User:Omidsafi

Omid Safi.

Safi is one of the new generation of Muslim intellectuals who looks within the Islamic tradition for reservoirs of justice and compassion to come up with creative responses to the challenges of modernity. His overall framework is one of putting the spiritual commitment and aesthetics of the Sufi dimension of Islam in touch with the political commitment of social activism and post-colonial critique of imperialism and colonialism. Among the current generation of Muslims who take engagement with modernity seriously, he has been a voice for emphasizing the ethical and spiritual dimensions of Islam.

He is an associate professor of Islamic Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He specializes on contemporary Islamic thought, and medieval Islamic history. He is the also the chair for the study of Islam at the [American Academy of Religion], the largest international organization devoted to the academic study of religion.

Safi was born in the U.S., but has spent half of his life living in Muslim countries like Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and India. His family originally comes from the city of Esfahan in Iran. His understanding of religion is shaped both by the pluralistic Sufi dimension of Islam as well as the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama. He witnessed the Iranian revolution and the horrors of the Iran-Iraq war personally and is committed to exploring possibilities of nonviolent struggle within the Islamic tradition.

He is the editor of the volume Progressive [Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism]. This volume had a significant impact on shaping debates on modern Islam within the Muslim community, particularly in the West. In this volume, he brought together 15 Muslim scholars and activists to imagine a new understanding of Islam which is rooted in social justice, gender equality, and religious/ethnic pluralism. His second book [Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam] which deals with medieval Islamic history and politics, was published in 2006.

Safi was one of the four founders of the [Progressive Muslim Union], but resigned from the organization in 2005 since he found wanted to emphasize a response that emphasized a more rigorous engagement and rooting in the Islamic tradition. He continues to be active as a public intellectual and speaker.