The Maydan Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

n this episode of History Speaks, Roshan Iqbal speaks with Cyrus Zargar on the role of storytelling and virtue ethics in the work of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, the 13th-century jurist, philosopher, poet, and polymath. The conversation delves particularly into the virtue of ‘compassion’ within the context of the story ‘The Tale of the Sufi and the Judge,’ from Maulana Rūmī’s magnum opus, the Mathnawī-i Maʿnawī (“The Rhymed Couplets of Spiritual Signification”).

Dr. Roshan Iqbal hails from a small hamlet of 20 million–Karachi, Pakistan. She received her PhD in Islamic Studies from Georgetown University. Prior to this she read for her MPhil at the University of Cambridge. She has studied in Pakistan, the US, Morocco, Egypt, Jordon, the UK, and Iran. Her research interests include gender and sexuality in the Qur’an, Islamic Law, Film and Media Studies, and modern Muslim intellectuals. Her recent book is titled, ‘Marital and Sexual Ethics in Islamic Law: Rethinking Temporary Marriage.’ As an associate professor at Agnes Scott College, she teaches classes in the Religious Studies department and also classes that are cross-listed with Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Film Studies. When she is not working, she loves talking to her family and friends on the phone (thank you, unlimited plans), tracking fashion (sartorial flourishes are such fun), watching films (love! love! love!), reading novels (never enough), painting watercolors (less and less poorly), and cooking new dishes (sometimes successfully).

Cyrus Ali Zargar is Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies and Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Central Florida. Zargar’s research interests focus on the metaphysical, aesthetic, and ethical intersections between Sufism and Islamic philosophy. His first book, Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in Ibn ʿArabi and ʿIraqi, was published in 2011 by the University of South Carolina Press. His most recent book, The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism, was published in 2017 by Oneworld Press. His forthcoming book concerns Sufi ethics and the theme of self-transformation in the corpus of the Persian poet ʿAṭṭār.

In this episode of On The Square, Sapelo Square’s Executive Director Latasha Rouseau sits down with Salima Suswell.

Salima is the CEO and President of Evolve Solutions and founder of the Philadelphia Ramadan and Eid Fund.

Salima shares how her upbringing provided the foundation for her love of community and civic engagement. Her father, Imam Asim Abdur-Rashid (may Allah be pleased with him) was the imam for Masjid Mujahideen in Philadelphia until his passing in 2022. Her mother, Majeedah Rashid, has been a community organizer throughout her life. Both were influential in shaping the woman she has become today. A self described daughter of the Dar-ul-Islam movement, Salima draws from her roots steeped in love of faith, activism and community engagement as she moves in the world today. The conversation begins with the question “Who is Salima?” and proceeds to touch on topics pertaining to the history of Black Muslims in America, the importance of remaining civically engaged no matter the obstacles or political climate, voter suppression and the role that everyone must play to achieve the best outcome for all of society. This episode is a reminder that there is strength in community and power in our shared history.

In this episode of On The Square, it’s all about our Black boys! Sapelo Square’s Executive Director, Latasha Rouseau, speaks with Atiba Saleem Jones, the founder and Executive Director of SAVE Institute, which offers middle and high school programs to young Black boys as an alternative to a traditional school setting. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, the mission of SAVE Institute is “to SAVE black boys from cycles of poverty, crime, incarceration and lack of purpose through engagement in Service, Agriculture, Vocational training and Entrepreneurship”. As you will learn, Atiba has dedicated his life to positively impacting the lives of young men. The conversation flows from Atiba’s roots in Philly, his epiphany while in Syria and his maturation on the campus of Morehouse College. Atiba and Latasha touch on issues that include the school to prison pipeline, mental health, practicing Islam and rites of passage for young Black males. In a society where we are constantly confronted with negative depictions of Black lives, this is a dialogue for anyone ready to be inspired by the work and commitment of a group of men dedicated to seeing Black boys not only succeed, but thrive.
Make sure you stay until the end so you can hear briefly from a very special guest and student at SAVE Institute.

