Centre for Islamic Knowledge - CIK

05/23/2026

The Centre for Islamic Knowledge is pleased to participate in the ICNA Convention 2026 in Baltimore. Visit us at Booth F69 to learn more about our academic programs, distinguished faculty, publications, conferences, and educational initiatives.

05/16/2026

The Centre for Islamic Knowledge (CIK) invites the community to take advantage of the 2026 MAC Convention, taking place from May 16–18, 2026, one of the largest annual Muslim gatherings in North America. A number of scholars and faculty affiliated with CIK will be presenting and participating throughout the convention, including:

• Dr. Ovamir Anjum — ADIL Program Faculty; Board of Advisors
cikedu.org/ovamiranjum
• Dr. Yakoob Ahmed — Foundations & ADIL Program Faculty
cikedu.org/yaakob-ahmed
• Dr. Sharif El-Tobgui — ADIL Program Faculty
cikedu.org/sharif-el-tobgui
• Dr. Abdalla Idris Ali — Board of Advisors
cikedu.org/abdallaidrisali
• Shaykh Zahid Abu Ghudda — Board of Advisors; ADIL Program Faculty
cikedu.org/zahidabughudda
• Dr. Iqbal al-Nadwi — Resident Scholar
cikedu.org/iqbalnadvi

We encourage the community to benefit from the convention’s programming.

Registration and additional details are available at: macconvention.ca

05/01/2026

Please note: Due to high interest in the upcoming in-person CIK Talk with Dr. Waleed Kadous on Tech and AI Sovereignty, we have arranged a larger nearby venue to better accommodate attendees.

Updated Venue: Al Falah Islamic Centre
391 Burnhamthorpe Rd E, Oakville, ON L6H 7B4

Revised Start Time: 7:00 PM

We look forward to welcoming you, in shāʾ Allāh.

Register at cikedu.org/ciktalks

Upcoming CIK Talk - Tech and AI Sovereignty:
​Why the Muslim Community Can’t Afford to Wait

Presented by: Dr. Waleed Kadous
​​(Islam and AI thought leader | Former Head of AI Engineering and Chief Scientist at StockApp, Canva, Anyscale, Uber, and Google)

Discussant: Dr. Nazir Khan
(McMaster University / Centre for Islamic Knowledge)

On-site at the Centre for Islamic Knowledge (3150 Ridgeway Dr, Unit # 26, Mississauga, ON)

Saturday, May 2, 2026, at 7:30 PM (15 Dhul Qa'dah 1447)

Register at cikedu.org/ciktalks

Artificial intelligence is rapidly emerging as the defining technology of our age—reshaping economies, knowledge production, governance, and global power structures. Yet, as Dr. Waleed Kadous argues, the Muslim community risks repeating a familiar historical pattern: a 10–20 year delay in adopting transformative technologies, a lag that, in the case of AI, may prove far more consequential than ever before.

This CIK Talk examines the concept of tech and AI sovereignty—the capacity of a community to control its digital infrastructure, data, and technological direction in a way that reflects its values and protects its interests. Moving beyond abstract concerns, the lecture explores how dependence on external platforms can translate into real vulnerabilities, including the shaping, suppression, or distortion of Muslim voices in global digital spaces.

Dr. Kadous situates AI not merely as another technological wave, but as a meta-technology—one that accelerates progress across all domains while reinforcing inequalities between those who build it and those who consume it. As AI systems become increasingly self-improving and embedded in critical sectors, the gap between technologically sovereign communities and those without control is set to widen dramatically.

Drawing on both historical precedent and the Prophetic model, the lecture argues that the Islamic intellectual tradition has never been characterized by technological withdrawal, but rather by strategic engagement and mastery. From early investments in literacy and knowledge infrastructure to contemporary opportunities in AI development, the talk calls for a renewed vision of civilizational agency—one rooted in scholarship, ethics, and institutional leadership.

​Bringing together insights from AI engineering, policy, and Islamic thought, this session will explore the challenges, risks, and emerging opportunities in building a Muslim-led AI ecosystem. It will also highlight the roles of scholars, technologists, institutions, and community leaders in shaping a future where AI serves not only efficiency and profit, but also justice, knowledge, and the common good.

