Martin Nguyen
@alakhira.bsky.social
Muslim Theology • Islamic Studies • Wordcraft • Bibliophile • Professor
I’m always writing in my head, sometimes on paper, on matters of faith, ethics, and the intersection of race and religion
I’m always writing in my head, sometimes on paper, on matters of faith, ethics, and the intersection of race and religion
After a hiatus from posting essays on substack (it’s been a busy year) I’m finding time again to share out some of my research. In this piece I share what I’ve found about Alex Haley’s literary agent, Paul Reynolds, and the role he played in publishing the Autobiogrpahy of Malcolm X.
The Literary Agent Behind The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Unnamed Paul R. Reynolds
open.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 4:04 PM
After a hiatus from posting essays on substack (it’s been a busy year) I’m finding time again to share out some of my research. In this piece I share what I’ve found about Alex Haley’s literary agent, Paul Reynolds, and the role he played in publishing the Autobiogrpahy of Malcolm X.
I delivered a sermon yesterday for jumu’a and I’ve shared it to my substack. It’s a meditation on surāt al-kahf, particularly on the Companions of the Cave, dreams, and a grateful acknowledgement of the work of those engaging in our current struggles.
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
Khutba: A Community of Dreamers
A sermon given on 29 August 2025
open.substack.com
August 30, 2025 at 4:16 PM
I delivered a sermon yesterday for jumu’a and I’ve shared it to my substack. It’s a meditation on surāt al-kahf, particularly on the Companions of the Cave, dreams, and a grateful acknowledgement of the work of those engaging in our current struggles.
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
In 2024 I was approached to be part of a film series on theology: At The Threshhold. It was humbling for sure, but now the work of these two talented filmmakers at Untamed is rolling out. Here's the short film on my life and work. I hope it is of interest and benefit.
youtu.be/1O9YcFCgvjM?...
youtu.be/1O9YcFCgvjM?...
A Path Forward: Islamic Theology and Structural Justice
YouTube video by AT THE THRESHOLD Films
youtu.be
July 21, 2025 at 11:38 AM
In 2024 I was approached to be part of a film series on theology: At The Threshhold. It was humbling for sure, but now the work of these two talented filmmakers at Untamed is rolling out. Here's the short film on my life and work. I hope it is of interest and benefit.
youtu.be/1O9YcFCgvjM?...
youtu.be/1O9YcFCgvjM?...
Today is the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam, variously called the Vietnam War, the American War, the Second Indochina War, a war for independence, a civil war, a proxy war, a war of resistance, an anti-colonial Third World struggle.
April 30, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Today is the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam, variously called the Vietnam War, the American War, the Second Indochina War, a war for independence, a civil war, a proxy war, a war of resistance, an anti-colonial Third World struggle.
Reading notes: “Then there is Noah, cast afloat in a mass extinction event, repopulating the world with his living cargo. Isn’t his ark a boat for the very first boat people?” Viet Thanh Nguyen, “To Save and To Destroy,” 64
April 27, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Reading notes: “Then there is Noah, cast afloat in a mass extinction event, repopulating the world with his living cargo. Isn’t his ark a boat for the very first boat people?” Viet Thanh Nguyen, “To Save and To Destroy,” 64
Here’s a sermon I delivered two weeks ago. I did some light editing but the piece may not grammatically “conform” as most essays go. I did write it, after all, to be spoken aloud where the sound, rather than the structure, is more important. open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
Khutba: In the Company of the Least
A sermon given on 11 April 2025
open.substack.com
April 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Here’s a sermon I delivered two weeks ago. I did some light editing but the piece may not grammatically “conform” as most essays go. I did write it, after all, to be spoken aloud where the sound, rather than the structure, is more important. open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
Reading notes: “Hatred may be an effective political emotion, but it is also spiritually corrosive, a human response entwined with inhumanity, with the victim potentially becoming the victimizer, an other aspiring to mastery.” (Viet Nguyen, To Save and To Destroy, 17)
April 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Reading notes: “Hatred may be an effective political emotion, but it is also spiritually corrosive, a human response entwined with inhumanity, with the victim potentially becoming the victimizer, an other aspiring to mastery.” (Viet Nguyen, To Save and To Destroy, 17)
Reading notes: “Years later it dawns upon me that the immigrant class, which in one form or another describes… most of the world, is segregated by many things, chief among them narrative.” Omar El Akkad, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” 48.
