Aaron Rock-Singer

In the Shade of the Sunna: Salafi Piety in the 20th Century Middle East is officially out! amazon.com/Shade-Sunna-Sa…

I reviewed three excellent books on Salafism for the @themaydan in November 2025; Rethinking Salafism by @ismail_raih; Wahhabism by @colebunzel, and In the Shade of the Sunnah by @AaronRockSinger. Check it out here; substacktools.com/sharex/6GGSss-X

Highly recommend this book, which I read as a dissertation and manuscript!

@AsadFromNYC @nesialtaras I believe she has a visiting position, not a professorship. I don’t share her approach, but Alice is a voracious reader and intensely intellectually curious. She’s intellectual value added even if one disagrees with her method.

Perfect example of the vacuity of the digital humanities craze. By looking thru google trends this researcher claims to find cultural insights. But without firm knowledge of underlying cultural-historical context it’s just as analytically useful as an article from The Economist

@GarageGymJake @RobertFreundLaw @lexlanham And he has given rogue a hard time on occasion, as well. That’s his brand!

@AaronRockSinger @RobertFreundLaw @lexlanham I know right? He’s had some pretty harsh reviews for Titan and Bells of Steel as well.

Fitness YouTuber asks equipment co. to send him a $4,000 machine to review. They send it, YouTuber creates video called "This Is the Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed" and calls the machine "a pile of shit." Equipment co. is suing YouTuber for defamation.

@RobertFreundLaw @lexlanham Gluck is pretty critical with everyone, even Rogue/REP etc. The lawsuit doesn't accurately represent his channel/tone (and the issues he identified in the video are substantive issues that come up in other reviews...the Vulcan rack just had many more of them)

@lexlanham They allege/suspect he did it to show his audience that he’s being authentic with his reviews, but he did it with a smaller market player because he wouldn’t dare besmirch a big player’s reputation. Sounds a little tinfoil hat to me but who knows.

And for a Halaloween treat, read Arthur Zarate's study of the Spiritualism in mid 20th century Egypt. Jinn, zar possession, and sorcery vs. modernism and rationalist modes of spiritualist science. A fascinating essay! doi.org/10.1017/S00104…

7/ To grapple with this, I draw on three landmark studies: @ismail_raih's Rethinking Salafism, @colebunzel's Wahhabism, and @AaronRockSinger's In the Shade of the Sunna.

In a must-read review essay, Contesting Orthodoxy: Salafism, Wahhabism, and the Making of Modern Islam, @FaheemAMHussain engages three monographs by @ismail_raih , @colebunzel , and @AaronRockSinger . Read: themaydan.com/2025/09/contes… #IslamicThought #Salafism #Wahhabism

In this piece I explore Salafism through 3 brilliant academic books by @ismail_raih, @colebunzel and @AaronRockSinger and argue that the divide between Salafism and Sunni tradition can be bridged, and in so many ways already has, through a cultural process of Salafisation.

Grateful for this thoughtful review

@emilmalek8752 @hebagowayed A 60 something year-old man who has been lifting weights his entire life doesn’t need TRT to bench 135. Whether that should have anything to do with politics is an entirely different question:)

@hebagowayed It's rather: TRT vs natural.

@RamonIHarvey I assume it’s just a riff on Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities?

Interesting article naming pattern.

@ESPNFANSUPPORT my ESPN+ account doesn't show me as having an active subscription but I keep getting charged monthly ($12.65). Can you fix this!

@AsadFromNYC Joel Blecher and Josh Dubler wrote an edited volume chapter about this. Happy to track it down for you.

Was chatting with some friends about Philly Salafism, and we noted how there is not a single academic monograph or even documentary on the subject despite it being a unique, well-known, and decades-long example of urban religion.

@LaneJohnson65 Nice Kabuki Transformer bar!

Work

@brannoningram Thrilled that you agreed to review!

@markscogan Actually had a vibraphone. Clearly revealing that we weren't true Rock singers!

@AaronRockSinger Ah ha! That's where it comes from. I bet that was a fun wedding announcement in the paper. Was AC/DC a hymnal choice?

Name an academic with the coolest name. I'll start. 🤘🎸🎤

@markscogan Thanks! Married the right woman…

I didn't make this up. @AaronRockSinger

The article can be found here: #article" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">cambridge.org/core/journals/… or you can message me for a copy.

In doing so, the article offers a corrective not merely to what we know about the origins of takfīr in the modern period, but also a new vantage point for understanding the role of Islam in the development of Palestinian nationalism. (5)

My new article on the origins of modern takfīr, "Sacralizing the Nation: The Adoption of Takfīr in Mandate Palestine, 1929–35 ," is out in the International Journal of Middle East Studies (1)