This panel explores Islamic futurities through the lenses of Black Muslim thought, ethical self-formation, and contemporary political organizing. Bringing together historical, theoretical, and ethnographic approaches, our panelists examine how Muslims imagine and enact alternative futures grounded in faith, justice, and liberation. One paper analyzes Black Muslim futurities in mid-20th century print culture, tracing how visions of the “infinite future” articulated expansive possibilities for Black life, dignity, and sovereignty. Another investigates the relationship between futurity and the self, exploring how Muslims engage ethical and spiritual practices to cultivate future-oriented subjectivities. A third turns to contemporary organizing in New York City, examining how a new Muslim left draws on Islamic theology to inform political action and reimagine collective futures. Together, these contributions highlight how Islamic frameworks are mobilized to envision transformative possibilities, linking past struggles, present practices, and future horizons.
This paper looks at two emerging projects in the American Muslim community: Muslim Futures by Utopia Studios and Muslim Futurism by MIPSTERZ. These two projects have complementary approaches to imagining Muslim futures in the US, and potentially globally, that engage various art forms. The author, as a participant observer in both projects, examines the approaches of each to explore the divergences between them to understand the Muslim communities each imagines. In this investigation, one cannot avoid the theological thinking underlying both groups, either implicitly or explicitly. As such, the projects are about the future of US Muslims, and also of Islamic and Religious Studies. The self-conceptualization of these groups is an invitation to reconsider the categories and approaches we use in the study of Muslims.
Through its newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, the Nation of Islam articulated a vision of Black Muslim futurity grounded in self-determination and scientific progress. This paper considers how Muhammad Speaks presented decolonizing African nations as exemplars for its own dream of an independent nation within America. The newspaper portrayed new African nations as rejecting European influence by “doing for self” and embracing scientific tools to improve health outcomes and increase economic productivity, and it encouraged readers to identify with their progress. As such, these stories were more than news. They offered evidence that Black people were reclaiming their rightful position as the leading civilization on Earth and provided a model for Black people in America to follow as they built their own independent nation. From news about industrialization in Ghana to science fairs at the University of Islam, Muhammad Speaks offered readers a glimpse into the vibrant future Black Muslims were building.
This paper documents the formation of a new Muslim Left in New York City, exploring how members of this movement incorporate Islamic theology and ethics into their political practice. On the heels of electing the city’s first Muslim socialist mayor, Muslim organizers are turning to Islam as a language of resistance against the crises of affordability, capitalist accumulation, and imperialist war. Combining participant observation with in-depth interviews, this project documents how the new Muslim Left is challenging the secular Left’s suspicion of theology through its novel articulation of a progressive political Islam. Across Muslim electoral organizations, cultural institutions, informal study circles, places of worship, and performance spaces, I document how Muslim community leaders, political organizers, and creatives in New York City are forging a contemporary Islamic critique of American capitalism and imperialism.