Progressive Commentary Hour - 01.31.18

An exploration into Islamic diversity,  the mysticism of Sufism, the extremism of Salafism and Wahhabism, and Muslim violence against Muslims 

Prof Alexander Knysh is a professor of Islamic Studies at the Institute of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan.  His areas of specialty are Islamic mysticism or Sufism, intellectual history, and Islamic movements in North Africa, Yemen, Russia and the Caucasus.  Dr Knysh received his doctorate at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in what was then Leningrad and now St Petersburg.  He was the executive editor for the Encyclopedia of Islamic Mysticism and the author of the recent book "Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism" commissioned by Princeton University Press.