Growing up, Aina had heard about the transatlantic slave trade which enslaved Africans and took them to the Americas. But on one of her reporting trips, she was shocked to learn that, around the same time, Dutch colonizers were deporting and enslaving Muslims from Indonesia and shipping them thousands of miles... all the way to South Africa.

This week, reporter Aina J. Khan takes us to Cape Town and tells the story of the Cape Malay, South Africa's oldest Muslim community. How they used their faith to survive through 400 years of slavery, colonialism, and apartheid. And why, today, they might be facing their most existential threat yet: gentrification.

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EPISODE CREDITS:

Reported by Aina J. Khan.

Produced by Catherine Boulle and Salman Ahad Khan.

Original music and sound design by Salman Ahad Khan.

Fact checking by Heba Elorbany.

Engineering by Alexander Overington.

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This season of More Muslim is powered by Al Mujadilah, a center and mosque for women in Qatar. If you liked our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. A transcript of this episode will be available on our website.

More about our show at moremuslim.org.

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Further reading:

Baderoon, Gabeba. Regarding Muslims: From Slavery to Post-Apartheid. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2014.

Jessa, Sirhan, and Jayne M. Rogerson. "Tourism Gentrification in Cape Town's Bo-Kaap: Socio-economic Transformations and Displacement." Bulletin of Geography: Socio-economic Series 69 (2025): 129–143.

Williams, Karen. "The Indonesian Anti-Colonial Roots of Islam in South Africa." Media Diversified, August 25, 2016.

Dangor, Suleman E. "Shaykh Yusuf of Macassar: Scholar, Sufi, National Hero — Towards Constructing Local Identity and History at the Cape." Kawalu: Journal of Local Culture 1, no. 2 (2014).

When war broke out in Sudan in April 2023, Dr. Fairouz El Hijzi had to flee her home with her family. Two months later, as a hastily-appointed interim dean of architecture, she faced an impossible choice: give up on her students' futures or attempt to resume classes in the middle of the worst humanitarian crisis in modern history. This is the story of what happened when she and her students decided to keep hope alive and build a new future for Sudan in the midst of the destruction all around them.

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EPISODE CREDITS:

Reported by Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

Produced by Taqwa Sadiq.

Edited by Sarah Qari.

Original music, sound design, and engineering by Alexander Overington.

Fact checking by Heba Elorbany.

English translations voiced by Wa’ad Abu Obeida, Lina Altayib, and Hazim Ali.

Special thanks to Ahmed Adm, Prof. Eisa Bashier Mohamad, Muhammad Fathallah, Hafsa Omar, Rawia Farog Khater Muhammad, Lubna Ahmed Hussein, and all the students and teachers who shared their stories.

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This season of More Muslim is powered by Al Mujadilah, a center and mosque for women in Qatar. If you liked our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. A transcript of this episode will be available shortly on our website.

More about our show at moremuslim.org.

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Further reading:

Amidst war & displacement in Sudan, my aunt won't stop educating | Yassmin Abdel-Magied, The New Arab

Learn more about the ongoing crisis in Sudan at Keep Eyes On Sudan.

For most of her life, Maryam believed women couldn’t recite the Qur’an aloud. That a woman’s voice, especially while reciting the Qur’an, is awrah. Something to be hidden. Then, one day in high school, she heard a girl recite in public. Reporter Nadeen Shaker shares the story of Maryam Amir, one woman’s journey to revive her relationship with Islam through the Qur’an. And how it sparked a recitation revolution.

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CREDITS:

Reported and produced by Nadeen Shaker.

Editing by Anisa Khalifa and Salman Ahad Khan.

Additional editing by Sarah Qari.

Original music, sound design, and engineering by Alexander Overington.

Additional music by Salman Ahad Khan.

Fact checking by Heba Elorbany.

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This season of More Muslim is powered by Al Mujadilah, a center and mosque for women in Qatar. If you liked our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. A transcript of this episode will be available shortly on our website.

More about our show at moremuslim.org.

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Guests:

Maryam Amir, founder of Qariah: The Women Qur'an Reciters App and PhD candidate at International Islamic University Malaysia

Dr. Zainab Talha, scholar and Qur'an reciter regarded as the first female to record the entirety of the Qur'an in audio.

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Further reading:

Egypt's Forgotten Women Qur'an Reciters | Nadeen Shaker, New Lines Magazine

The Quran recitation app bringing women’s voices to the fore | Aysha Khan, Analyst News