Public Lecture: ‘How to think about Muslim Difference’ by Youshaa Patel
Thursday 16 November 17.00 – 19.00
The Song School, 109A Iffley Road, Oxford, OX4 1EH
Online and in-person event hosted by the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies Oxford - Drawing on his recently published book, The Muslim Difference (Yale 2022), Youshaa Patel explores the vexing Islamic discourse of reprehensible imitation (tashabbuh), a discourse that enjoins ordinary believers to embody and display their religious difference from Christians, Jews and others in public life. Moderating cross-cultural imitation and assimilation was as crucial to the construction of Muslim identity and alterity during Islam's formative period as it is today. This lecture situates the religious discourse within Islamic scripture and tradition, casting new light on a long history of how small differences have defined Muslim interfaith encounters.
| Event held by | Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies Oxford |
|---|---|
| Contact | Susan |
| Telephone | 01865548500 |
| office@cmcsoxford.org.uk | |
| Website | www.cmcsoxford.org.uk |
| Venue accessibility | |
| Event categories | Conference/seminar/talk/workshop, Dialogue/discussion, Education/learning, Higher or Further education |
| Important information | Youshaa Patel is associate professor of Religious Studies at Lafayette College (Easton, PA USA), and author of The Muslim Difference: Defining the Line between Believers and Unbelievers from Early Islam to the Present (Yale University Press 2022). His scholarship explores Islamic scripture and tradition, with a focus on how Islam has shaped - and been shaped by - Muslim interfaith encounters in the Middle East and beyond. His work has been supported by grants from Mellon, Fulbright, and the American Institute of Yemeni Studies, and includes extended research stays in India, Qatar, Yemen, Jordan, and Syria where he studied the Islamic tradition with several of its modern-day custodians. Professor Patel is currently the Abdul Aziz Al-Mutawa visiting fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. |
