Islamica Magazine was a quarterly magazine in the United States with editorial offices in Amman, Jordan, Cambridge, MA and London, UK., dedicated to presenting various perspectives and opinions on Islam and the Muslim world. It is currently on hiatus due to financial constraints.
The magazine's concept and relaunch were achieved through the efforts of Sohail Nakhooda, a Jordan-based LSE graduate who was the first Muslim to study Christian theology at the Vatican. His vision for the magazine, as is the vision of the current staff, aims to broaden perspectives on Islam and provide a forum for Muslims to articulate their concerns while establishing cross-cultural relations between Muslims and their neighbors and co-religionists. The magazine is produced in English and draws from scholars, thinkers, writers and activists from around the world..
| Editor-in-Chief | Sohail Nakhooda |
|---|---|
| Categories | culture, religion, political science, literature and foreign affairs |
| Publisher | CICD |
| Total circulation (4) |
15,000 |
| Year founded | 1992 |
| Country | International, based in United States / Jordan |
| Language | American English |
Contents |
The magazine was first published in 1992 in the UK, and re-launched in 2004 from Amman, Jordan. It was first constituted as a journal by Sohail Nakhooda, Tariq Kazi, Najma Jaweed, and others at the Islamic Society of the London School of Economics (LSE). The Islamic Society of LSE had an intellectually vibrant scene in the early 1990s and the creation of the magazine was a natural culmination of their campus work in promoting a more engaging Islamic discourse amongst university-educated Muslims. Being a campus initiative, even though sold internationally, meant that once its team graduated, the project could not be sustainable. It therefore suspended publication for three years.
However, the tragic events of September 11th, 2001 led to a dire need for authentic, reliable, and reasonable Islamic voices. A new team was formed and Islamica was relaunched by Sohail Nakhooda from Jordan as a full-color magazine of opinion and analysis. Since the re-launch, a new team was formed. It includes a dispersed editorial staff based mostly in various cities around the United States and in Jordan, with production and design taking place primarily in Amman, Jordan. From 2004 until 2006, Islamica was a privately-owned magazine incorporated in Los Angeles, California. During this time, the owner of the magazine was Alis Jusic, a California-based business man. The magazine has since become a project of the Center for Intercivilizational Dialogue, a non-profit organization incorporated in the United States. During this transition, M. Salahuddin Khan, a Chicago based business man and executive, was appointed publisher. Jusic remained the magazine's director. Islamica is most widely distributed in the US, where it is currently available in select Borders and Barnes and Noble bookstores. It is also distributed in over 20 different countries around the world. The magazine is printed in Turkey. In 2008, the ownership of the magazine was transferred to Islamica International, a British Virgin Islands-based non-profit organization. Under the leadership of a new board of directors and funded by the Aal Al Bayt Institute based in Amman, the magazine produced one additional issue in May 2009. For reasons that are unclear, the magazine website was shut down shortly after the publication of this issue.
In October 2010, the magazine website reappeared online with an archive of past issues.
Since the re-launch, Islamica has developed a diverse Advisory Board of scholars, thinkers, and academics to help define its editorial perspective. This board includes the following individuals: Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, Osman Bakar, John Esposito, Hamza Yusuf, Jeremy Henzell-Thomas, Anwar Ibrahim, Enes Karic, Nuh Keller, Joseph Lumbard, Ingrid Mattson, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, Abdal Hakim Murad, Sulayman Nyang, S. Abdallah Schleifer, Zaid Shakir
The magazine generally takes an orthodox Sunni Muslim perspective. In its earlier years, Islamica had a more Anglo-European outlook on issues, as was reflected by its primarily British-educated editorial team. In 2004, its core editorial staff was expanded to include six editors based in the United States. It was during this time that a more subtle transition was made towards addressing issues related to Islam for a primarily US or American audience. Evidence of this shift can be found in recent articles published by Sherman Jackson, David Cole, Samuel Huntington, John Esposito and other prominent American thinkers. Additionally, regular columnists based in the US including the comedian Azhar Usman, the award winning poet Daniel Abdal Hayy Moore, the essayist and writer Haroon Moghul and Asma Uddin, a lawyer and research associate for Umar F. Abd-Allah were also added to the magazine. Other regular columnists include Faraz Rabbani, Yusuf Zanella, the British academic, H A Hellyer and Jeremy Henzell Thomas. However, the editor-in-chief, Sohail Nakhooda, remains in Amman.
Contributors to Islamica Magazine draw from a broad cross-section of academics, journalists and experts. Since its relaunch from Amman, Jordan, in 2004, Islamica has published contributions from: Samuel Huntington, Anwar Ibrahim, Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Abdal Hakim Murad, David Cole, Brannon Wheeler, Azhar Usman, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, Haroon Moghul, John Esposito, Katherine Bullock, Michael Wolfe, Mostafa Al-Badawi, Sherman Jackson, Stephen Lathion, Ali Mazrui, HRH Prince Hasan, Svend White, Robert Crane, Paul Eisen, William Dalrymple, Ali Jumuah, Michael Vincente Perez, Ed Marques, Jordan Robinson, Mohja Kahf, Jibril Hambel, Osman Bakar, Abdallah Schleifer and Reza Aslan among others.
The magazine has been subsumed as a project of the Center for Intercivilizational Dialogue, a not for profit organization incorporated in the United States with offices in Amman, Jordan, Los Angeles, California, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England. The periodical contains glossy pages with photography and layout, running about 128 pages.