Muslim Scholar
Zeyneb Sayilgan, Ph.D., is the Muslim Scholar at ICJS, where her research centers around Islamic theology and spirituality, Christian-Muslim relations, and the intersection of religion and migration. Her personal experience of growing up in Germany as a child of Kurdish Muslim immigrants from Turkey informs her academic work and engagement in interreligious learning. Sayilgan is an affiliated faculty at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria and also a Fellow Emerita in Peace and Reconciliation at its Center for Anglican Communion Studies. She also taught at The Catholic University of America and The Washington Theological Consortium. From 2010-2014, Sayilgan was appointed as a residential chaplain at Georgetown University where she advised students from all and no faith backgrounds. She has a Ph.D. in Theological and Religious Studies from Georgetown University, a Master’s degree from Hartford Seminary in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, and a B.A/M.A. in Islamic Studies and Public Law from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. She co-edited The Companion to Said Nursi Studies (2018) and Faithful Neighbors: Christian-Muslim Vision & Practice (2016). In 2019, Sayilgan was awarded the First Book Grant for Scholars of Color by the Louisville Institute. Her current work is a book, Islam and Immigration: Theological Insights from the Qur’an, which articulates a religious discourse on immigration based on Islam’s Holy Scripture.
Book, Islam and Immigration: Theological Insights from the Qur’an (Under contract with Baylor University Press)
“Islamic Creation Theology and the Human Being as Migrant,” in The Meaning of My Neighbor’s Faith: Interreligious Reflections on Immigration, Alexander Y. Hwang and Laura Alexander, eds. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019.
The Companion to Said Nursi Studies, co-edited with Ian S.Markham, Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2017.
Faithful Neighbors: Christian-Muslim Vision & Practice, co-edited with Robert S. Heaney and Claire Haymes, New York, NY: Morehouse Publishing, 2016.
“Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s Ethics of Non-Violence: Implications for Christian – Muslim Relations Today,” Dialog: A Journal of Theology 50:3, (Fall 2011): 242- 252.
Meine kosmische Identität: Eine migrantische Lesart des Koran, MIGAZIN, 2013.
“Die Hadsch: Sinnbild einer spirituellen Migration,” MIGAZIN, 2013.
Union Matters! Podcast, Understanding Muslims: Dr. Zeyneb Sayilgan
“Mary in Islam and the Qur’an”, First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, December 13, 2020
Beyond Fear: Addressing Islamophobia, Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, VA, April 28, 2017
“Introduction to Islam,” Alfred Street Baptist Church, Alexandria, VA, January 25, 2014
Zeyneb Sayilgan, Ph.D., ICJS Muslim Scholar, shared how her own journey as an immigrant has shaped her professional interests and research. The daughter of Kurdish immigrants from Turkey growing up as a Muslim in Germany, Sayilgan often faced bigoted stereotypes and misperceptions. Interreligious engagement, therefore, has been an intrinsic part of her life from an early age. In this conversation with Heather Miller Rubens, Ph.D., ICJS Executive Director and Roman Catholic Scholar, she shares how faith resources can inform Muslims with regards to questions of identity, belonging, integration and borders. Her journey and her perspective is valuable to people of any faith, as questions around belonging, identity, home, territorial borders, integration, and assimilation are common amongst so many of today’s marginalized communities.
Muslim scholar Zeyneb Sayilgan shared her insights on Psalm 19 with the Oxford Interfaith Forum, finding echoes of its praise of God’s creation in passages from the Qur’an. “The Qur’an speaks about nature or the cosmos as being the book of the universe,” she said. “There are very similar themes that Psalm 19 is conveying to us, that creation is constantly glorifying God, giving revelation of God, praising God, having a voice declaring God’s glory.”
See MoreBook Edited by Ian S. Markham and Zeyneb Sayilgan; Pickwick Publications
READ MORERoundtable Discussion at the Richard Kaufman Virtual Seminar, October 14, 2021
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