April 16, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reading notes: “Years later it dawns upon me that the immigrant class, which in one form or another describes… most of the world, is segregated by many things, chief among them narrative.” Omar El Akkad, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” 48.
Here’s my contribution to a symposium at Contending Modernities on Youshaa Patel’s important book “The Muslim Difference.” contendingmodernities.nd.edu/theorizing-m...
The Difference Within Us: Our Humanity and Inhumanity | Contending Modernities
What is disclosed when we seek to understand the fine line of difference within us all?
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
February 26, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Here’s my contribution to a symposium at Contending Modernities on Youshaa Patel’s important book “The Muslim Difference.” contendingmodernities.nd.edu/theorizing-m...
This is how we spent the last day of 2024, losing ourselves on the rocks, surrounded by water, and under a winter sun. It was a welcome respite for a year of unexpected blessings and ongoing challenges. I’d like to write something to reflect on this passing year but I need to see it out first.
December 31, 2024 at 11:17 PM
This is how we spent the last day of 2024, losing ourselves on the rocks, surrounded by water, and under a winter sun. It was a welcome respite for a year of unexpected blessings and ongoing challenges. I’d like to write something to reflect on this passing year but I need to see it out first.
I've written an essay on substack that shares some of my thinking on systemic evil through the tragedy of Grenfell. I'll post its conclusion (part two) before the year is out isA.
martinnguyen.substack.com/p/burnt-offe...
martinnguyen.substack.com/p/burnt-offe...
Burnt Offering
The Fire Inside, Part One of Two
martinnguyen.substack.com
December 18, 2024 at 7:14 PM
I've written an essay on substack that shares some of my thinking on systemic evil through the tragedy of Grenfell. I'll post its conclusion (part two) before the year is out isA.
martinnguyen.substack.com/p/burnt-offe...
martinnguyen.substack.com/p/burnt-offe...
Reposted by Martin Nguyen
BREAKING: The AAUP condemns today’s faculty arrests at NYU.
“This crackdown on NYU faculty is part of a distressing pattern of repression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses nationwide.” — AAUP President Todd Wolfson.
⬇️
www.aaup.org/news/aaup-co...
“This crackdown on NYU faculty is part of a distressing pattern of repression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses nationwide.” — AAUP President Todd Wolfson.
⬇️
www.aaup.org/news/aaup-co...
AAUP Condemns Faculty Arrests Amidst Protest Crackdown at NYU
The AAUP condemns the reported arrests of two faculty members and three designations of faculty as "personae non grata" at New York University. As the AAUP has maintained since 1940, faculty should be...
www.aaup.org
December 12, 2024 at 10:04 PM
BREAKING: The AAUP condemns today’s faculty arrests at NYU.
“This crackdown on NYU faculty is part of a distressing pattern of repression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses nationwide.” — AAUP President Todd Wolfson.
⬇️
www.aaup.org/news/aaup-co...
“This crackdown on NYU faculty is part of a distressing pattern of repression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses nationwide.” — AAUP President Todd Wolfson.
⬇️
www.aaup.org/news/aaup-co...
Reposted by Martin Nguyen
Ché Guevara visiting the tomb of Salāh ad-Dīn
Damascus, 1959
(Via MENAvisualss Twitter)
Damascus, 1959
(Via MENAvisualss Twitter)
December 8, 2024 at 5:37 PM
Ché Guevara visiting the tomb of Salāh ad-Dīn
Damascus, 1959
(Via MENAvisualss Twitter)
Damascus, 1959
(Via MENAvisualss Twitter)
Reposted by Martin Nguyen
Reposted by Martin Nguyen
A moment that will be captured in the history books.
