Neo-traditionalism in Islam in the West: Orthodoxy, Spirituality and Politics | Dr. Walaa Quisay: CICW Media-Sep 26, 2023

 YouTube Video:

https://www.youtube.com/live/9az9kJF4-Fo?si=jR7xkXJlNySx4E3L

Walaa Quisay is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of Neo-Traditionalism in Islam in the West: Orthodoxy, Spirituality, and Politics and co-author of When Only God can See: The Faith of Muslim Political Prisoners. She worked at numerous academic institutions, including the University of Manchester, the University of Birmingham, and Istanbul Sehir University. In 2019, she received her DPhil from the University of Oxford at the Faculty of Oriental Studies. She is the author of Neo-Traditionalism in Islam in the West: Orthodoxy, Spirituality, and Politics. Her research interests include the anthropology of religion, the study of Muslim political and religious subjectivities, carceral theology, theodicy, spirituality, and traditionalism and modernism in contemporary Islamic thought. 

Book Description: Neo-traditionalism in Islam in the West looks at an emerging trend within Anglo-American Islam that emphasises the primacy of a notion of ‘tradition’ and sees a moral and political imperative in its resurrection. The shaykhs at the forefront of this movement guide seekers through a paradigmatic critique of modernity that emphasises the importance of reconnecting with the tradition. They focus on affirming spirituality, self-purification, religious orthodoxy, and advocating for the notion of traditional metaphysical worldview and recognition and deference to spiritual (and at times political) authorities. This book goes beyond mere theoretical analysis to address contemporary, timely issues such as the role of religion in contemporary geopolitics, race and identity, gender and sexuality, new-found coalitions between Muslim scholars and the religious right, and religious authority and spiritual abuse.

Host: Ermin Sinanović is executive director of the Center for Islam in the Contemporary World (CICW) at Shenandoah University. 

Website of Ermin Sinanović: Scholarship and policy analysis:The Muslim world
https://www.erminsinanovic.com/

Amazon: Neo-traditionalism in Islam in the West: Orthodoxy, Spirituality and Politics | Dr. Walaa Quisay

https://www.amazon.com/Neo-traditionalism-Islam-West-Orthodoxy-Spirituality/dp/1399502778

Examining Muslim neo-traditionalist scholars in the West and their community of young seekers of sacred knowledge, Walaa Quisay explores the emerging trend within Anglo-American Islam that emphasises the importance of ‘tradition’. This book focuses on spiritual retreats hosted by three main shaykhs – Hamza Yusuf, Abdal Hakim Murad and Umar Faruq Abd-Allah – to examine how religious authority is formed and affirmed.
Through interviews with seekers who have attended retreats, the author sheds light on how discourses are shaped and practised and analyses how neo-traditionalist shaykhs construct the notion of ‘tradition’ concerning what they perceive to have been lost in modernity. The book highlights the importance of neo-traditionalism in the changing conceptions of religious orthodoxy, religious authority and spirituality for young Muslims in the West, and Quisay examines the political implications to the shaykhs’ critiques of modernity as it pertains to political quietism, race and gender.

PDF: Neo-traditionalism in Islam in the West: Orthodoxy, Spirituality and Politics | Dr. Walaa Quisay

https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/pub/media/ebooks/9781399502795.pdf

"In this book, I examine the ways in which leading neo-traditionalist shaykhs—Hamza Yusuf, Abdal Hakim Murad, and Umar Faruq Abd-Allah— and the seekers of sacred knowledge navigate modernity, tradition, and politics."

Dr. Walaa Quisay's Website:

https://www.walaaquisay.com/home

YouTube Video:Being Young and Faithful in America - Dr. Walaa Quisay-Unity Productions Foundation - August 15,2024

https://youtu.be/bo5IpPIbWLs?si=B0pvqLGkSFpqTqtz

Dr. Walaa Quisay offers a lecture on the experience of navigating faith, spirituality, and growing up as a faithful Muslim in today's society. This event was hosted by PBS station OPB in Portland Oregon and was held at the Muslim Educational Trust on June 23, 2024. Learn more about this lecture as part of UPF's American Muslim Pathways project at https://muslimpathways.com. Walaa Quisay is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of Neo-Traditionalism in Islam in the West: Orthodoxy, Spirituality, and Politics and co-author of When Only God can See: The Faith of Muslim Political Prisoners. She worked at numerous academic institutions, including the University of Manchester, the University of Birmingham, and Istanbul Sehir University. In 2019, she received her DPhil from the University of Oxford at the Faculty of Oriental Studies.