Hind Makki is an interfaith and anti-racism educator who holds a degree in International Relations from Brown University. She is the founder and curator of Side Entrance, an award-winning website documenting women’s prayer experiences in mosques, and served on the Islamic Society of North America’s Mosque Inclusion Taskforce. Hind is an advisor to the ISPU project Reimagining Muslim Spaces, consulting with American mosques on gender, economic, and convert diversity. She is an alumna and advisor to the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute and serves on the Consultative Circle to the national interfaith organization, Shoulder-to-Shoulder. In 2018, Hind was featured as one of CNN’s 25 Influential American Muslims. Locally, Hind served on the advisory boards of the Br. Jeffrey Gros, FSC Institute for Dialogue, Justice, and Social Action at Lewis University and the Chicago History Museum’s exhibit “American Medina: Stories of Muslim Chicago.” Hind can be reached at hmakki@aicusa.edu.
Lecture: Modern Muslim Theology in Work and Practice
Speaker: Martin Nguyen
Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
This book aims to bring Muslim theology into the present day. Rather than a purely academic pursuit, Modern Muslim Theology argues that theology is a creative process and discusses how the Islamic tradition can help contemporary practitioners negotiate their relationships with God, with one another, and with the rest of creation.
Book: Rowman
Speaker Biography
Martin Nguyen is Professor of Islamic Studies and Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Fairfield University in Connecticut. His scholarship revolves around Muslim theology, ethics, spirituality, Qur’anic studies, and the intersection of race and religion. His publications include Modern Muslim Theology: Engaging God and the World with Faith and Imagination (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and Sufi Master and Qur’an Scholar: Abū’l-Qāsim al-Qushayrī and the Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Oxford, 2012). Presently, he is working on theological responses to global mass displacement and modern structural racism. Prof. Nguyen is also co-leading several initiatives, including the “Constructive Muslim Thought and Engaged Scholarship” seminar with the American Academy of Religion and the “Muslim Moral Theology in Conversation with Future” project with the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University. More locally, he is involved with a local Asian American community organization called AAPI New Haven.
Save the Date: Explore AIC
Date: Saturday, December 4, 2021
Time: 11:00 AM CT
In-person event, Registration Required
Free Parking
American Islamic College
640 W Irving Park Rd
Chicago, IL 60613
Free parking at 640 W Irving Park Rd (front of building) and 613 W Bittersweet Pl (rear of building)
Registration
POSTPONED – Ibn Taymiyya Intensive Study Weekend
With
Professor Yahya Michot [Hartford Seminary, USA]
Professor Jon Hoover [University of Nottingham, UK]
Dr Yasir Qadhi [Islamic Seminary of America]
And hosted by Andrew Booso [Islamic Courses]
Date: Saturday, March 5 – Sunday, March 6, 2022
Time: 10am – 5pm (Saturday) and 10am – 4pm (Sunday)
Pricing
One Day Only
Students: $30 (present Student ID and ticket)
General Admission: $50
Livestream: $40
Both Days
Students: $50 (present Student ID and ticket)
General Admission: $80
Livestream: $70
Professor Yahya Michot (Hartford Seminary, USA)
Professor Yahya M. Michot is one of the world’s leading experts on Ibn Taymiyyah. He was director of the Centre for Arabic Philosophy at University of Louvain in Belgium where he has delivered courses in Arabic, History of Arabic Philosophy, History of Muslim Peoples and Institutions of Islam, and Commentary on Arabic Philosophical Texts. His main field of research is the History of Muslim Thought with special reference to Avicenna (Ibn Sina), his predecessors and his impact on Sunni thought and Ibn Taymiyyah. His recent book is “Ibn Taymiyya: Against Extremisms. A Reader”. He is the founder and director of the collection ‘Sagesses Musulmanes’. Currently he is a retired Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Macdonald Center, Hartford Seminary, USA. For a full list please visit: www.hartsem.edu/faculty/yahya-michot
Jon Hoover (University of Nottingham, UK)