Aïdah Aliyah Rasheed, Special Projects Lead sits down with Bee Walker, photographer, filmmaker and one-half of Paper Monday. Within this episode, Aïdah and Bee talk about the beginning stages behind the collaborative project between Sapelo Square and Paper Monday, Preserving the Legacy Portraits and Stories Capturing Black Muslim Life.* Bee shares a specific experience that occurred when Aïdah invited her to attend Jumu’ah (Friday prayer service) at Masjid Khalifah in Brooklyn, New York. Additionally the two discuss specifics about the creative process and balancing paying bills while simultaneously honoring their main intentions as creatives in the world, striving to “make art that matters.”

This conversation serves as an encouragement to Black creatives and storytellers who, like most people, have doubts about their abilities, whether they will secure adequate resources for their projects or cultivate an audience who will appreciate their gifts, to continue to push forward when obstacles may seem insurmountable. This episode also touches on the importance of telling our stories with intentionality, having faith and persevering through it all

In episode 8 of the “Islam on the Edges” podcast, Ermin Sinanovic talks with Dr. Aliyah Khan and Dr. Kenneth Chitwood about the Muslims of the Caribbean. They discussed the coming of Islam to the region, Muslim diversity, ethnolinguistic differences, material and cultural production, major historical developments, Muslim politics, and knowledge production. Muslims of the Caribbean is a growing community due to the continued conversion to Islam in the region. This wide-ranging episode briefly introduces this Muslim community’s rich history, legacy, and present.

In episode 7 of the “Islam on the Edges” podcast, Ermin Sinanovic talks to Imam Khalid Griggs about the Islamic Party in North America (IPNA). The episode traces the origins of the IPNA within the African-American Muslim community. It looks at the transnational links with the Muslims in Pakistan, Lybia, and other countries, that have contributed to the development of ideas within the IPNA. Imam Griggs talks about the relationship between the Nation of Islam and IPNA, the importance of Malcolm X, and the connection with the Muslims in the Caribbean. The IPNA was mostly active in the 1970s and the 1980s. It left a lasting influence on a generation of Muslim activists in the African-American community. This episode sheds light on the legacy of the IPNA.

BIO: Imam Khalid Griggs is the Imam of Community Mosque of Winston-Salem (NC), Director of Social Justice and Civic Engagement ICNA Council for Social Justice, Board Member of the Institute for Dismantling Racism, Member Sponsoring Committee Triad Industrial Areas Foundation, and member of Interfaith Winston-Salem.

In this episode of the Maydan Podcast, our editor-in-chief, Ahmet Tekelioglu speaks with a new GMU faculty member, Dr. Aminah McCloud Al-Deen who joined Mason to lead the Black American Muslim Internationalism Project, supported by the Henry Luce Foundation . They talk about Dr. Al-Deen’s academic journey from Philadelphia to Chicago and the goals of the BAMI Project at Mason’s AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies. 

Read more here about the BAMI Project https://islamicstudiescenter.gmu.edu/articles/18039.

This episode of Knowledge and its Producers talks to Bharti Lalwani, who is a perfumer and art critic as well as the curator of the online exhibition Bagh-e Hind. Throughout the interview, Lalwani tells us about her journey to making perfume and what it is to work as an independent perfumer, not only demonstrating that practice and expertise are intertwined, but what it is to exist outside of institutional structures. Later in the show, we are joined by her collaborator on Bagh-e Hind, Nicolas Roth,  to talk about digital exhibition curation and what it is to tell a multi-faceted history of scent.

In this episode of History Speaks, Tazeen M. Ali speaks with Edward E. Curtis IV about his recent book, Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest (NYU Press, 2022). They discuss the often-forgotten history of early Arab Muslim migration to the United States, the racialization of Islam, and mythmaking narratives that paint the American Midwest as homogenously white. They also discuss Curtis' wide-ranging scholarship on Islam in America, as well as his book and documentary, Arab Indianapolis. 

Tazeen M. Ali is a scholar of Islam and gender in the United States and assistant professor at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US Islam (New York University Press 2022).