, he participates in the program in Religious Studies and serves as co-director of the Jewish-Muslim Initiative at UIC.

Quadri holds a PhD from the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University. His research attempts to better understand developments in Islamic law in the modern period. In particular, he studies the encounter between Islamic law and colonial power, especially with reference to contemporary discourses surrounding the fundamental categories of reform, tradition, authority, science, and religion/secularism. Though his previous work has focused primarily on Egypt, he is currently investigating the transnational networks that defined Islamic learning for centuries, and served to both enable and constrain the conceptual moves undertaken by Islamic jurists in this new context.

In a separate but related project, he examines the mechanisms through which Islamic legal texts sought to carve out a space for the cultivation of ethical virtues through techniques of habituation and discipline.

Quadri has previously been the recipient of fellowships from the American Center for Oriental Research in Amman, Jordan; the American Research Center in Egypt; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. In the 2014-2015 academic year, he was Visiting Assistant Professor at the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies in Doha.