Professor Jon Hoover is a specialist on Ibn Taymiyyah. He majored in Theological Studies from the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Indiana, followed by PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Birmingham. He has taught Islamic Studies at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut and is currently teaching, researching and supervising Islamic Studies at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies University of Nottingham,UK. His expertise and areas of special interest include Islamic intellectual history, medieval Islamic theology and philosophy, the thought of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and Christian-Muslim relations. Some of publications, articles and journals include: Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism (2007). Ibn Taymiyya. Oxford Bibliographies Online.(2012) Ḥanbalī Theology Oxford Handbooks Online. (2014) Christian-Muslim relations: a bibliographical history. (2012) For a full list please visit: www.nottingham.ac.uk/theology/people/jon.hoover
Dr Yasir Qadhi (Islamic Seminary of America, USA)
Yasir Qadhi is the Resident Scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center. He is also the Dean of The Islamic Seminary of America. Yasir graduated with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston, after which he was accepted as a student at the Islamic University of Madinah. After completing a diploma in Arabic, he graduated with a B.A. from the College of Hadith and Islamic Sciences, and then completed a M.A. in Islamic Theology from the College of Dawah. He then returned to America, and completed a PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University. He has authored several books, published academic articles, and appeared on numerous satellite and TV stations around the globe. His online videos are of the most popular and highly-watched Islamic videos in English.
Andrew Booso (Islamic Courses / Safeenah Fellowship, UK)
Andrew Booso was born and raised in London, England. After completing a Law degree at the London School of Economics, he has pursued traditional Islamic studies (with pivotal guidance from Shaykh Akram Nadwi) and has edited numerous texts for various Islamic publishers, including Islamic Texts Society and Turath. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Al-Salam Institute, seminar coordinator for Islamic Courses (London) and the director of the Safeenah Fellowship. He had been working on a new edition of the late Shaykh Mustafa al-A‘zami’s History of the Qur’anic Text and edited a number of translated texts associated with the Deoband movement by Ashraf Ali Thanawi, Husain Ahmad Madani, Abdullah Gangohi, Taqi Usmani, Salman Mansurpuri and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.
Audience:
Open to the general public and intermediate and advanced students of Islamic Sciences, Islamic Studies, post-graduates and academics.
Pre-requisites:
TBA
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POSTPONED – Journey Through the Quran
With main presenter: Shaykh Abu Aliyah (The Jawziyyah Institute, UK)
Date: March 26-27 and April 2-3, 2022
Time: 10am – 6pm each day
This course gives 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 this course, we will look at:
- Surah names and their relation to the historical context 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-referenced parts of the Qur’an in order to demonstrate how the “Qur’an explains itself.
- Explanation of key passages in each chapter
- Practical guidance and lessons that can be derived from each Surah.
We will also discuss the linguistic and stylistic devices (Balaghah) used in the Qur’an, and some of the discourse around with translations, such as having alternative plausible interpretations.
Shaykh Abu Aaliyah Surkheel Sharif
Shaykh Abu Aaliyah Surkheel Sharif has been involved in Islamic teaching both in the UK and abroad since the late 1980’s. Abu Aaliyah has studied Islamic theology, law, and spirituality with a number of scholars over the last 20 years. He has authored a number of titles, including ‘More Fish Please’, ‘The Golden Rule of Differing’ and ‘Evolution, Prayer Mats and Telescopes’. He has an MA in Islamic Studies; serves as an Imam; has completed a number of translations; and is currently the Director of The Jawziyyah Institute.