04/29/2026

Upcoming CIK Seminar - Leveraging AI to Enhance Islamic Leadership: A Workshop for Muslim Institutional Leaders & Imams

Presented by: Dr. Waleed Kadous
​​(Islam and AI thought leader | Former Head of AI Engineering and Chief Scientist at StockApp, Canva, Anyscale, Uber, and Google)

Onsite Sunday, May 3, 2026, from 10 AM to 5 PM (16 Dhul Qa'dah 1447) ​at Centre for Islamic Knowledge (3150 Ridgeway Dr, Unit # 26, Mississauga, ON L5L 5R5)

Leveraging AI to Enhance Islamic Leadership - A Workshop for Muslim Institutional Leadership and Imams is a comprehensive, hands-on workshop designed to equip Muslim institutional leaders and Imams with the knowledge, tools, and strategic frameworks needed to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence.

Delivered by one of the Muslim world’s foremost authorities on artificial intelligence, Dr. Waleed Kadous, this seminar brings together over two decades of experience at leading global technology firms with a commitment to advancing ethical and effective AI within Muslim institutional contexts.

As AI increasingly shapes how knowledge is produced, disseminated, and consumed, Islamic leaders need to move beyond passive awareness toward active, principled engagement. This seminar introduces participants to the core capabilities of modern AI systems and explores their practical applications across key domains of Islamic leadership—including khutbah preparation, research, education, community engagement, and content development.

Through a structured combination of conceptual grounding and live demonstrations, participants will gain a clear understanding of what AI can—and cannot—do, how to critically evaluate AI-generated outputs, and how to responsibly integrate these tools into their institutional and scholarly work. Particular attention will be given to questions of accuracy, epistemic integrity, and ethical use, ensuring that AI serves as an aid to, rather than a replacement for, sound Islamic scholarship.

The seminar takes a practical, implementation-oriented approach and guides participants through real-world use cases and interactive exercises. By the end of the session, attendees will have developed a personalized framework for leveraging AI to enhance productivity, expand reach, and strengthen their institutions' intellectual and operational capacity.

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"I recently attended Dr. Waleed Kadous's AI training, and I cannot recommend it enough. It was an eye-opening experience that showed how AI can significantly enhance our creativity, productivity, and overall effectiveness. More importantly, it highlighted why Muslim scholars must engage this space firsthand to guide it with sound ethical and Islamic principles."
-Shaykh Mohammad Elshinawy
Religious Director at Islamic Society of Allentown and Research Director at Yaqeen Institute

04/17/2026

Upcoming CIK Talk - Tech and AI Sovereignty:
​Why the Muslim Community Can’t Afford to Wait

Presented by: Dr. Waleed Kadous
​​(Islam and AI thought leader | Former Head of AI Engineering and Chief Scientist at StockApp, Canva, Anyscale, Uber, and Google)

Discussant: Dr. Nazir Khan
(McMaster University / Centre for Islamic Knowledge)

On-site at the Centre for Islamic Knowledge (3150 Ridgeway Dr, Unit # 26, Mississauga, ON)

Saturday, May 2, 2026, at 7:30 PM (15 Dhul Qa'dah 1447)

Register at cikedu.org/ciktalks

Artificial intelligence is rapidly emerging as the defining technology of our age—reshaping economies, knowledge production, governance, and global power structures. Yet, as Dr. Waleed Kadous argues, the Muslim community risks repeating a familiar historical pattern: a 10–20 year delay in adopting transformative technologies, a lag that, in the case of AI, may prove far more consequential than ever before.

This CIK Talk examines the concept of tech and AI sovereignty—the capacity of a community to control its digital infrastructure, data, and technological direction in a way that reflects its values and protects its interests. Moving beyond abstract concerns, the lecture explores how dependence on external platforms can translate into real vulnerabilities, including the shaping, suppression, or distortion of Muslim voices in global digital spaces.

Dr. Kadous situates AI not merely as another technological wave, but as a meta-technology—one that accelerates progress across all domains while reinforcing inequalities between those who build it and those who consume it. As AI systems become increasingly self-improving and embedded in critical sectors, the gap between technologically sovereign communities and those without control is set to widen dramatically.

Drawing on both historical precedent and the Prophetic model, the lecture argues that the Islamic intellectual tradition has never been characterized by technological withdrawal, but rather by strategic engagement and mastery. From early investments in literacy and knowledge infrastructure to contemporary opportunities in AI development, the talk calls for a renewed vision of civilizational agency—one rooted in scholarship, ethics, and institutional leadership.

​Bringing together insights from AI engineering, policy, and Islamic thought, this session will explore the challenges, risks, and emerging opportunities in building a Muslim-led AI ecosystem. It will also highlight the roles of scholars, technologists, institutions, and community leaders in shaping a future where AI serves not only efficiency and profit, but also justice, knowledge, and the common good.

