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- Mar 11, 2013
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Canadian Islamic scholar Ustadh Abu Ibrahim, an instructor at the i3 Institute, said in an August 10, 2025 episode of the Islamic Oasis podcast that Gen Z Muslims are not shy about shari’a law and that their “eyes light up” when he speaks to them about establishing a caliphate. He said that people are increasingly open to the idea that Islam opposes liberalism and democracy, and that Gen Z Muslims are receptive to Islamic political thought. He added that Islamic preachers should “stoke the imagination” of Muslims and approach preaching as a form of political activism aimed at establishing an Islamic state.
Podcast host Muhammad Shirazi lamented that bookstores no longer carry the types of Islamic literature available prior to 9/11, when figures such as Sayyid Qutb and Abdullah Azzam were widely known. He recalled that after 9/11, some mosques removed videos of past sermons delivered by certain preachers. Abu Ibrahim discussed the work of Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb ut-Tahrir, saying that a century of work has been done by these groups and that modern organizations should take the Islamic nation as a “serious project.” He added: “We need to seriously undertake the finishing of the work.”
Abu Ibrahim: “So one thing that’s nice about Gen Z is that we see a kind of resurgence of a more – I don’t know what the best word for it is – like, Orthodox, traditional… I don’t want to use confusing terminology, but we’re not shy about the fact that hijab is fard [obligatory]. You know, we’re not shy about the shari’a.
[…]
“And people are starting to become open to the idea that Islam might be against liberalism, might be against secularism, might be against democracy.”
[…]
Muhammad Shirazi: “The local bookstore, the kind of books that they used to have pre-9/11, we don’t see those books anymore in the bookstores. We just don’t. We don’t see the cassettes, the videotapes, the kind of ulema [Islamic scholars] that we used to see.
“You know, people knew Sayyid Qutb, people knew Muhammad Qutb, people knew Abdullah Azzam, people knew… I mean, I remember right after 9/11, some of the masjids [mosques] had to remove videos and tapes about past khutbahs [sermons] that people have come and given.”
[…]
Ibrahim: “You know, when I speak to khilafah [caliphate] with the Gen Z, their eyes light up. ‘Why hasn’t anybody told me about this before. This is amazing!’ Same as civilization, Islam has dignity. It’s this concept of the totality of Allah’s sovereignty.
“We’re political people, we’re people who want to see a world that’s just and moral. We’re people who want to see Islam return to strength. And, you know, we’re not so – what’s the word for it – repressed from understanding Islam politically as perhaps older generations are who might recoil when you speak about khilafah.
“You know, when I was first getting into dawah [spreading Islam] work, I was told to approach each concept with wisdom. As you should, not decrying that. But I found that with Gen Z, there is a much higher receptiveness at these kinds of terminologies and wordings…
[…]
“And that’s how the Prophet, peace be upon him, spoke to sahaba [companions of Muhammad], and that’s how he spoke to Quraysh. He spoke about Islam in a way that captured your imagination. You know, ‘Follow me and you will rule over Persia and Rome. Follow me and you will rule over the Arabs and the non-Arabs both.’ Who speaks like that today? Who is really stoking the imagination of Muslims? Who is not shy to be audacious about the grandiosity of Islam?
[…]
“Their dawah was a political form of activism which resulted in the establishment of an Islamic state.”
[…]
Shirazi: “There are things that need to be said about what needs to happen in Gaza. You know, there is an occupation and the occupation has to be removed. And that’s not done by passing out lollipops.
[…]
“There needs to be an army that marches in to take out the occupation.”…
Podcast host Muhammad Shirazi lamented that bookstores no longer carry the types of Islamic literature available prior to 9/11, when figures such as Sayyid Qutb and Abdullah Azzam were widely known. He recalled that after 9/11, some mosques removed videos of past sermons delivered by certain preachers. Abu Ibrahim discussed the work of Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb ut-Tahrir, saying that a century of work has been done by these groups and that modern organizations should take the Islamic nation as a “serious project.” He added: “We need to seriously undertake the finishing of the work.”
Abu Ibrahim: “So one thing that’s nice about Gen Z is that we see a kind of resurgence of a more – I don’t know what the best word for it is – like, Orthodox, traditional… I don’t want to use confusing terminology, but we’re not shy about the fact that hijab is fard [obligatory]. You know, we’re not shy about the shari’a.
[…]
“And people are starting to become open to the idea that Islam might be against liberalism, might be against secularism, might be against democracy.”
[…]
Muhammad Shirazi: “The local bookstore, the kind of books that they used to have pre-9/11, we don’t see those books anymore in the bookstores. We just don’t. We don’t see the cassettes, the videotapes, the kind of ulema [Islamic scholars] that we used to see.
“You know, people knew Sayyid Qutb, people knew Muhammad Qutb, people knew Abdullah Azzam, people knew… I mean, I remember right after 9/11, some of the masjids [mosques] had to remove videos and tapes about past khutbahs [sermons] that people have come and given.”
[…]
Ibrahim: “You know, when I speak to khilafah [caliphate] with the Gen Z, their eyes light up. ‘Why hasn’t anybody told me about this before. This is amazing!’ Same as civilization, Islam has dignity. It’s this concept of the totality of Allah’s sovereignty.
“We’re political people, we’re people who want to see a world that’s just and moral. We’re people who want to see Islam return to strength. And, you know, we’re not so – what’s the word for it – repressed from understanding Islam politically as perhaps older generations are who might recoil when you speak about khilafah.
“You know, when I was first getting into dawah [spreading Islam] work, I was told to approach each concept with wisdom. As you should, not decrying that. But I found that with Gen Z, there is a much higher receptiveness at these kinds of terminologies and wordings…
[…]
“And that’s how the Prophet, peace be upon him, spoke to sahaba [companions of Muhammad], and that’s how he spoke to Quraysh. He spoke about Islam in a way that captured your imagination. You know, ‘Follow me and you will rule over Persia and Rome. Follow me and you will rule over the Arabs and the non-Arabs both.’ Who speaks like that today? Who is really stoking the imagination of Muslims? Who is not shy to be audacious about the grandiosity of Islam?
[…]
“Their dawah was a political form of activism which resulted in the establishment of an Islamic state.”
[…]
Shirazi: “There are things that need to be said about what needs to happen in Gaza. You know, there is an occupation and the occupation has to be removed. And that’s not done by passing out lollipops.
[…]
“There needs to be an army that marches in to take out the occupation.”…
