Wardah is studying Philosophy and Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago. She is interested in both intra- and interfaith dialogue. Wardah, with her dedicated and dynamic spirit, will be assisting the College in creating meaningful educational activities for both the students and the wider community. She also has an interest in research, writing, and outreach, and so, will additionally perform projects in this area. We are excited to have Wardah as an intern this term and look forward to working with her.

Wardah Mohammed: Assalama’laikum, my name is Wardah and I am studying Philosophy and Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago. I love to read, run, and learn new recipes. I am dearly excited to be an intern with American Islamic College.

Join President Timothy Gianotti for a conversation about AIC, the Liberal Arts, and the nature of transformative education.

Date: Thursday, August 20, 2020
Time: 12:00 PM CST
Registration: Click Here
Online Platforms: Zoom

Dr. Shabana Mir is interviewed by Darakshan Raja of Justice for Muslims Collective on organizing and activism as a scholar. If you missed it, you can watch the video here.

The Arabic Language Institute (ALI) at American Islamic College has hosted two enrichment events as extra curricular activities for its Summer Arabic Intensive, which ran online from June 17 to August 13. The first event was a presentation on Arabic calligraphy by Calligrapher Zeeshan, and the second event was a presentation on Egyptian music in the 20th century, accompanied by solo performance on Oud by Dr. Ashraf Abdel-Rahman, a professor of history of music at the Academy of Arts in Cairo.

Dr. Talaat Pasha, the director of ALI, has announced that similar events related to Arabic and Islamic studies will be regularly presented starting this Fall of 2020.

Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Time: 1:00pm CT
Presented by: Zeeshan Farooq

Date: Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Time: 12:00pm CT
Presented by: Dr. Ashraf Abdel-Rahman

On October 1, American Islamic College is partnering with The Lutheran School of Theology’s A Center for Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice, Chicago Theological Seminary’s Interreligious Institute, and The Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign to present a webinar and panel discussion.

Program:

Participants will watch three short videos (5-minutes each) followed by a vibrant panel discussion.
Date: Thursday,  October 1, 2020
Time: 7:00 PM CST

Contact Kim Shultz at kim.shultz@ctschicago.edu for details and to register.

Videos:

Being a Better Ally
Being Muslim in America
and Good Practices for Building Community

Moderator: Catherine Orsborn

Catherine Orsborn is the Executive Director of Shoulder to Shoulder, a national campaign of religious and interfaith organizations dedicated to working collectively against anti-Muslim bigotry in the US. Prior her current role, Catherine worked at the University of Denver as the co-Director of the Social Justice living/learning community on campus, and as a doctoral researcher at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies on the project, “Religion and Social Cohesion in Conflict-Affected Countries.”

Catherine received her undergraduate degree from Asbury University in Kentucky, and holds an MA and PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Denver, specializing in religion, conflict and peace-building in comparative context. She currently lives in Nashville, TN, with her husband and two young children.

Date: Wednesday,  October 14, 2020
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, followed by Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom

In his talk, Dr. Rizwan will examine the ways in which pre-modern Muslim authorities understood the directive in Q24:2 about not taking mercy when applying 100 lashes to zinā offenders. He will argue that Muslim jurists were in fact willing to grant mercy in certain cases because they were taking into account the ability of an offender to withstand the punishment as well as its unintended consequences. Dr. Rizwan will discuss how notions of mercy can be used to reimagine the criminal law within the context of criminal justice reform.

Syed Atif Rizwan grew up in New Jersey and completed his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University, where he majored in Economics and minored in Chemistry. After graduation, he spent 8 years in the financial services industry, during which time he worked in New Jersey, New York, and Los Angeles. In 2009, he matriculated in Claremont Graduate School’s Master’s in Islamic Studies program, and upon completion of his MA in 2011 he enrolled in the Islamic Studies doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles. He graduated from UCLA in June of 2018 and his dissertation title is “The Resurrection of Stoning as Punishment for Zinā in Islamic Criminal Laws: From Zinā Flogging in the Qur’ān to Zinā Stoning in the Islamic Legal Tradition.” In his project, he examines the beginnings of the process by which stoning became an Islamic punishment for certain forms of illicit sexual intercourse in the Islamic legal tradition. Syed currently focuses on Islamic intellectual history, the intersection of Islamic criminal laws and ethics, and interreligious studies and dialogue.

