My research revolves around Religious Studies and Islamic intellectual history, with a focus on the concept of Othering within Islamic exegetical history and ethics.

More information about Arnold Mol

Research

My research revolves around Religious Studies and Islamic intellectual history, with a thesis on the concept of Othering within Islamic exegetical history and ethics whereby I look at otherization as a hermeneutic, theology, ethics, and jurisprudence as expressed within the Ottoman tafsīr tradition. Next to this I am interested in subjects surrounding Islam and contemporary thought, ethics and human rights discourse, theology of care, and religion and conflict studies.

• Islamic intellectual history, Islamic theology and philosophy, Ḥanafī-Māturīdīsm
• Islamic exegetical history, Tafsīr studies, and Qurʾānic studies
• Islamic jurisprudence and philosophy of law (uṣūl al-fiqh), Islamic ethics, Islam and human rights discourse
• Islam and political thought, Islamic international law (siyar), Muslim concepts of the Other, non-Muslim minority regime (aḥkām al-dhimma, millet system)
• Islamic studies, Ottoman studies, Islam in the west, Muslim minorities
• Islamic contemporary thought, reformism, and (anti-)extremism
• Religious studies, comparative religion, conversion theory, hermeneutics, epistemology
• Philosophy of religion, theodicy, theology of care, spiritual/pastoral care, theological anthropology
• Political theology, human rights discourse, (global) ethics, moral philosophy and intellectual history
• Otherization and dehumanization, religion and violence, conflict studies, religion and (violent) extremism, fundamentalism and totalitarianism, terrorism and radicalization studies, ethics and CVE policy.

Supervisors: Prof. dr. A.F. de Jong en Dr. A. Bdaiwi

CV

Arnold (Yasin) Mol is a PhD Candidate in Religious Studies and Islamic Intellectual History at University of Leiden. He has studied Pastoral Theology at the University of Utrecht and holds a BA in Islamic Studies from University of Leiden (2018). He is the Research Consultant on Religion and Theology of Care at the Dutch National Support Center for Extremism (Dutch abbreviation: LSE) where he researches and lectures on religious studies, religion and violence, psychology of religion, theology of care, religion and mental health, conversion theory, theory of change, intellectual history of extremism, fundamentalism and totalitarianism, otherization and dehumanization, ethics and human rights, conflict studies, rehabilitation and integration, character and value education, terrorist and extremist group participation, (de)radicalization processes, Islamic (anti)extremism, spiritual-and healthcare interventions, and healthcare rights-based approaches and CVE policies. For the center he also provides spiritual care in detention-and healthcare settings, and consultancy on rehabilitation interventions and programs for healthcare and governmental organizations. He is a research assistant at the Institute for the Revival of Traditional Islamic Sciences (IRTIS.org.uk) where he studies seminary Islamic studies and researches on traditional hermeneutics, Muslim minority jurisprudence, global ethics and human rights, Sharīʿa and governance, and Islamic sciences. He is a fellow at Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research (YIIR, yaqeeninstitute.org) and a fellow at the British Board of Scholars and Imams (BBSI.org.uk). He has multiple publications on the subjects of Islamic theology, tafsīr studies, ḥadīth studies, Islam and human rights, Islamic reformism/modernism/extremism, and religion and ethics (including Brill, Oxford University Press, De Gruyter, ABC-Clio, Journal of Islamic Ethics), and has provided talks and lectures at multiple governmental organizations, international institutes and conferences (including ISAR, BBSI, Oxford University, CIET, Leiden University, Fahm Instituut, UQSIA, Dutch Theological Society, Osnabrück University, and the Dutch departments of Justice, Social Affairs, and Foreign Affairs). 

Teaching activities

At Leiden he has guest lectured in several courses, including Islam and Philosophy at undergraduate (BA) level.

