About Us 

We embarked upon creating The Thinking Muslim Project as a means to contribute to the broader Islamic activities and discourses that take place in our communities and online. Our intention is not to compete with any of these good works nor to replicate them, but to address a key issue: Islamic thought in the contemporary world. 

We maintain that for over two centuries, Muslims have been subject to a ‘liberal inquisition’ that is an attempt to refashion and reassess Islam according to an ideological template. As a result, many Muslim thinkers and scholars have sought to find accommodation or a modus vivendi between Islam and Liberalism. This process intensified at the start of the millennium, where policy-makers sought to place the Muslim Ummah in the dock, hoping to solicit a reform movement within the faith that, according to the academic Dr Ovamir Anjum, would lead to the ‘emasculation’ of Islam. 

Liberalism, despite its recent decline, remains the dominant ideological force in the world. Since 9/11, the primary aim of policy makers in America and Europe is to use a multiplicity of means, both coercive and cultural, to promote doubts and levy accusations that attempt to foster a supine Islam that can be moulded according to liberal tastes.

Young Muslims in particular, are a particular focus of this campaign, with many doubting Islam or uncertain about their place in the world. Our failure to intelligently counter the challenge of liberalism and explain the true essence of Islam as a spiritual and political guidance for humanity, has led many of the young to lose confidence in their faith.

For over twelve centuries, Islam stood as a beacon of hope not just for Muslims, but to the world. The dynamism of our faith, the courage of our leadership, and humanity of our civilisation produced solutions for human beings, society, the economy, government and international relations. This dynamism enabled Islam to become a leading order in the world and during much of this time the pre-eminent one. 

We believe that the level of thought that brought us to this civilizational height was a result of our adherence to Islam, not in spite of it. And we maintain our current malady is due to our inability to replicate this civilisation. Our leaders, thinkers and scholars all too often rely upon the same tired ideas primarily derived from our engagement with liberalism, that places a country like Pakistan in severe debt to the IMF and its new overlord, an authoritarian China. 

Like all subjugated people, we have often succumbed to the stereotypes of those powers seeking to divide us. The lack of unity is through political design. Yet unfortunately, willing carriers are found in our community, opening up thoughtless and futile debates, with disastrous consequences. The Muslim world moves from one crisis to another, bereft of new ideas. 

So what do we hope to achieve? 

The Thinking Muslim is a project to inspire and equip Muslims with the thought required to gain confidence about our faith and to embrace the timeless challenge of Islam to humanity. 

Our contribution is to create a space for the in-depth study, dissemination and advocacy of Islam and its response to liberal modernity. 

Our work will focus on developing expertise in the comparative study of Islam and liberalism in the areas of human nature, society, the economy, state and international order and the advocacy of Islam as a civilizational alternative for humanity.

Our projects currently include courses across the UK and online, podcasts, training programmes to develop future leaders and a book club to encourage depth and critical faculties. 

We intend to root our work with ongoing Qur’an study programmes and the development of moral and sincere characters, striving to gain closeness to Allah (swt). 

We intend to keep our projects free and accessible to all members of our community. All our instructors and contributors see this as a sacred duty and offer their time and skills without financial gain, our ethos is to develop a network of volunteers that work only for the good of their afterlife. 

How can I help? 

We need writers, instructors, creators, volunteers and facilitators. Get in touch if you want to bring our courses to a venue near you, or to your university. We are open to all contributions and great ideas. We also welcome your kind financial help to consolidate our current and future projects insha’Allah. 

Sign up to our courses. Join the book club. Reach out or offer your ideas using our contact form below. Contribute financially to our projects. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Telegram and Facebook. Listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google or Youtube.

And together we can revitalise Islamic thinking.