Subjects covered:

1. What does writing as an insider in religious studies have to offer?
2. What are some of the challenges of insider writing?
3. What are some examples of insider writing done well?
4. What are some of the special challenges faced in Islamic Studies?

Trainer: Dr Amina Inloes

Short Bio of Dr Amina Inloes:

Dr Amina Inloes is a lecturer at The Islamic College in London. She has a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter. She is also a prominent public speaker in the Muslim community.

Subjects covered:

1. Each sentient being has an urge to know.
2. In the absence of knowledge the very existence of the being in question would be in jeopardy.
3. The ways in which people may try to make sense of the reality around them may differ.
4. The question which arises in this respect is ‘which one of the knowledge claims is on the right path?’

Trainer: Professor Ali Paya

Short Bio of Prof. Ali Paya:

Educated at the Sharif University of Technology (Electronic Engineering), University of Tehran (Philosophy) and the University of London (UCL) (Philosophy of Science), Ali Paya is a Professor of Philosophy at the Islamic College (London), Professor of Philosophy of Science at the Sciences and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University (Tehran), Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Futures Studies, National Research Institue for Science Policy (Iran), and a Visiting Professor at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations. Professor Paya is the author of Analytic Philosophy: Problems and Prospects which received the award for the best philosophy book of 2003 in Iran. His most recent publications include, Iraq, Democracy, and the Future of the Muslim World (co-editor 2012), The Misty Land of Ideas and the Light of Dialogue: An Anthology of Comparative Philosophy: Western & Islamic (editor, 2014), A Critical Pathology of the Social Sciences and Humanities in Iran (co-author, 2015), Analytic Philosophy from a Critical Rationalist Point of View (2016), Habermas and Iranian Intellectuals (co-author 2016), Greh Goshaee Be Shiveh-ye Philosophan va Mohandesan (Problem-solving in Accordance with the Approaches of Philosophers and Engineers: Essays Concerning Science, Technology and Science Policy) (2017), Rah va Rasm-e Manzel-ha (Tools of the Trade: Essays on, and from the viewpoint of, Human Sciences) (2018), and Islam, Modernity and a New Millennium: Themes from a Critical Rationalist Reading of Islam (2018).

Subjects covered:

1. Concept of marriage in Islam
2. Marriage and the law of contract in Islam
3. Consequences of marriage in religion and secular law
4. Marriage and its preliminaries in the laws of the Muslim World

Trainer: Dr Tahir Wasti

Short Bio of Dr Tahir Wasti:

Dr Tahir Wasti is a senior lecturer in The Islamic College London. He began his career in teaching and practising law in 1991 after passing LLM in Islamic law and Human Rights. He completed his PhD in Islamic law from the School of Oriental and African (SOAS) in 2006. He is an author of the Sharia law in Practice: The Application of Islamic Criminal Law in Pakistan published by Brill. Dr Wasti possesses a unique experience of teaching and practising Islamic Law in the courts of law. He is also a practiceising  Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales and advises Courts on the issues relating to Islamic Law.

Subjects covered:

1. The main components which constitute the phenomenon of the Enlightenment
2. The importance of the question of the Enlightenment for the Muslim world.
3. The way major Muslim thinkers and statesmen have dealt with the challenge of Enlightenment thought from the days of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani until recent times.
4. The Muslim predicament with the Enlightenment.
5. Ideas on what the future may hold in this encounter between Islam and the Enlightenment.

Trainer: Dr Emad Bazzi

Short Bio of Dr Emad Bazzi:

Dr Emad Bazzi has completed a PhD thesis on the impact of mysticism on the formation of Ayatollah Khomeini’s political theory at Sydney University. He has taught at various universities including Leeds in the U.K. and Khalifa in the UAE. He is also associated with the Islamic College for Advanced Studies. Dr Bazzi is mainly focused on the intellectual and institutional encounter between Islam and modernity/postmodernism. He is currently engaged in a research project on Islam and the Intellectual Encounter with the Enlightenment.

Subjects covered:

1. Introduction to academic writing, what is it?
2. The types of writing within the academic arena
3. The structure of the academic essay
4. Referencing for academic purposes

Trainer: Dr Mohammad Zakaria

Short Bio of Dr Zakaria:

Dr Zakaria is a specialist in the areas of “the intersection of race & masculinity within education” and “Contemporary developments education & teacher training”. He is a senior lecturer at the Islamic college (London), teaching “Human Rights & Islam”, “Islamic Ritual law”, and “Education & Teacher training”. He was previously teaching “Research Methodology” and “Islamic Studies” at Birkbeck University (University of London).

Subjects covered:
1.  Teaching methodology in a faith based institution
2.  Reason vs faith debate in teaching
3.  Islamic intellectual sciences and the challenges of modernity
4.  Teaching Islamic philosophy and theology in a secular age

Trainer: Prof. Mehdi Aminrazavi
Short Bio of Prof. Aminrazavi:
Prof. Aminrazavi attended the University of Washington in Seattle where he earned his Bachelor’s in Urban Planning and Philosophy and his Master’s in Philosophy. He continued his graduate work at Temple University where he received a second Master’s in Comparative Religion and a doctorate in Islamic Philosophy and Philosophy of Religion.
Prof. Aminrazavi’s areas of specializations are Philosophy in Iran, Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Philosophy of Religion and Medieval philosophy.  He has published fifteen books and over sixty articles.
He is currently Professor of Philosophy and Religion and, Co-Director of the Center for Asian and Middle Eastern Studies program at the University of Mary Washington.

Subjects covered:

1. Introduction to academic writing, what is it?
2. The types of writing within the academic arena
3. The structure of the academic essay
4. Referencing for academic purposes

Trainer: Dr Mohammad Zakaria

Short Bio of Dr Zakaria:

Dr Zakaria is a specialist in the areas of “the intersection of race & masculinity within education” and “Contemporary developments education & teacher training”. He is a senior lecturer at the Islamic college (London), teaching “Human Rights & Islam”, “Islamic Ritual law”, and “Education & Teacher training”. He was previously teaching “Research Methodology” and “Islamic Studies” at Birkbeck University (University of London).