Saydnaya personifies the terror of the Syrian regime. Known as the "human slaughterhouse," it was site to the secret executions of 13,000 people in a single 5 year period & continued to hold thousands of unjustly detained.
Saydnaya personifies the terror of the Syrian regime. Known as the "human slaughterhouse," it was site to the secret executions of 13,000 people in a single 5 year period & continued to hold thousands of unjustly detained.
BREAKING NEWS 😭😭😭
THE DETAINEES OF SAYDNAYA PRISON ARE FREED
THE DETAINEES OF SAYDNAYA PRISON ARE FREED
December 8, 2024 at 1:45 AM
A moment that will be captured in the history books.
Saydnaya personifies the terror of the Syrian regime. Known as the "human slaughterhouse," it was site to the secret executions of 13,000 people in a single 5 year period & continued to hold thousands of unjustly detained.
Saydnaya personifies the terror of the Syrian regime. Known as the "human slaughterhouse," it was site to the secret executions of 13,000 people in a single 5 year period & continued to hold thousands of unjustly detained.
The last part of a three part series I did on Billie Holiday’s haunting and confronting song “Strange Fruit.” I styled it after a tafsīr or “commentary.” Parts 1 and 2 are linked at the end of it in case you want to read it in its entirety.
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
A Commentary on Strange Fruit: Stanza III and Artistry
Tafsīr, Part Three of Three
open.substack.com
December 3, 2024 at 11:41 PM
The last part of a three part series I did on Billie Holiday’s haunting and confronting song “Strange Fruit.” I styled it after a tafsīr or “commentary.” Parts 1 and 2 are linked at the end of it in case you want to read it in its entirety.
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
Part 2 of my draft commentary on Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" which expands upon the first and second stanzas. The image is a photographic art piece by Steve McQueen named "Lynching Tree" from 2013. It depicts one of the many poplars referenced in the song.
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
A Commentary on Strange Fruit: Stanzas I and II
Tafsīr, Part Two of Three
open.substack.com
November 19, 2024 at 2:14 PM
Part 2 of my draft commentary on Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" which expands upon the first and second stanzas. The image is a photographic art piece by Steve McQueen named "Lynching Tree" from 2013. It depicts one of the many poplars referenced in the song.
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
Unexpected scholarly detour while looking into the Crow mentioned in Q. 5:31 > biological studies into corvid thanatology or crow behavior around their dead
November 18, 2024 at 9:33 PM
Unexpected scholarly detour while looking into the Crow mentioned in Q. 5:31 > biological studies into corvid thanatology or crow behavior around their dead
I’ve gone down a rabbit hole of trying to find a distraction-free writing app so I can write on the go - on my phone. I’ve tried Obsidian and Ulysses but seem to be settling on iA Writer. It’s “Focus” mode is dead simple and great so far. Anyone else emerge from this hole with other impressions?
November 18, 2024 at 1:51 AM
I’ve gone down a rabbit hole of trying to find a distraction-free writing app so I can write on the go - on my phone. I’ve tried Obsidian and Ulysses but seem to be settling on iA Writer. It’s “Focus” mode is dead simple and great so far. Anyone else emerge from this hole with other impressions?
Over on substack I’m sharing a tafsīr (commentary) I wrote on Billie Holiday’s haunting song “Strange Fruit.” Its still a work-in-progress with some rough edges, but not letting that stop me. It’s divided into 3 parts with part 1 being posted just a few days ago: open.substack.com/pub/martinng...
A Commentary on Strange Fruit: Occasion of Composition and Dissemination
Tafsīr, Part One of Three
open.substack.com
November 16, 2024 at 10:57 PM
Over on substack I’m sharing a tafsīr (commentary) I wrote on Billie Holiday’s haunting song “Strange Fruit.” Its still a work-in-progress with some rough edges, but not letting that stop me. It’s divided into 3 parts with part 1 being posted just a few days ago: open.substack.com/pub/martinng...