Dr. Ali Usman Qasmi joins the Reading Muslims podcast to discuss the poltiics of readership in a post-colonial context, and how this politics plays out specifically in Pakistan. He speaks to us about the epistemic paraphernalia of classic Islamic jurisprudence texts and how it is appropriated for the legal structures of the modern nation-state. He also speaks about how reading practices that align with state ideals of Muslim citizenship can be instrumental to the process of Othering marginalized Muslim identities, and how scholarship can be used to read against the grain.
Host: Aaisha Salman
Recorded: Apr 13, 2021