Ten years since the Arab Uprisings, the global ummah is in as dire a situation as ever. Mainstream, traditional Islam is under intense pressure from a plethora of different sources, both external and internal to the ummah. The list of specific external threats is too long to spell out here in much detail. Some of …
Economic woes remain one of the foremost challenges facing the Muslim world. A decade has passed since the Arab Spring initiated unprecedented upheaval in the Middle East, largely stimulated by frustrations at socioeconomic realities. Whilst longstanding autocrats and elections have come and gone, such socioeconomic injustices ring even more true in the region ten years …
Ovamir Anjum’s refreshingly bold essay ‘Who Wants the Caliphate?’ (2019) is a wide-ranging reflection on various aspects of Muslim thinking about the caliphate. Through a detailed argument for the desirability, feasibility and religious necessity of the caliphate, it takes aim at a ‘failure of imagination and intellectual courage’ that does not allow for ‘Islam to be …
Since August 2019, the Indian government has advanced its settler-colonial project in Indian-occupied Kashmir through momentous legal changes and a complete clampdown on all forms of protest and dissent. Kashmiris believe that the recent changes to residency and land rights, which have opened the floodgates of Indian citizens and corporations to reside, work, and buy …
Ummatic thinking will require not just a global consciousness but also attention to the relationships between particular communities and regions within the umma. For Muslims in the United States, one consequential relationship is with West Africa. Ongoing research is underlining the long historical pedigree of Islam in what is now the United States, and much …
The provocative and erudite essay Who Wants a Caliphate? (2019) by Professor Ovamir Anjum deserves close reading and serious engagement. After providing a comprehensive overview of the religious, political and historical issues at stake, he challenges us to reimagine a future khilafah and presents its conceptual assumptions as well as the contours of the operational …
Introduction The Muslim world is experiencing a resurgent and global consciousness. The emergent consciousness has taken on the form of a Muslimness that is enlivened by a sense of global solidarity between the global Muslim north and the global Muslim south. There is an increasing sense that Muslims belong to an Ummah. But what …
In 2017, the newly minted Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, laid out an innovative and ambitious extension to his still-developing multi-trillion dollar “Vision 2030” modernization plan named NEOM. Envisioned as a futuristic city-state, NEOM was planned for (and is currently being built in) a mostly, though not entirely, desolate region of the …
In 2009 The Economist noted that, contrary to the accepted dogma that globalization was irreversible, “the integration of the world economy is in retreat on almost every front.” Is our world entering a phase of deglobalization after experiencing decades of globalization, and should we welcome the change? As globalization has furthered the spread of “Western” …
English | العربية Editor’s Note This publication was scheduled for release before the news of the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. In light of this news, we felt it even more important to release this paper to contrast the way the concept of the Caliphate lives in the Islamic tradition and many Muslim minds …
English | العربية شكر وتقدير أود أن أتقدم أولا بشكري وامتناني لعدد من العلماء والأصدقاء الذين بذلوا جهدا كبيرا في قراءة المسودات السابقة لهذا المقال وقدموا في هذا المجال اقتراحات لا تقدر بثمن. هذا مع التأكيد على أنني المسؤول الوحيد عن جميع الآراء المطروحة في هذا المقال وعن أية أخطاء فيها. ومن هؤلاء كل من زارا …
Rekindling Ummatic Thought
The Ummatics Colloquium is a series of ongoing seminars that bring together scholars, experts, and thought leaders, as well as leaders of Muslim communities and movements, facilitate serious and critical conversation, and produce and elevate ummatic political thought.
