AL - 'ILAAJ EDITORIAL BOARD, MSSN UCH, IBADAN

  From the end of my secondary school days through university, I had several non-Muslims, during conversations, attempt to convert me to their religion. Those who knew me personally could not accuse me of vices such as gambling, drinking, or reckless living, things conversion was often said to “save” people from. So, more often than not, the conversation shifted to terrorism. “Why is terrorism usually linked to Islam?” “Why are terrorists usually Muslims?” From 9/11 to Boko Haram and then Hamas, these examples were repeatedly raised. My response was always simple: there is no part of Islam that commands Muslims to kill non-Muslims. The only context in which fighting is sanctioned is warfare, specifically defensive war, when Muslims are attacked and must defend themselves. One can only imagine how many Muslims, over this same decade, were subjected to similar conversations. For those with little grounding or conviction, many may have quietly drifted away from Islam, especially after...

  Although contemporary feminists have raised a lot of prepositions against liberalism, one cannot deny the historical framework liberalism provided for feminism and how it influenced its development (Baehr, 2004). If liberalism is the root of feminism, it begs the question: “What is Liberalism, and what is the Islamic perspective on it?”  Liberalism is a political doctrine that takes protecting and enhancing the freedom of the individual to be the central problem of politics (Minogue et al., 2023) whereas, Allah says in suratul Ahzab verse 36,  “It is not for a believing man or woman—when Allah and His Messenger decree a matter—to have any other choice in that matter. Indeed, whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has clearly gone ˹far˺ astray” . This is the first loggerhead between liberalism and Islam, while liberalism places its fulcrum on individual freedom, Islam restricts it and even calls whoever places personal freedom over her astray. Feminism is often descri...