Past Speakers

Alia ImtoualAlia Imtoual

Alia Imtoual is a Lecturer in the School of Education at Flinders University (Australia). She writes about religion and faith identities of Muslims in Australia, the intersections of race, gender and religion, and the institutionalisation of racism relating to religious minorities. She is the co-editor (with Basia Spalek) of Religion, Spirituality and the Social Sciences (Policy Press, 2008) and the co-author (with Shakira Hussein) of 'Challenging the myth of the happy celibate: Muslim women negotiating contemporary relationships' Contemporary Islam 3/1 (2009): 25-39. She is also the author of 'De-Orientalising Methodologies: towards an articulation of a research agenda for working in/with Muslim communities', in Beyond the hijab debates: new conversations on gender, race and religion eds. Tanja Dreher and Christina Ho (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009).

Tony JohnsAnthony Johns

Professor Anthony H Johns is a member of the Emeritus Faculty of the Australian National University, having held a chair in the Faculty of Asian Studies from 1963-1993. During these years he taught courses on Islamic History and Institutions, the foundation texts of Islam, and the vernacularisation of Islam in Southeast Asia. He has done research and taught in Toronto, Jerusalem, Oxford, Chiba, Cairo and Indonesia. He has published a number of significant chapters and essays on the Qur'an and Qur'an exegesis. A recent book is Islam in World Politics, Nelly Lahoud and A.H. Johns (eds.) (Routledge, 2005). He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Qur'anic Studies. Currently he is Visiting Fellow in the Division of Pacific and Asian History, RSPAS of the ANU, and over the past two years has taught the Islamic component of a course leading to a Graduate Certificate in inter-faith relations at the Australian Catholic University (Canberra Campus).

Recent Publications

Book chapters

'Shams al-Din al-Samatra'i, in Essays in Arabic Literary Biography 1350-1850, J. Lowry and D. Stewart (eds) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009, pp.355-68

'The world of Islam and the challenge of Islamism', Anthony H. Johns & Nelly Lahoud in Islam in World Politics, 2005 pp 7-28.

Articles

'Abraham - Our Father in Faith? A Reflection on Christian-Muslim Consociation' in St. Mark's Review, St Mark's National Theological Centre, Canberra no. 206, November, 2008 (3) pp 5-22.

'Aspects of the Prophet Job in the Qur'an: A Rendering of Tabari's Exegesis of Surah al-Anbiya' (XXI:83-84)' in Hamdard Islamicus Vol:XXVIII January March 2005 No.1, pp7-51.

'Jonah in the Qur'an: An Essay on Thematic Counterpoint' in Journal of Qur'anic Studies Vol. 5 Issue 2 2003, pp. 48-71.

Mohammad Hashim KamaliMohammad Hashim Kamali

Mohammad Hashim Kamali was Dean of the International Institute of Islamic Thought & Civilisation (ISTAC) from 1985 - 2007 and was Professor of Islamic Law and Jurisprudence at the International Islamic University Malaysia. Now as emeritus he is Chairman & CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, Malaysia. In addition he is on the International Advisory Board of eleven academic journals published in Malaysia, USA, Canada, Kuwait, India, Australia and Pakistan. Professor Kamali has served as a UN consultant on constitutional reforms in the Maldives, and as a Shariah expert on the constitution of Iraq (2005 – 2006). He is currently a member of the Global Expert Finder Network of the UN Alliance of Civilisations, Chairman of the CIMB Shariah Committee and Chairman of Shariah Board, Stanlib Corporation of South Africa. Recent publications include: “The Islamic State: Origins, Definition and Salient Attributes”, in ed. K.S. Nathan & Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Islam in Southeast Asia: Political, Social and Strategic Challenges for the 21st Century, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005, pp. 278-298. “Equity and Fairness in Islam”, Cambridge, Islam Texts Society, 2005, pp.143. “Istihsan and the Renewal of Islamic Law,” Islamic Studies 43 (2004), pp. 561-581. “Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence” 3rd ed., Islamic Texts Society, Cambridge, UK, 2003. The Dignity of Man: An Islamic Perspective, 2002, 2nd ed.

 

Andrew RippinAndrew Rippin

Andrew Rippin is Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Victoria. He received his PhD from McGill University in 1981 with a dissertation on the Quranic "occasions of revelation "material. His research into the formative period of Islamic civilization in the Arab world, as well as the history of the Qur'an and its interpretation, has resulted in numerous publications, a selection of which are collected in his book The Qur'an and its interpretative tradition published in 2001. He is also the author of the two volumes of Muslims, their religious beliefs and practices first published in 1990 and 1993 and now combined into a single volume with the 2nd and 3rd editions published in 2001 and 2005. He has edited a number of books including the Blackwell Companion to the Qur'an (2006), Defining Islam (2007), World Islam (2008) and The Islamic World (2008). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2006.