Sherman Jackson

Sherman Jackson

Co-founder, American Learning Institute for Muslims

Sherman A. Jackson is a professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, a visiting professor of law, and a professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor . He has served as Executive Director for the Center of Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) in Cairo , Egypt , is a member of the U.S.-Muslim World Advisory Committee of the U.S. Institute of Peace , and a co-founder of the American Learning Institute for Muslims (ALIM). The “On Faith” panelist is also a former member of the Fiqh Council of North America , past president of the Sharî‘ah Scholars' Association of North America (SSANA) and a past trustee of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). In addition to numerous articles on Islamic law, theology and history, Jackson is the author of Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihâb al-Dîn al-Qarâfî , On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abû Hâmid al-Ghazâlî's Faysal al-Tafriqa and, most recently, the controversial Islam and Blackamerican: Looking Towards the Third Resurrection . Jackson has lectured throughout the US and in numerous countries abroad. He has also taught at the University of Texas at Austin , Indiana University, Wayne State University and was recently offered a full-professorship at Stanford University , which he declined. Close.

Sherman Jackson

Co-founder, American Learning Institute for Muslims

Sherman A. Jackson is a professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, a visiting professor of law, and a professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor . He has served as Executive Director for the Center of Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) in Cairo , Egypt , is a member of the U.S.-Muslim World Advisory Committee of the U.S. Institute of Peace , and a co-founder of the American Learning Institute for Muslims (ALIM). more »

Main Page | Sherman Jackson Archives | On Faith Archives


November 2006 Archives



November 17, 2006 11:00 AM

Is Common Ground The Solution or the Problem?

It seems to me that it makes little difference whether the person who believes they have a monopoly on the truth is religious or atheist. Perhaps the assumption that religious people are somehow more prone to this tendency tells us more about the modern (Western) discourse ON religion than it tells us about religion itself.

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November 27, 2006 10:39 AM

Thanksgiving: Before and After Islam

Looking at the history of Islam, I have always been impressed by its power of conversion, not of peoples -- contrary to popular stereotype -- but of ideas, institutions and cultural artifacts.

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November 28, 2006 6:30 PM

Whose Reason? Whose Violence?

Frankly, I thought the Pope's remarks at Regensburg were gratuitously snide and misguided. But I was more saddened than I was offended.

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December 2006 »

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On Faith is an interactive conversation on religion moderated by Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn of The Washington Post. It is produced jointly by Newsweek and washingtonpost.com, as is PostGlobal, a conversation on international affairs. Please send your comments, questions and suggestions for On Faith to editor and producer David Waters.