Pricing
Whole Course (Both Weekends)
Students: $80 (present Student ID and ticket)
General Admission: $140
Livestream: $140
Any One Weekend
Students: $50 (present Student ID and ticket)
General Admission: $80
Any One Day
Students: $30 (present Student ID and ticket)
General Admission: $50
Audience:
Open to the general public
Pre-requisites:
None
Get Tickets
POSTPONED – Al-Ghazali Ihya’ Ulum Al-Din Weekend Intensive
With:
Professor Mustafa Abu Sway, Integral Chair for the Study of Imam Al-Ghazali’s Work, Masjid Al-Aqsa and Al-Quds University
Shaykh Dr Afifi al-Akiti, Fellow in Islamic Studies at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
Chaired by Dr. Timothy J. Gianotti, American Islamic College
Date: Saturday May 14 – Sunday May 15, 2022
Time: 10am – 5pm (Saturday) and 10am – 4pm (Sunday)
This course will provide a brief introduction to Imam Al-Ghazali’s life and the aims and format of Ihya. It will cover the epistemological basis of the Ihya itself, and while utilizing kitab al-ilm, it will touch upon the defense of the Ihya in al-imla lil-Ghazali, as well as critiques of the hadith methodology. The course will look at Ghazali’s admittance of his knowledge of the field in Qanun al-ta’wil and its essential rectification by Iraqi’s takhrij, as well as the hadith principles of using the da’if in fada’il, which was outlined by Ibn Hajar. Additionally, the course will give an overview of kitab al-aqa’id, touching on its methodology (in light of its use of the Greek heritage), and touch upon the warnings in Iljam al-awamm and how they relate to the principles of the Ihya.
We will go over: Kitab Dhamm al-ghurur; Kitab al-Nikah; Kitab Adab Al-Ulfah wal-Ukhuwwah; Kitab Al-Tawbah; Kitab Al-Tafakkur and then provide as summary, conclusion and hold an extended Q & A.
Pricing
One Day Only
Students: $30 (present Student ID and ticket)
General Admission: $50
Livestream: $40
Both Days
Students: $50 (present Student ID and ticket)
General Admission: $80
Livestream: $70
Professor Mustafa Abu Sway, Integral Chair for the Study of Imam Al-Ghazali’s Work, Masjid Al-Aqsa and Al-Quds University
Professor Mustafa Abu Sway has recently been appointed as the first holder of the Integral Chair for the Study of Imam Ghazali’s Work at Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and at Al-Quds University. He is Professor of Philosophy and Islamic Studies at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, Palestine. He earned his BA and MA from Bethlehem University and PhD (1993) from and Boston College, USA. His dissertation was on “The Development of Al-Ghazali’s Genetic Epistemology.” He taught at the International Islamic University in Malaysia (1993-96), and was a visiting Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the Wilkes Honors College at Florida Atlantic University (2003-4), as well as a visiting professor of Islamic Studies at Bard College, NY (Fall 2008 and 2010/2011). Among his published works are two books: 1) Islamic Epistemology: The Case of Al-Ghazali (1995), and 1) Fatawa Al-Ghazali (ISTAC, 1996). His area of expertise is in Islamic Philosophy, Studies on Al-Ghazali, and Islamic Epistemology. In 2001 he was the winner of the Science and Religion Course Award, from The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley, CA.
Shaykh Dr Afifi al-Akiti
Shaykh Dr Afifi al-Akiti is the Kuwait Fellow in Islamic Studies at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Among his areas of expertise are Ash’ari theology, Shafi’i fiqh and the sufi tradition of Imam al-Ghazali. Shaykh Afifi, who is originally from Malaysia, was educated at the feet of the ulama of the Muslim world. In 2010, he was appointed into the Ulama Council in Malaysia. In 2012, he was made a Life Peer and joined the Privy Council of the Royal State of Perak. Since 2010, Shaykh Afifi has been listed in The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims.
Dr. Timothy J. Gianotti, American Islamic College
Serving as AIC’s President as well as Acting Provost, Dr. Timothy J. Gianotti is an accomplished scholar of classical Islamic theology, philosophy, and spirituality with strong interests in Islamic Psychology, Moral Theology, Ethics, Political Thought, comparative religion and spirituality, and interfaith relations; more specifically, he is a scholar of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d.1111), one of the most important religious thinkers of the classical period. Dr. Gianotti is also recognized as a Muslim theologian, pastoral leader, and committed interfaith advocate with extensive experience promoting interfaith engagement around the globe.
Audience:
Open to the general public and intermediate and advanced students of Islamic Sciences, Islamic Studies, post-graduates and academics.
All are welcome. Participants should be familiar with the basics of Imam Ghazali’s life, work and thoughts, familiar with the Ihya, and reasonable understanding of kalam, metaphysics, philosophy, and epistemology as well as other Islamic sciences.
