The 2008 ALIM Summer Program this year will be held at Madonna University, Livonia, Michigan. Dr. Jackson will be joined by scholars Dr. Ali Sulaiman Ali, Dr. Muneer Fareed, Dr. Sulayman Nyang and many others. This summer’s program is titled, “Think”. The program will be held from July 13th, 2008 through August 9th, 2008. For more information, visit ALIM’s web site.

In a talk delivered at Standford Univesity, Dr. Jackson discusses the realities of Shari’ah as they are contexualized here in America, especially in “Western” points of view in lieu of how Islam and Muslims are portrayed in the media and other various worldly happenings. The talk, entitled Laying Down the Shariah Law: Democracy or Theocracy?, is available on HalalTube. See a small write up here. Hat tip to MJ.

The Muslim Alliance of North America [MANA] is presenting a special fundraising event - a banquet to announce the official opening of SHARE Detroit Inc., America’s very first SHARE Center [Services for Human Advancement and Resource Enhancement], a social service and advocacy institution. The banquet will feature Imam Siraj Wahhaj, the Amir of MANA and Dr. Sherman Jackson, from the University of Michigan. The theme of the event is: “SHARE - When you care it shows…, when you share, we grow!” Additional speakers will also feature Dr. Ihsan Bagby and Imam Qasim Khan.

The event will be held Saturday, March 15th, 2008, at 5pm at the Muslim Center in Detroit, Michigan [1605 W. Davison, Detroit]. Tickets are $15. Babysitting services will be available. For additional information, call these numbers: 313-999-4953, 248-752-7237, or 773-557-9315 or email the Muslim Center at muslimcenter@ameritech.net.

This years ALIM Winter Program is entitled “Is Islamic Thought Dying?”, and will held in Santa Clara, California, at the MCA Islamic Center (Bay Area), January 18th-21st, 2008. Dr. Sherman Jackson will be amongst the speakers.
The conference will discuss, among other things, William Chittick’s recent book entitled, “Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul”. The book will serve as a springboard for discussion on the broader issues and intersections of Islamic and Western approaches to learning and knowledge.

For more information visit the Manrilla Blog. To register, go to: www.alimprogram.com.

As a part of Dr. Jackson’s two-day stay in New York at NYU he partook in a panel discusion on race. Here’s a collection of Google videos that give an account of pertinent words. To quote Dr. Jackson,

“My view is that race is a social construct, but my view is also…, so what?!“

Links here and here. Enjoy.

Update

Due to learning that the complete videos for Dr. Jackson’s lecture was not uploaded in its entirety, it has been retracted here as well as on other sites. As per Dr. Jackson’s request, we would as that anyone who has uploaded the videos, remove them. You can see the reason for his request here.

In a recent article published in Issue 6 of the Michigan State Law Review, Dr. Jackson published a concise essay on literalism both in the Islamic juridical interpretation as well as the influence and assumptions of Western thoughts concerning religion on Islam. Here’s a small excerpt:

It was in the nineteenth century that the “scientific” study of Islam approached maturity in the West. This was also the period during which the hegemonic rise of the hard sciences and “higher criticism” in religious studies opened a new chapter in the age-old conflict between “reason” and revelation. Among the most important by-products of this development was the rise of religious Fundamentalism, in which Christian—more specifically Protestant—scholars and theologians moved to erect a dike of literalism around the Bible to stave off doctrinal erosion and compromise. To their opponents, secular and Christian “progressives” alike, literalism came to represent the antithesis of both modernity and reason. This attitude would soon permeate the academy where it informed the study of religion in general and Islam more particularly. As the Western academy settled into its new “post-religious” identity, almost every criticism that could be directed at religion in general was assumed a fortiori to apply to Islam. Literalism, in this context, as the Believer’s last-ditch effort to find refuge from the deluge of modern secularism, came to be identified with any and every serious commitment to Islam.

For the complete article, click here. Hat tip to Hood for the info.

Hat tip to Rayad Khan for this one:

Dr. Jackson will, in sha’ Allah, be returning to NYU this December to complete the second half of the seerah. If you recall, he came in May 2006 and completed the Meccan Period. On the first weekend of this December, he will be returning to complete the www.icnyu.org/seerah/.

Dr. Jackson, along with many other esteemed speakers, gave an enlightening and erudite speech to a captive audience, Friday, November the 2nd, at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Here’s a link with some info and images from the event.

After much demand from the muslim community here in Michigan, Dr. Abdul Hakim Jackson is now teaching a public class just for you through ALIM . This will be a two-semester course focused on providing Muslims of all backgrounds a grounding in the basic foundations of faith (theology), practice (law), and spirituality (purification) which are considered an individual obligation for every Muslim adult to know. Registration is now open, and seating is limited to the first 41 applicants! The class starts October 18th just after Ramadhan and will be held in the new Crescent Academy Islamic School right next to the Canton Masjid.

3rd Annual Islam in America Series Lecture: Establising an Islamic Educational Foundation. Dr. Jackson will be there. For more info, click here.