Youcef Soufi

Youcef Soufi is a historian of Islamic law and a scholar of contemporary Islamophobia whose research explores the intersection of Islamic legal reasoning, political theology, and the racialization of Muslim communities. He completed his PhD at the University of Toronto and has served as Chair of the Canadian Association for the Study of Islam and Muslims. His first book, The Rise of Critical Islam: 10th–13th Century Legal Debate (Oxford University Press, 2023), examines the formative practices of disputation that shaped premodern Islamic legal thought, while his current work turns to the modern period, tracing how Islamophobia structures state power and minority governance. He is presently writing a book on the intersection of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia, showing how the Canadian federal government has dehumanized and devalued Palestinian life overseas even as it positions itself as a champion of minorities at home.