Pre-requisites:
Reading of Ihya, Ghazalian epistemology, and understanding of Al-Ghazali’s philosophical theology
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POSTPONED – Mulla Sadra’s ‘The Transcendent Philosophy of the Four Journeys of the Intellect’
With
Dr Sajjad H. Rizvi (University of Exeter)
Dr Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad (The Shīʿah Institute, London)
Date: Saturday June 18 – Sunday June 19, 2022
Time: 10am – 5pm (Saturday) and 10am – 4pm (Sunday)
Pricing
One Day Only
Students: $30 (present Student ID and ticket)
General Admission: $50
Livestream: $40
Both Days
Students: $50
General Admission: $80
Livestream: $70
Dr. Sajjad H. Rizvi - Professor of Islamic Intellectual History at University of Exeter
Dr. Sajjad Rizvi is Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. He is also Director of the Centre of Islamic Philosophy at Exeter. He focused on History and Middle East studies at Oxford University and completed his doctoral dissertation on the philosophy of Mulla Sadra Shirazi. A post doctorate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, he is the author of Mulla Sadra Shirazi (2007) and Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics (2009) and is co-editor of An Anthology of Qur’anic Commentaries, co-edited by Dr. Feras Hamza and Farhana Mayer. His main research interests are in Qur‘anic Studies (tafsir and hermeneutics), contemporary Islamic thought, and Shi‘ism.
Dr. Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad, Reader in Shīʿah Studies at The Shīʿah Institute, London
Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad is an independent scholar. He has a PhD and MA in Islamic Studies from Princeton University, an MA in Arabic from Indiana University (Bloomington), and a BSc in Mathematics from Purdue University. He has served on the faculty of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilizations (ARIC) at the American University in Cairo from 2007–2015. He has also taught at the American University in Sharjah, the University of Texas at Austin as well as at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, Kuala Lumpur. He has presented scholarly papers on the Islamic occult sciences especially the works of al-Buni (d. 622 H/1225 CE) and al-Suhrawardi al-Maqtul (587 H/1191 CE) at Oxford University, Cambridge University, the Warburg Institute, and the American University in Beirut. Most recently he published a critical edition (Cairo: Dar Miṣr, 1435 H/2015 CE) of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638 H/1240 CE) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam (The Bezels of Wisdom) based on the unique Konya manuscript dictated by the author to his disciple Ṣadr al-Dīn Qunawī (d. 672 H/1274 CE) as well as an edition with introductions in Arabic, English, and Urdu of Miʿrāj al-ʿuqūl sharḥ Duʿāʾ al-Mashlūl (The Ascension of the Intellects. Commentary on the Supplication of the Lame) by Murtaḍā Nawnahrawī (d. 1336 H/1917 CE) published in London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, 1436 H/2016 CE ).
Audience:
Open to the general public and intermediate and advanced students of Islamic Sciences, Islamic Studies, post-graduates and academics.
Pre-requisites:
To be confirmed
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POSTPONED – Al-Muwatta’ Study Weekend Intensive
With:
Professor Yasin Dutton (Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies)
Professor Mohammad H. Fadel (University of Toronto)
Hosted by Andrew Booso (Islamic Courses)
Date: Saturday July 2 – Sunday July 3, 2022
Time: 10am – 5pm (Saturday) and 10am – 4pm (Sunday)
Pricing
One Day Only
Students: $30 (present Student ID and ticket)
General Admission: $50
Livestream: $40
Both Days
Students: $50 (present Student ID and ticket)
General Admission: $80
Livestream: $70
Professor Yasin Dutton (Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies)
Senior Research Fellow in the Study of the Islamic World pursuing research interests in early, classical, and modern Islamic law. He gained his DPhil in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, specialising in early Islamic law. He taught Arabic language and the Qur’an in the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford (part-time, 1993-5), after which he lectured on Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh (1995-2006), and then on Arabic at the University of Cape Town (2006-2018). Professor Yasin Dutton is the author of The Origins of Islamic Law: The Qur’an, the Muwatta’ and Madinan ‘Amal (Curzon Press, 1999) and Original Islam: Malik and the Madhhab of Madina (Routledge, 2007), as well as numerous articles on early Islamic law, early Qur’anic manuscripts, and the application of Islamic law in the modern world, particularly in relation to economic and environmental issues.
