Our Mission
Critical Muslim is a project of Muslim Institute, London, which is a learned society of Fellows. It is published by Hurst and Co., a highly respected publisher of books on Islam and the Muslim World, as a paperback book; and co-published by Oxford University Press (Pakistan), Westland Books (India), and distributed in the United States by Oxford University Press (USA). Each issue is devoted to a single theme, which also serves as the title of the individual book.
Critical Muslim is devoted to examining issues within Islam and Muslim societies, providing a Muslim perspective on the great debates of contemporary times, and promoting dialogue, cooperation and collaboration between 'Islam' and other cultures, including 'the West'. We aim to be innovative, thought provoking and forward looking, a space for debate between Muslims, between Muslims and others, on religious, social, cultural and political issues concerning the Muslim world and Muslims in the world.
What does ‘Critical Muslim’ mean? We are proud of our strong Muslim identity, but we do not see ‘Islam’ as a set of pieties and taboos. We aim to challenge traditionalist, modernist, fundamentalist and apologetic versions of Islam, and attempt to set out new readings of religion and culture with the potential for social, cultural and political transformation of the Muslim world. Our writers may define their Muslim belonging religiously, culturally or civilisationally, and some do not ‘belong’ to Islam at all. Critical Muslim often invites writers of opposing viewpoints to debate controversial issues.
In these times of accelerating change, complexity and revolutions, we choose not be a lake or a meandering river. But to be an ocean. We embrace the world with all its diversity and pluralism, complexity and chaos. We aim to explore everything on our interconnected, shrinking planet - from religion and politics, to science, technology and culture, art and literature, philosophy and ethics, and histories and futures - and seek to move forward despite deep uncertainty and contradictions. We stand for open and critical engagement in the best tradition of Muslim intellectual inquiry.
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