CHRR Presents: Islamophobia & Colonial Violence with Dr. Youcef Soufi (Oct. 25, 2023)

On October 25, 2023, the Centre for Human Rights Research (CHRR) at the University of Manitoba hosted with Dr. Youcef Soufi from the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto on "Islamophobia and Colonial Violence: Solidarity and Civil Resistance in Post-9/11 Manitoba." The event focused on the experiences of solidarity and civil resistance of Muslim Canadians in the aftermath of 9/11 and during the US’s global war on terror.
Dr. Soufi is a Research Associate with the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto, where he led an international working group funded by the Connaught Global Challenge Foundation studying anti-Muslim racism within Western societies. He is an expert in the history of Islamic law and his first book, The Rise of Critical Islam: 10th-13th Century Legal Debate (Oxford University Press 2023), pushes back against secularist assumptions that Islam and critical speech are inherently at odds. His recent publications analyze North American Muslim communities’ responses to anti-Muslim racism in the aftermath of 9/11. He is a contributor to the volume Systemic Islamophobia in Canada, published by the University of Toronto Press earlier this year and his forthcoming book tentatively titled On the Outskirts of Empire: Radicalization and State Surveillance on the Canadian Prairies will be published with NYU Press in 2024. Dr. Soufi is a former faculty member of the University of British Columbia’s Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies Department, responsible for the department’s Islamic Studies program, and the former Chair of the Canadian Association for the Study of Islam and Muslims (CASIM).