American Islamic College in Chicago welcomed Dr. Syed Rizwan at a virtual event this Wednesday, 14th of October.

In the United States, the eighth amendment protects its citizens from cruel and unusual punishment. Dr. Syed begins looking at Islamic criminal law and simply highlights punishment and mercy as being two crucial points of discussion and analyses. Dr. Rizwan notes that immediately following a punishment clause, which is for those where there are three witnesses, is a statement on forgiveness. Examples of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) telling his constituents that bountiful forgiveness is met through methods of prayer.

The next topic discussed introduces the U.S. criminal justice system and the practice of solitary confinement. Dr. Rizwan through his research has found that solitary confinement affects the individual negatively both emotionally and cognitively. There are signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder within individuals having gone through solitary confinement. Dr. Syed argues that such a tool used by the justice system is incredibly unjust. In addition, a deeper look into the systemic follies of the U.S. justice system may be understood through a prisoner’s debt, because of court imposed fees. The overreaching harms of the criminal justice system in the States needs to be addressed. Thus, when taking a deeper look into mercy as a tangible source of direction in the justice system, it would prove to be a start in dismantling oppressive systems. Dr. Rizwan comments that the philosophy surrounding the mitigation of forgiveness may be a driving force within the realm of legal punishment. Especially, when looking at an act of transgression or homicide, the question one should ask is are certain circumstances pushing the wrongful act? And thus, the individual is not morally blameworthy, but not given the space and tools necessary to cope with a society built upon capitalism.

– Wardah Muhammad
Intern, 2020

Dr. Talaat Pasha was invited to speak with The University of Chicago’s Arabic Circle via zoom on Friday, April 17th. Dr. Pasha spoke on,

كورونا: متى تعود الحياة الى طبيعتها؟!
تأملات في الحداثة والتنوير

COVID-19: When Will Life be Back to Normal?!
Reflections on Modernism and the Enlightenment

For more information about our academic programs and public education activities, please take a look at our brochure.

Salaam, dear sisters, brothers, colleagues, friends:

These are trying times for us all, with news of infections, quarantines, closures, shortages, and tumbling markets coming to us from every part of the world. As we face the fear, panic and rapidly changing realities with faith, wisdom, and creative adaptation, we must also continue to practice gratitude and celebrate all that is worthy of celebration.

So I reach out to you with the blessed news that American Islamic College has achieved a major milestone in our journey toward realizing the dream of becoming a full-fledged, fully accredited university grounded in Islamic values and in the rich intellectual traditions of Islam. At the end of February, our regional accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Region, granted AIC “Candidacy” Status, which means that AIC is now a formal Candidate for Accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission, al-hamdulillah.

This is a formal step – equivalent to pre-accreditation – signaling the fact that AIC’s academic programs, along with other aspects of the college, have been scrutinized by the Higher Learning Commission (recognized by the US Department of Education as one of the major accrediting agencies in the US) and judged to be eligible for advancing a formal application for initial accreditation.

For our current and prospective students, achieving “Candidacy Status” means that the credits and degrees that AIC students earn will now carry greater legitimacy and will be, in most cases, transferable to other accredited institutions across the United States and the world. Pending the status of full recognition, credit acceptance will still remain at the discretion of each institution, but being affiliated with HLC means that most accredited colleges and universities will now consider AIC to be an institution of higher education whose courses, faculty, and institutional practices have withstood scrutiny and been judged worthy of this new status with HLC. This is, of course, in addition to our long-standing affiliation with the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), which awarded the College Operating Authority and Degree Granting Authority for its undergraduate and graduate programs seven years ago when we reopened and resumed offering classes.

