When Only God Can See | The Faith of Muslim Political Prisoners | EAST LONDON
Event Details
When Only God Can See delves into the extraordinary experiences of Muslim political prisoners held in Egypt and under US custody at Guantanamo Bay. This groundbreaking book explores the intricate interplay between their religious beliefs, practices of ritual purity, prayer, and modes of resistance in the face of adversity. Highlighting the experiences of these prisoners, faith is revealed to be not only a personal spiritual connection to God but also a means of contestation against prison and state authorities, reflecting larger societal struggles.
Speakers
Dr Walaa Quisay
Dr. Walaa Quisay is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of _Neo-Traditionalism in Islam in the West: Orthodoxy, Spirituality, and Politics _and co-author of _When Only God can See: The Faith of Muslim Political Prisoners. _She worked at numerous academic institutions, including the University of Manchester, the University of Birmingham, and Istanbul Sehir University. In 2019, she received her DPhil from the University of Oxford at the Faculty of Oriental Studies. Her research interests include the anthropology of religion, the study of Muslim political and religious subjectivities, carceral theology, theodicy, and traditionalism and modernism in contemporary Islamic thought.
Dr Asim Qureshi
Research Director
Dr Asim Qureshi is the Research Director at CAGE. He graduated in Law (LLB Hons) LLM, specialising in International Law and Islamic Law. In 2018, he completed his PhD in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent. He has published a wide range of NGO reports, academic journals and articles.
Since 2010, he has been advising legal teams involved in defending death penalty trials in the US and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He is also the author and editor of three books so far: In 2009, "Rules of the Game: Detention, Deportation, Disappearance" (Hurst, Columbia UP), "A Virtue of Disobedience" (Unbound and ByLine Books), and "I Refuse to Condemn: Resisting racism in times of national security" (Manchester University Press).
An avid reader, Asim launched thebookslamist.com, a book review platform dedicated to encouraging readers to reflect on how books have made them think.
Dr Tarek Younis
He is the Racial Justice Researcher at HealingJusticeLdn and a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Middlesex University. He researches and writes on Islamophobia, racism in mental health, the securitisation of clinical settings and the politics of psychology. He teaches on the impact of culture, religion, globalisation, and security policies on mental health. As a registered clinical psychologist, he primarily attends to experiences of racism, Islamophobia, and state violence in his private practice. His book is called The Muslim, State and Mind: Psychology in Times of Islamophobia.
EAST LONDON