04/11/2026

Upcoming CIK Talk - The Ottoman Ulema and the Quest for an Islamic Constitution: Revolution and Revelation

Online, Sunday, April 12th at 12 PM EDT (24th Shawwal)

Register at: cikedu.org/ciktalks

Presented by: Dr. Yakoob Ahmed
​​(Istanbul University / Al-Qasas)

Discussant: Dr. Safaruk Chowdhury
(Cambridge Muslim College / Centre for Islamic Knowledge)

This CIK Talk draws on The Ottoman Ulema and the Quest for an Islamic Constitution: Revolution and Revelation by Dr. Yakoob Ahmed, a major study re-examining the intellectual and political role of the Sunni ulema during the late Ottoman constitutional period. Challenging the common portrayal of constitutionalism as a purely secular or Young Turk project, the book demonstrates that leading Ottoman scholars were not marginal to reform but were central architects in articulating an Islamic justification for constitutional governance.

Through a close reading of Ottoman archival sources, parliamentary debates, theological treatises, and contemporary print culture, the study reconstructs how the ulema engaged emerging ideas of representation, liberty, and equality within a distinctly Islamic legal and moral framework. It explores how concepts such as meşrutiyet (constitutionalism), şūrā (consultation), ʿadl (justice), and the authority of revelation were mobilized to reconcile Islamic political thought with modern state structures.

​ Rather than framing constitutionalism as a rupture with tradition, the work presents it as a moment of profound interpretive negotiation — a “revolution” shaped not only by political upheaval but also by theological reasoning and juristic deliberation. This talk will examine how the late Ottoman ulema sought to preserve the authority of Sharīʿah while engaging the challenges of modern governance, offering important insights into the historical foundations of contemporary debates on Islam and constitutionalism.

03/30/2026

On Thursday, March 26th, the Centre for Islamic Knowledge hosted Dr. Naoki Yamamoto for a lecture titled “Japanese Islamicate Art and Our Cultural Imperative.”

The lecture explored Japanese Islamicate art not as a fixed aesthetic category, but as a living cultural practice shaped by discipline, ethical formation, and responsibility to place. Drawing on Japanese classical traditions—including calligraphy, literature, and martial arts—Dr. Yamamoto reflected on how these forms may be re-articulated through an Islamicate lens rooted in inward cultivation and care for the common good.

Moving beyond narratives of cultural borrowing or conversion, the discussion emphasized the imperative of cultivating meaningful expressions of Islam within the societies in which Muslims live, while remaining connected to a broader civilizational inheritance.

We are grateful to Dr. Yamamoto for a thoughtful and enriching presentation, and to all who attended.

03/25/2026

Tomorrow, in person at CIK, in collaboration with Yunus Emre Enstitüsü - Kanada: Japanese Islamicate Art and Our Cultural Imperative — a rich and timely presentation by Dr. Naoki Yamamoto.

Upcoming Event at the Centre for Islamic Knowledge in collaboration with the Yunus Emre Enstitüsü - Kanada

Japanese Islamicate Art and Our Cultural Imperative

Presented by: Dr. Naoki Yamamoto (Graduate School of Turkic Studies at Marmara University, Türkiye | Institute of Muslim Societies and East Asian Civilizations (IMSEAC), Japan)

Next Thursday, March 26th at 8 PM (7 Shawal), On-site at the Centre for Islamic Knowledge (3150 Ridgeway Dr, Unit # 26, Mississauga, ON L5L 5R5)

Register at: www.cikedu.org/japanese-islamicate-art

This talk explores the concept of Japanese Islamicate Art as a living cultural practice rather than a fixed identity or aesthetic label. Drawing on Japanese classical arts such as calligraphy, swordsmanship, literature, and ethical discipline, the presentation examines how these traditions can be read and re-articulated through an Islamicate lens—one shaped by moral restraint, inward cultivation, responsibility, and care for the common good.

Rather than framing Islam in Japan as a matter of conversion narratives or cultural borrowing, this talk argues for a cultural imperative: the need to cultivate forms of expression that are rooted, accountable, and responsive to the societies in which Muslims actually live. Through examples from art, literature, and narrative storytelling, the talk reflects on what it means to create culture from within a place, while remaining connected to a broader civilizational inheritance.

About the Presenter:

Dr. Naoki Yamamoto is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Turkic Studies at Marmara University in Istanbul and Director of the Institute of Muslim Societies and East Asian Civilizations (IMSEAC) in Japan.

He specializes in Ottoman Tasawwuf, Japanese classical culture, and comparative intellectual history, with a particular focus on Islamicate readings of East Asian traditions.

