Jaan Islam

Jaan Islam worked as a CIC researcher in Islamic studies until November 2023. He was responsible for analysing the teaching content produced by conservative Muslim movements in the UK and Europe.

He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations from the University of Edinburgh, and an MA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia. His AHRC-funded doctoral dissertation, entitled “Divine Sovereignty in Jihadi-Salafist Thought: An Intellectual Genealogy” examines the premodern origins of divine sovereignty in classical Islamic jurisprudence, legal theory, exegesis and theology. In addition to his academic background, he is trained in traditional Islamic law.

Jaan’s research interests include contemporary Salafism, modern conservative movements in Turkey, and the history of Islamic political thought. His published works include a co-authored monograph and translation on Ibn Taymiyya’s political thought, entitled Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis (Routledge, 2022), and an article on interaction between Salafism and western political thought published in Political Theory (2023).