The recent massacre in New Zealand has not only highlighted current antagonisms surrounding nationalism, immigration, Islam, Western identity, and race, but it also reaches far back to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, as identified in the shooter's manifesto.
Sheikh Imran Hosein, author of over a dozen books mainly dealing with Islamic Eschatology, a field of study which he founded, is uniquely qualified to provide deep insight into all these phenomenon.
This amazing conversation is incredibly wide-ranging and iconoclastic.
We talk about New Zealand, Islam, Russia, China, the Ottomans, the Mughals, the US, Christianity, Hinduism and much more.
It is an amazing, paradigm-shifting interview.
Some of the specific issues discussed are:
- his firing as Prinicpal of an Islamic Institute in Pakistan due to his refusal to declare Shi'a as non-Muslims
- why he regards Sufism is the very heart of Islam, as opposed to literalism and fundamentalism
- his opposition to sectarianism of all sorts
- comparing the schisms between Eastern and Western Christianity, Catholicism and Protestantism, and Sunni and Shia
- Understanding the rise of Russia in this context
- his move from the study of International Relations and working in the Foreign Service to global Islamic Scholarship
- his founding of Islamic Eschatology
- how the Ottoman Empire sabotaged the relationship between Christianity and Islam, through oppression and aggression, and the desecration of the Hagia Sophia
- How the New Zealand shooter is explicitly linked to this
- Sheikh Hosein's admiration for those who defended Constantinople
- why the Mughal rule over India was oppressive and how this sabotaged the relationship between Hinduism and Islam
- why the Saudis do not represent Islam
- China's role in history and the nature of its alliance with Russia
- the madness of the present Turkish government in wanting to re-establish the oppressive Ottoman Empire
- the Turkish role in overthrowing Gaddafi in Libya and supporting ISIS
- why Trinidad (his homeland) has been one of the biggest exporters of ISIS fighters, on a per capita basis
- the problem of "Protestant Islam"
This is a profoundly important conversation that deserves the widest audience possible.
Please like, share, rate, and review this episode and this podcast in general.
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