He is the founder of Japanese Islamicate Art, a cross-disciplinary project encompassing scholarship, calligraphy, narrative fiction, and cultural commentary. His publications include a Japanese translation of Sulamī’s Kitāb al-Futuwwa, Introduction to Tasawwuf: The Way of Training (Shueisha, 2023), and an English translation of Liu Zhi’s Wugong Shiyi (The Exposition of the Five Pillars of Islam), which is forthcoming from Fons Vitae.

Through teaching, writing, and artistic practice, his work seeks to explore how ethical traditions travel, settle, and take root without losing depth or integrity.

03/24/2026

Upcoming Events and Programs — Registration Now Open

Japanese Islamicate Art and Our Cultural Imperative
cikedu.org/japanese-islamicate-art

Thursday, March 26, 2026, at 8:00 PM EDT (7 Shawwal 1447)

Dr. Naoki Yamamoto
(Marmara University, Türkiye | Institute of Muslim Societies and East Asian Civilizations (IMSEAC), Japan)

Location: On-site at the Centre for Islamic Knowledge

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CIK Talk — The Ottoman Ulema and the Quest for an Islamic Constitution: Revolution and Revelation
cikedu.org/ciktalks

Sunday, April 12, 2026, at 12:30 PM EDT (24 Shawwal 1447)

Dr. Yakoob Ahmed
(Istanbul University, Türkiye)

Discussant: Dr. Safaruk Chowdhury
(Cambridge Muslim College, United Kingdom)

Location: Online

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CIK Talk — Tech and AI Sovereignty: Why the Muslim Community Can’t Afford to Wait
cikedu.org/ciktalks

Saturday, May 2, 2026 (15 Dhul Qa'dah 1447)

Dr. Waleed Kadous
(AI researcher and technologist with over 25 years of experience; founder of Google’s Android Location and Sensing team; former ML and systems leader at Uber; former Chief Scientist at multiple startups; former Head of AI Engineering at Canva; holder of 40+ patents; creator of Ansari and the AI for Imams course; working at the intersection of AI, Islam, and ethics)

Discussant: Dr. Nazir Khan
(McMaster University, Canada)

Location: On-site at the Centre for Islamic Knowledge

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CIK Seminar — Leveraging AI to Enhance Islamic Leadership: A Workshop for Muslim Institutional Leaders
cikedu.org/seminars

Sunday, May 3, 2026 (16 Dhul Qa'dah 1447)

Dr. Waleed Kadous
(AI researcher and technologist with over 25 years of experience; founder of Google’s Android Location and Sensing team; former ML and systems leader at Uber; former Chief Scientist at multiple startups; former Head of AI Engineering at Canva; holder of 40+ patents; creator of Ansari and the AI for Imams course; working at the intersection of AI, Islam, and ethics)

Location: On-site at the Centre for Islamic Knowledge

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CIK Talk — Ibn Taymiyya’s Thought: Corpus, Reception, and Legacy
cikedu.org/ciktalks

Sunday, June 7, 2026, at 1:30 PM EDT (21 Dhul Hijjah 1447)

Dr. Mehdi Berriah (Institut français du Proche-Orient (IFPO), France) and Dr. Arjan Post (KU Leuven, Netherlands)

Discussant: Dr. Nazir Khan
(McMaster University, Canada)

Location: Online

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CIK Annual Summer Academic Intensive
cikedu.org/summer-intensive

July 18–26, 2026 (3–11 Safar 1448)

Location: Süleymaniye Madrasa, Istanbul, Türkiye

Confirmed faculty include:

- Dr. Issam Eido (Vanderbilt University)
- Dr. Ahmad Snobar (Istanbul 29 Mayıs University)
- Dr. Recep Şentürk (Hamad Bin Khalifa University | Usul Academy)
- Dr. Necmettin Kızılkaya (Istanbul University | Darulfunun Ilahiyat Journal)
- Dr. Heba Raouf Ezzat (Ibn Haldun University)
- Dr. Kasim Kopuz (Marmara University)
- Shaykh Hamza Karamali (Basira Education)
- Dr. Merve Özaykal (Istanbul University | EDEP)
- Dr. Yakoob Ahmed (Istanbul University | Al-Qasas)
- Owais Khan (Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University | University of St Andrews)
- Dr. Safaruk Chowdhury (Cambridge Muslim College | Centre for Islamic Knowledge)
- Ustadh Amir Abu Ghudda (Georgetown University | Centre for Islamic Knowledge)

Additional faculty will be announced shortly.

03/20/2026