Professor Mohammad H. Fadel (University of Toronto)
Mohammad H. Fadel is a full professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Fadel wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on legal process in medieval Islamic law while at the University of Chicago and received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He has published numerous articles in Islamic legal history, Islam and liberalism, and Islam and finance.
Andrew Booso (Islamic Courses / Safeenah Fellowship, UK)
Andrew Booso was born and raised in London, England. After completing a Law degree at the London School of Economics, he has pursued traditional Islamic studies (with pivotal guidance from Shaykh Akram Nadwi) and has edited numerous texts for various Islamic publishers, including Islamic Texts Society and Turath. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Al-Salam Institute, seminar coordinator for Islamic Courses (London) and the director of the Safeenah Fellowship. He had been working on a new edition of the late Shaykh Mustafa al-A‘zami’s History of the Qur’anic Text and edited a number of translated texts associated with the Deoband movement by Ashraf Ali Thanawi, Husain Ahmad Madani, Abdullah Gangohi, Taqi Usmani, Salman Mansurpuri and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.
Audience:
Open to the general public and intermediate and advanced students of Islamic Sciences, Islamic Studies, post-graduates and academics.
Pre-requisites:
TBA
Get Tickets
Sounds of Faith
Date: Sunday, October 24, 2021
Time: 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm CT
Location: In person at American Islamic College Auditorium or Zoom
Registration: Click here
The Sounds of Faith program was inspired by Dr. Shakeela Hassan, Founder of Harran Productions Foundation.
The Sounds of Faith is a unique media and educational outreach project which focuses on the power of sound, rhythm and movement in religious and spiritual contexts. Sound unites people of faith by providing them with a tonal frame of reference which appears every bit as effective in creating and maintaining a religious or spiritual connection as the written text.
Dr. Hassan’s Sounds of Faith has been recognized globally for its interfaith and intercultural commitment to both the understanding and the celebration of human diversity and love of Creator.
Join us as we hear the sounds of faith and worship from the Native American, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim traditions!
This program is brought to you by American Islamic College, The Center for Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice at the Lutheran School of Theology, and The Interreligious Institute at Chicago Theological Seminary. The theme for this Sounds of Faith revolves around seeking peace amidst chaos; how do our respective traditions find strength and unity during a time of contention and disarray.
This event is a live, public event. You are invited to join us online or in-person. All attendees will receive a link. Please indicate in your registration if you will attend in-person, signaling that you agree to AIC’s COVID-19 policy. Please see AIC’s COVID-19 campus policy here.
In-person attendees: Proof of ID and vaccination will be checked by a trained and designated staff member upon entrance to the building. Those without proof of vaccination will be required to show ID and proof of a negative COVID test within 48 hours of the event. Live streaming of the event is available for those who do not wish to provide this information. Please note that these safety measures are to ensure the safety of everyone in attendance.
Shakeela Hassan
Shakeela Zia Hassan is a philanthropist, interfaith event and film producer, and author engaging human rights and values across communities. Her work bridging traditions is informed by a journey spanning Hyderabad to Chicago, and by her training at the University of Chicago, where she retired as Associate Professor Emeritus of Anesthesiology and Critical Care. Her care for vulnerable populations has ranged from the 1956 polio epidemic to the COVID-19 crisis.
As a producer and fundraiser, her credits include the documentaries Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, Ties That Bind, and The Sounds of Faith, Centered at her Harran Productions Foundation, the Sounds of Faith initiative has generated over 20 events from Chicago to New York and Doha, Qatar. Shakeela has served as an advisor to the International Human Rights Law Institute, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago Theological Seminary, Lutheran School of Theology, and Lake Institute on Faith and Giving. In Chicago’s near western suburbs, Shakeela and her late husband Zia Hassan, longtime professor and dean of Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology, helped to establish and serve the Islamic Foundation Villa Park and its intercommunity outreach across the distances and diversities.
