In this CIK Talk, Dr. al-Ahsan, drawing from his book Ummah or Nation? Identity Crisis in Contemporary Muslim Society, delves into the identity crises impacting modern Muslim communities. He reviewed historical and contemporary literature on the rise of nationalism in Muslim countries, scrutinized the competing identities of the Ummah and the nation-state, and critically assessed how Western secular and nationalistic ideologies have influenced Muslim intellectuals during colonial and post-colonial periods.

Dr. Abdullah al-Ahsan

Professor Abdullah al-Ahsan is a professor of comparative civilization studies. He most recently taught at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Istanbul Şehir University and the Department of History and Civilization at the International Islamic University Malaysia. Dr. Ahsan holds an MA in Islamic Studies from McGill University and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan. He has contributed many articles on the relationship between contemporary Islamic and Western civilizations. His works include The Organization of the Islamic Conference: Introduction to an Islamic Political Institution (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1988) and Ummah or Nation: Identity Crisis in Contemporary Muslim Society (Islamic Foundation, 1992). He has edited, along with Stephen B Young, Guidance for Good Governance: Explorations in Qur'anic, Scientific, and Cross-cultural Approaches (International Islamic University Malaysia, 2008 and 2013). His latest edited book, Qur'anic Guidance for Good Governance: A Contemporary Perspective (2017), was published by Palgrave Macmillan. His books and articles have been translated into Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Turkish, and Urdu.