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Islam and/in/of the West Pt. 1

Talk by Abdal Hakim Murad - 8 February 2010 - London School of Economics - 45 mins 20 secs

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It's a triple header of talks this week, linked by the theme of Muslims living in the West. We start with this one by Sheikh Abdal Hakim, entitled 'Can Liberalism Tolerate Islam?', given at LSE Discover Islam Week, and kindly recorded and sent in by LSE ISoc. In it Sheikh Abdal Hakim inverts the usual framework of the debate about the relationship between Islam and liberalism, defined by the implicit or explicit suspicion of Muslims' ability to accept liberal values and the demand that they should do so. He unpicks this submerged 'intolerance of intolerance' in order to interrogate the significance of the secular orthodoxies liberal Europe has created, and considers how Muslims can and should respond to them.

Later in the week inshaAllah we will post a talk given in Cambridge recently by Prof. Tariq Ramadan on 'Hostility, Loyalty and Change: the Future of Muslims in the West', and in part three another recent talk by Sheikh Abdal Hakim with the intriguing title 'Can Non-Muslims Be Indigenous? Reflections on the Paradox of British Islam'.

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Infinite & Finite

Talk by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - October 2007 - Cambridge - 33 mins 30 secs

Part of the beauty of Islam is its clarity and intelligibility: its fundamental creed is strikingly simple. Yet any expression within creation's finite limits of the Divine Infinite must necessarily result in some mysteries, hazy areas at the outer limit of what human language can express and human intellect comprehend. These have a different kind of beauty, and an important wisdom and lesson for us to appreciate. In this talk, Sheikh Abdal Hakim reflects on the meeting of the finite and the Infinite, in particular on the revelation of the Holy Qu'ran to the Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him.

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