Patti Nakai
Rev. Patti Nakai is a Japanese American born in Chicago and has served as a minister at the Buddhist Temple of Chicago since 1995. At the 2013 interfaith Iftar gathering at the American Islamic College, she received an award for her involvement in interfaith activities in the Chicago area, one of the few WOC at that time to be recognized.
Shelly Friedman
Cantor Michelle Drucker Friedman has served Emanuel Congregation for the last 27 years. She studied at Syracuse University, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) and Spertus Institute of Religion and has been featured in numerous Cantorial Concerts in the Chicagoland area. She served as Vice President of the Chicago/Milwaukee Association of Cantors. She and her husband Elias are proud parents of Emma and Julia.
Madinah Javed
Madinah Javed is a future trainee lawyer at the Scottish Government. She was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland. She is currently a visiting research fellow in the United States affiliated with both the American Islamic College, and the Bayan Graduate School at the Chicago Theological Seminary. In Scotland, Madinah helps run the Andalus Community Hub and Beacon Institute for Islamic Learning and Research in Glasgow. Madinah is also a Qari’ah – a female reciter of the Qur’an. She has given Qur’an recitations all over the world including at the British Museum and at the Scottish Parliament as a way for more people to hear the female spiritual voice in Islam. Madinah founded the #FemaleReciters campaign to raise awareness of Muslim women’s voices and the sacred tradition of public female Qur’an recitation.
Michael R. Zedek
In July of 2004, Rabbi Michael R. Zedek began service as the Senior Rabbi of Emanuel Congregation of Chicago. He became Rabbi Emeritus in July of 2016, and currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
Previously, he served for 26 years as the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Jehudah in Kansas City, Missouri, where he also holds the title of Rabbi Emeritus. Ordained in June of 1974, Zedek was chosen to be alumnus-in-residence at the Cincinnati and Los Angeles campuses of Hebrew Union College (HUC-JIR). Rabbi Zedek is the youngest person to receive this honor. He is a recipient of the Danforth Graduate Fellowship for outstanding teaching, a Fulbright-Hays Grant for advanced study in the United Kingdom and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. He has also had numerous teaching and speaking appointments around the world on a wide range of topics, especially focusing on spirituality and folklore. He has taught and lectured in South Africa, Russia, China, the former Yugoslavia, Israel and in many other venues.
William Buchholtz
William Buchholtz (Allison), a long-time resident of the Chicago area, has been playing and recording music of many genres for over 40 years. He now performs Native American flute and piano in programming aimed at both children and adults. An adoptee, he recently confirmed his Native American heritage as a descendant of the Canadian Kichesipirini (Great River) Band,of the Algonquin/Algonkin nation.
Bill is primarily known for his ongoing work with numerous churches; interfaith, social justice and environmental groups; museums; and cultural events including PowWows. For over 20 years, he has been working for the Native American Ministry of Presence of the United Methodist Church, as well as for the St. Kateri Center of the Archdiocese of Chicago, formerly called the Anawim Center.
He has released his own CD “The Journey Home,” on which he plays both Native American flute and piano, and which features his original songs, and has also appeared on a “Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble” CD.
Muhammed Aslan
“I currently serve as a Staff Chaplain at the University of Chicago Hospitals (UChicago Medicine) Before coming into that position, I served as the Executive Director of the Islamic Society of the Midwest, a non-profit organization that serves in the interfaith and intrafaith dialogue area. I graduated from the Divinity School at the University of Ankara, Turkey in 2014. After moving to the US, I got my graduate degree from the Catholic Theological Union with a Master’s Degree in General Theology, with a concentration in Inter-religious Dialogue in 2019. Chaplaincy is not only a profession for me. I see it as a great opportunity to draw the wisdom of life. My motto is “being passionately dedicated to touching lives with compassion.” Islam teaches me “finding God through serving others”. I also believe in being shown mercy by the Most Merciful as I show mercy to those on earth as this is too a part of basic teaching of my faith. Chaplaincy is a great profession of extending mercy and serving compassionately. I love books, attending art and cultural activities, outdoor activities; and spending time socializing with people of good heart. I enjoy this better if it is over Turkish tea! I live in Chicago and am known as a wanderer Chicagoan.”
