“Make Love, Not Jihad”: Rhodes Professor Kazi in NY Times Magazine

Professor Yasir Kazi joined the Rhodes Faculty in fall of 2010, where he currently teaches Modern Muslim Fundamentalist Movements. Last semester, Kazi taught Intro to Islam, a search class.  After being the featured cover story in the March 17^th issue of New York Times Magazine, Kazi’s groundbreaking work within the United States’ Muslim community became known.
 
A native of Houston, Texas, Kazi was raised between Texas and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. After completing high school in Saudi Arabia, Kazi attended the University of Houston and graduated with a bachelors of science in Chemical Engineering.

Kazi worked as an engineer before he felt a higher calling to his religion. Kazi returned to Saudi Arabia to study Arabic and Islamic sciences at the prestigious University of Madinah for ten years. Once he graduated from Madinah, Kazi became a Muslim Cleric, which gave him the knowledge to interpret Islamic laws based on the Qur’an.
 
“I felt like there was more to life than solving quadratic equations. I felt that I could make a difference in my religion,” Kazi said.
 
Rhodes College and Memphis attracted Kazi because of the plans for a mega-Mosque in Memphis.  Kazi looks for a place with a combination of an active prayer center and university campus when choosing where to live. He will be the resident scholar at the Mosque.
 
Kazi returned to the United States after The September 11^th World Trade Center attacks.  The September 11^th attacks cracked Kazi’s extremely conservative Salafi Islam. Salafis are a movement within Sunni Islam that are very conservative.  The Salafis have a strict interpretation of the Qur’an and discard people who do not believe in this interpretation.
 
Kazi realized that the stricter version of Islam he was living was not conducive. “Isolation can lead to extremist thought and actions,” he said.  He learned that he needed to be in America, not Saudi Arabia.
 
With that, Kazi applied to University in 2005 and is currently working on his doctorate while at Rhodes.  Yet, his main teachings occur on the weekends.  Kazi is the Dean of Academic Affairs and a lecturer of the AlMaghrib Institute. The AlMaghrib Institute is  “ a501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which focuses on teaching Islamic sciences to Muslimc ommunities within United States and Canada.” AlMaghrib takes the traditional semester long course and condenses it into a few days to teach Islam.
 
These seminars are currently very important within the United States for the Muslim Community. They teach Muslims how to live a strictly Islamic life with the modern technology and affairs in the United States. Kazi helps Muslim Americans to remain religious.
 
Furthermore, with the instances of Mosque burnings, refusal to build Mosques, and hate crimes towards Muslims within the United States, the American Muslims struggle with their faith and tolerance of the American culture. While these actions occur within the United States, their fellow Muslims in other countries are being slaughtered.
 
In the New York Times Magazine, Kazi is quoted, “Make Love, Not Jihad.” Kazi teaches his students that Muslims can function within American society without loosing their religion. He also teaches Muslims to vote, speak against the injustices, and pray, not start a Jihad.  He is teaching American Muslims to adapt to American society without losing their religion while non-violently protesting the atrocities committed against other Muslims.
 
As one of the leading United States Clerics, Kazi has the power to change Muslims and non-Muslims views about Islam. He teaches non-Muslims that Islam is not a militant religion in nature, while teaching Muslims to be “firmly entrenched in religion while living in American modernity and technology.”