This happy news comes after years of sacrifice and hard work – overhauling our curricula, professionalizing our policies and procedures, working closely with both IBHE and HLC, and guiding the first cohorts of students through our undergraduate and graduate degree programs, culminating in our first commencement for graduates in 2019. Thus, even as we thank God for the miraculous revival of the College, we must thank all of those who have steadfastly held on to the dream and selflessly toiled to help AIC re-emerge as an institution of higher learning that seeks to transform as well as to inform, to celebrate diversity and foster openness to inquiry, thought, and debate while remaining grounded in Islamic faith-based principles and values.

Whether or not you have played an active role in supporting AIC in the past, we welcome you now to celebrate with us and to become an active part of this historic Islamic college.

With gratitude and prayers for God’s peace and blessings to be upon you,

Daoud S. Casewit
President

Upholding the sacred inviolability (hurma) of each person who enters Muslim spaces from exploitation & abuse by those holding religious power, knowledge and authoirty.

On January 10-11 of 2020, American Islamic College was pleased to host and co-sponsor the first in a series of research conferences on professional ethics in religious leadership under the direction of Dr. Ingrid Mattson in what is known as the Hurma Project. The Hurma Project is a timely community conversation that focuses on the “sacred inviolability” or “hurma” of each individual in religious spaces.

Over a hundred participants, which included members of the local Chicago community, religious leaders and academic researchers from around the United States and Canada came to American Islamic College to hear the plenary lecture on Friday night in the auditorium and the twelve hour conference which took place all of Saturday in the AIC dormitory conference hall. Dr. Mattson’s presentation on Friday night introduced the Hurma Project by highlighting the responsibilities of those in positions of religious leadership and the rights of the vulnerable by explicating key prophetic and judicial statements from the Islamic tradition, as well as confronting barriers that may have formed due to social and/or cultural stigmas of contemporary society.

The Saturday conference was a full day with various panels by scholars, religious leaders, students, and experts on topics such as: “Gendered Dimensions of Abuse and Recovery,” “Community Education and Advocacy,” and “Models and Practices of Accountability.” AIC Professor, Dr. Feryal Salem, who participated in the panel discussing “The Ethical Assessment of Functionally Temporary and Secretive Marriages” from the perspective of Islamic law and ethics stated, “This is an important discussion for us to have in a forum that can address ethical concerns related to religious leadership. It is even more important as part of the training of our Muslim Chaplaincy Program students seeking to become spiritual care practitioners in public institutions. It was encouraging to see so many of our chaplaincy students participating in the Hurma conference.”

Zoya Mirza who is an MDIV student in the Muslim Chaplaincy Program at AIC and currently a campus chaplain intern at Northwestern University expressed enthusiasm about having the opportunity to expand her professional networks through connecting with the many Muslim Chaplains from around the country who came for the program. She said, “There are not many female Muslim chaplains in America, and in order to be one, I met with many chaplains at the Hurma conference that further inspired me to devote myself to this field that many people are unaware of.”

Dilnaz Waraich, representative of the Waraich Family Foundation which supports the Hurma Project said, “As our community grows and becomes educated about spiritual, sexual, and financial abuse from religious leadership, this conference brought practitioners, scholars and community leaders to understand this timely topic. This gathering was the first of many educational opportunities aimed at removing stigma and cultivating greater awareness of these matters.”

The Hurma Project is “committed to upholding the sacred inviolability of each person who is present in our Muslim spaces by elucidating the special responsibilities of those holding power and authority and by educating those who are vulnerable about their God-given dignity and rights”(The Hurma Project, 2019). You can read more about The Hurma Project here.

About this Event

Location: Reception Hall, Dormitory Building
Address: 613 W Bittersweet Pl, Chicago, IL 60613
Parking: Located at 640 W Irving Park Rd
and 613 W Bittersweet Pl (rear of main building)