The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
Dr. Omid SafiUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"Who Put Hate in My Sunday Paper? Uncovering the Israeli-Republican-Evangelical Networks Behind the 'Obsession' DVD" by Omid Safi (September 2008)
Mapping Progressive Muslim Networks
Project Description
The Progressive Islam project is now undertaking two distinct but overlapping scholarly projects: The first is a collaborative project on the methodology of Islamic reform. One of the critiques of Islamic reform for the past 150 years has been that it lacks in a coherent methodology in terms of its approach to the tradition. That critique is perhaps deserved, as many liberal Muslims have also picked and chosen their own favorite parts of the tradition. The time has indeed come to offer a holistic approach to the tradition that engages not just the inclusive and pluralistic facets of Islam, but also provides a way and indeed an intellectual rationale for dealing with the exclusivist and at times violent facets indigenous to the tradition as well.
The second aspect of the project will focus on coming to terms with the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad, called Sunna by Muslims. One of the astute and constructive criticisms of the Progressive Muslims volume was that it did not sufficiently engage the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad. Many Muslims who are spiritually and politically sympathetic to the progressive Islam project still want to see an articulation of Islam that is more explicitly engaged with the being of the Prophet, and this second aspect of the project will carry on that task.
The project will take on two forms: first, provide opportunities for small group workshops and conferences to presents ongoing collaborative research on the above two facets of the project. Second, it will provide conversation among Muslim intellectuals and scholars in North American and beyond to discuss ideas on the above.
Omid Safi, now at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, specializes on Islamic mysticism, contemporary Islamic thought, and medieval Islamic history. He is the Chair for the Study of Islam at the American Academy of Religion, the largest international organization devoted to the academic study of religion. He is committed to implementing an understanding of Islam shaped along human rights, feminism, and social justice.
Omid was born in the US, but has spent half of his life living in various Muslim countries, such as Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and India. His family originally comes from the city of Esfahan in Iran. His understanding of religion is shaped both by the pluralistic Sufi dimension of Islam as well as the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Having witnesses the Iranian revolution and the horrors of the Iran-Iraq war personally, Omid is deeply committed to exploring possibilities of nonviolent struggle within the Islamic tradition.
Omid has been nominated six times at Colgate for the "Professor of the Year" award, and before that twice at Duke University for the Distinguished Lecturer award.
He is the editor of the volume Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2003). In this volume, he brought together fifteen Muslim scholars and activists to imagine a new understanding of Islam which is rooted in social justice, gender equality, and religious/ethnic pluralism. His work The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam, dealing with medieval Islamic history and politics, was published by UNC Press 2006. He is also finishing two works dealing with Islamic mysticism: his translation of 'Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani's Tamhidat is forthcoming from Classics of Western Spirituality series at Paulist Press. His translation and analysis of Rumi's biography is forthcoming from Fons Vitae. He has written over 30 articles and some 75 encyclopedia entries and book reviews. He has been featured a number of times on NPR, Associated Press, and other national and international media.