Keith Hampton
Keith Hampton, affectionately known as “Doc”, is Cantor to the Community at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the Chicago Community Chorus (CCC). Dr. Hampton is an organ performer, conductor, composer, educator, church musician, adjudicator, and workshop clinician. He is the president of Dr. KT Productions, Inc., Chicago, Illinois and the Director of Music/Organist at St. Thomas Episcopal Church.
Classically trained as an organist and conductor, Keith Hampton earned a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from Westminster Choir College, a Master of Arts Degree from Marywood University, and a Doctor of Music Degree in Church Music from Northwestern University. Dr. Hampton has been awarded the Service Playing, Choir Master, and Associate certificates from the American Guild of Organists.
As a published composer, Dr. Hampton’s arrangements of Spirituals and Gospel Songs are available through Augsburg Fortress Press, Choristers Guild, Earthsongs Publications, Hal Leonard Corporation, Hinshaw Music, and Dr. KT Productions, Inc.
Ahmet Ates
Ahmet Ates is an experienced English language teacher for over 16 years. He is a certified Cambridge teacher trainer. He is also an acrylic painting artist. He plays guitar and flute and enjoys singing songs.
Lecture: Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color in American Islam
Speaker: Sylvia Chan-Malik
Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
2018 Outstanding Academic Title, given by Choice Magazine
An exploration of twentieth and twenty-first century U.S. Muslim womanhood that centers the lived experience of women of color
For Sylvia Chan-Malik, Muslim womanhood is constructed through everyday and embodied acts of resistance, what she calls affective insurgency. In negotiating the histories of anti-Blackness, U.S. imperialism, and women’s rights of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Being Muslim explores how U.S. Muslim women’s identities are expressions of Islam as both Black protest religion and universal faith tradition. Through archival images, cultural texts, popular media, and interviews, the author maps how communities of American Islam became sites of safety, support, spirituality, and social activism, and how women of color were central to their formation. By accounting for American Islam’s rich histories of mobilization and community, Being Muslim brings insight to the resistance that all Muslim women must engage in the post-9/11 United States.
From the stories that she gathers, Chan-Malik demonstrates the diversity and similarities of Black, Arab, South Asian, Latina, and multiracial Muslim women, and how American understandings of Islam have shifted against the evolution of U.S. white nationalism over the past century. In borrowing from the lineages of Black and women-of-color feminism, Chan-Malik offers us a new vocabulary for U.S. Muslim feminism, one that is as conscious of race, gender, sexuality, and nation, as it is region and religion.
Book: NYU Press
Speaker Biography
Dr. Sylvia Chan-Malik is a scholar of American studies, race and ethnic studies, women’s and gender studies, and religious studies. Her research focuses on the history and presence of Islam in the United States, with a specific focus on the lives of U.S. Muslim women, Black American Islam, and the rise of anti-Muslim racism in 20th-21st-century America. More broadly, she studies the intersections of race, gender, and religion, and how these categories interact in struggles for social justice. Sylvia is a core faculty member in the Departments of American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and affiliate graduate faculty for the Department of Religion at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. In Spring 2021, she was Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies at Princeton University, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative (MuslimARC) and the Shia Racial Justice Coalition. She is the author of Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color and American Islam (NYU Press, 2018), and is a primary advisor for the upcoming documentary project, American Muslims: A History Revealed. Her current book project, Sacred Struggles: Race, Religion, and the Soul of Ethnic Studies, examines the role of religion, faith, and the sacred in scholarly and activist discourses of racial justice. Sylvia speaks frequently on issues of U.S. Muslim politics and culture, Islam and gender, and racial and gender politics in the U.S., with her commentary appearing in venues such as NPR, Slate, The Guardian, Mic, The Intercept, Middle East Eye, The Daily Beast, PRI, HuffPost, Patheos, Religion News Service, and more.