Publications

Scholarly

• ‘The encyclopedic hermeneutics of Ibn ʿĀdil al-Ḥanbalī (d. 775/1374) in his exegetical summa al-Lubāb fī ʿulūm al-kitāb’, in Handbook of Qurʾānic Hermeneutics, Ed. George Tamer (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021) (forthcoming). book chapter
• ‘Hermeneutical Aspects in Ḥāšiya and Supercommentary tradition’, in Handbook of Qurʾānic Hermeneutics, Ed. George Tamer (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021) (forthcoming). book chapter
• ‘‘Evil cannot be related to You’: Kemālpāshazāde’s treatise on theodicy’, Hikma: Journal for Islamic Theology and Religious Education, (2021) (forthcoming). article in journal
• ‘Human Rights and Islamic Reform’, in Oxford Handbook on Islamic Reform, Ed. Emad Hamdeh and Natana DeLong-Bas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020) (forthcoming). book chapter
• ‘Islam and Human Rights Discourse: A Typology’, The Journal of Rotterdam Islamic and Social Sciences (JRISS), Volume 10 (forthcoming). article in journal
• ‘Islamic Human Rights Discourse and Hermeneutics of Continuity’, Journal of Islamic Ethics (JIE), Volume 3 (2019). article in journal
• ‘Divine respite in the Ottoman tafsīr tradition: Reconciling exegetical approaches to Q.11:117’ in Osmanli’da ilm-I Tefsir, Ed. T. Boyalik and H. Abaci (Istanbul: ISAR, 2019). book chapter
• ‘Modern and Classical Scientific Readings of the Qur’ān: A comparative study of Abdul Wadud (d. 2001) and al-Bayḍāwī (d. 1286)'s naturalistic exegesis’, Al-Burhān Journal of Qurʾān and Sunnah Studies, Volume 3 (2019). article in journal
• ‘Laylat al-Qadr as Sacred Time: Sacred Cosmology in Sunni Kalām and Tafsīr’ in Islamic Studies Today: Essays in Honor of Andrew Rippin, Ed. Majid Daneshgar and Walid Saleh (Leiden: Brill, 2017). book chapter
• ‘Ashura in the Malay Indonesian World The Ten Days of Muharram in Sumatra as Depicted by 19th Dutch Scholars’, Journal of Shi‘a Islamic Studies, Volume VIII, No. 4 (2015). article in journal
• ‘The denial of supernatural sorcery in classical and modern Sunni tafsir of surah al-Falaq: A reflection on underlying constructions’, Al-Bayan journal of Quran and Hadith studies, Volume 11, (June 2013). article in journal

Other output

• ‘Islam and the Question of Human Rights’, Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research (YIIR), (2020) (forthcoming). other
• ‘Rise of Islamism, Extremism, and Islamic Counter Responses’, in Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History, Ed. Florin Curta and Andrew Holt (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2016). encyclopedia entry
• ‘Origins of Jihad’, in Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History, Ed. Florin Curta and Andrew Holt (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2016). encyclopedia entry
• ‘Islam and Human Rights Discourse: A Typology’, paper, Islamic University of Applied Sciences (IUR) and Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Symposium Islamic Reformation and Tajdid, 2019. conference paper
• ‘The Qur’an and the Just Society’, The Maydan, (2019). Bookreview
• ‘LVB en Radicalisering (Dutch: Low-IQ Disability and Radicalisation)’, LSE and Department of Social Affairs, public policy research publication (2019). other
• ‘Divine respite in the Ottoman tafsīr tradition: Reconciling exegetical approaches to Q.11:117’, paper, Osmanlida ilm-i-tefsir sempozyumu, ISAR, Istanbul 2018. conference paper
• ‘Response paper: The Rise of the Alt-Right: Understanding the sociocultural effects of the mainstreaming anti-Muslim Sentiment’, response paper and panel debate, The Islamic Tradition, Human Rights Discourse & Muslim Communities Conference, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Oxford, 2018. conference paper
• ‘The case for an older age of ʿĀisha in traditionalist Sunni scholarship’, Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research (YIIR), (2018). other
• ‘Radicalisering (Dutch: Radicalisation: A Factsheet on Identification)’, LSE and Comensa, public policy publication (2018). other
• ‘Marrakesh declaration’ (Dutch translation, 2016), published in La Dichiarazione di Marrakech: Proiezione e tutela della libertà religiosa nei paesi islamici, Ed. Luigi Sabbarrese (Rome: Urbaniana University Press, 2017). other
• ’Islam and Human Rights Discourse’ and ‘Analysis and commentary on the UDHR’, BBSI conference, Markfield Institute, Leicester UK, 2017. other
• ‘Islam and Human Rights Discourse’, The intersections of Islamophobia and LGBTIQ+phobia. Oslo, 2016. other
• ‘Pluralisme en de islam: Omgaan met interne en externe meerstemmigheid en ambiguiteit (Dutch: Pluralism and Islam: Engaging internal and external plurality and ambiguity)’, paper and panel debate, Religious teachers conference. UCSIA, Antwerp, 2014. conference paper
• ‘Response paper: Christenen als minderheid in Pakistan: Islamitisch postkolonisatie beleid’, response paper, Tiltenberg Seminarium, Sassenheim (NL), 2011. conference paper

Ancillary activities

• Research Consultant in Religion and Theology of Care, Landelijk Steunpunt Extremisme (Dutch National Support Center for Extremism, LSE) part of healthcare NGO FIER, www.landelijksteunpuntextremisme.nl 
• Research Assistant, Institute for the Revival of Traditional Islamic Sciences (IRTIS), www.irtis.org.uk
• Fellow, Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research (YIIR), www.yaqeeninstitute.org
• Fellow, British Board for Scholars and Imams (BBSI), www.BBSI.org.uk
• Member, International Qurʾānic Studies Association (IQSA), www.IQSAweb.org