Search results

AbstractThis paper scrutinizes some gender biases residing in Scriptural exegesis—especially Qur'ānic interpretations—that exist and grow in Muslim societies. Most Muslims believe that the existing Qur'ānic exegesis is taken for granted, so it cannot be examined any more. As a matter of fact, an interpretation is man-made, which is not eternal. An interpretation is a product of an exegete. Therefore, Muslims actually can create many approaches to understanding the Qur'ān. However, this does not imply that the methodological approach utilized here is solely suitable for the Qur'ān. Perhaps, other Scriptures and religions can benefit from this approach. And when we talk about Scripture, we cannot avoid relating it to other subjects such as religion, culture, norms, values, language and so on. Since the Scripture is a part of religion, then the religion also becomes subject to examination. However, this study will only focus on the Scriptural exegesis, while the topic of religion will be used only when it is necessary.

Does the fact that the majority of Turkey's population is Muslim form a hindrance to its EU membership? According to a recent policy advice by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), the answer is an adamant 'no'. Why is this issue of Turkish Islam relevant? After all, Turkey should not be judged by standards other than the Copenhagen criteria. The answer is that the public debate outside 'Brussels' will not be limited to these official criteria. Many people in Europe are worried about Turkey's 'Islam factor'. They believe that Muslims are (potentially violent) fundamentalists who want to establish a theocracy. By explicitly examining the role of Turkish Islam and Muslims in Turkey, the WRR wants to contribute to a well-informed European public debate on Turkey's accession ; WRR, Scientific Council for Government Policy ; Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-173) ; Die Vorlage enth. insgesamt 2 Werke ; Parallel als Buch-Ausg. erschienen

(Mis)Representing Islam explores and illustrates how élite broadsheet newspapers are implicated in the production and reproduction of anti-Muslim racism. The book approaches journalistic discourse as the inseparable combination of 'social practices', 'discursive practices' and the 'texts' themselves from a perspective which fuses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Edward Said's critique of Orientalism. This framework enables Richardson to (re)contextualise élite journalism within its professional, political, economic, social and historic settings and present a critical and precise examination of not only the prevalence but also the form and potential effects of anti-Muslim racism. The book analyses the centrality of van Dijk's ideological square and the significance and utility of stereotypical topoi in representing Islam and Muslims, focusing in particular on the reporting of Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Israel/Palestine, Algeria, Iraq and Britain. This timely book should interest researchers and students of racism, Islam, Journalism and Communication studies, Rhetoric, and (Critical) Discourse Analysis.

While contemporary Muslim countries are not exactly textbook democracies, the desire for (more) popular participation in the political decision-making process exists. With the current polarization of anything Western as bad and anything Islamic as good (one notices the opposite use of these adjectives by some Westerners), the odds are low that Western political systems will provide the vocabulary to articulate demands for popular participation. Many Muslims look to the concept of shūrā, which broadly means consultation, to address the problem. Shūrā is considered a truly Islamic principle because it is mentioned in the Qurءan, practiced by the Prophet Muhammad, and makes up part of classical Islamic thought. The Qurءanic and sunnaic references, however, are very general, and early Islamic history imbued the actual practice of consultation with the negative connotation of fitna, or civil unrest. Nevertheless, in the modern period, Muslim authors took renewed interest in the concept of shūrā to structure their political landscape.

In this article I show how Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) refugees reproduce, contest and construct their ethnic and religious identities. Using 'ritual' in a broad sense to refer to everyday routinized activities and practices that characterize family hierarchies and gender relations, as well as more easily identifiable religious rituals, I show that rituals assert belonging to a community and an identity, but are also, in the process of construction and contestation, selectively evoked and ignored. 'The Other' constructed through certain rituals is not merely the non–Muslim Bosnian (Serbs and Croats), but also, for refugees, other Bosnian Muslims who stayed behind. Moreover, engagement in secular and religious rituals, and the wider issue of identity constructions cannot be understood fully without exploring the dynamics between refugees and people who have remained in Bosnia. Competing constituencies claiming 'Bosnianness' and 'Muslimness' can be found across national boundaries and complicate the attempt to construct a community of believers or nationals, or both.

Dunia muslim telah mengalami suatu pengalaman kebusukan moral dan politik di bawah tradisi kolonialisasi. Meskipun proses dekolonialisasi nampak nyata, kaum muslim nampaknya telah tercabut kebebasan keagamaan dan kebebasan berpolitiknya dibawah pemerintahan pasca kolonialisasi, yang dipasang dan disokong secara aktif oleh kekuatan kolonial yang terdahulu. Nampaknya 'perlawanan' atau gerakan 'reformis' Islam yang sedang bergulir, diarahkan untuk kembali ke agama sebagai sumber orisinil moral dan ajaran spiritual dan nilai-nilai praktis yang menjadi kode hidup manusia. Gerakan lslamisasi di berbagai bagian dunia ini merepresentasikan suatu fenomena baru, yang tidak dapat dipertimbangkan sebelumnya oleh pengambil kebijaksanaan politik intemasional dan para sarjana ilmu sosial politik lainnya. Khurshid Ahmad (The Impact of The West on The Muslim World and The Islamic Resurgence) berusaha menjelaskan bahwa pergerakan kontemporer Islam untuk mencari kebebasan dari dominasi dunia Barat. Tujuan nyata mereka adalah merestruktur masyarakat, membangun kehidupan sosio-ekonomi sebagai dasar masyarakat Islam.

Recent interventions by non-Islamic states into conflicts involving Islamic nations have shifted the focus of debates within the Muslim community from the conflicts themselves to whether non-Muslim states have the moral right to intervene into Muslim matters at all. Hashmi delivers an overview of fundamental issues Western leaders ignored when evaluating their power of intervention in the Persian Gulf, Bosnia, Somalia, and Afghanistan. In Islamic law (sharia), for example,national sovereigntycarries an explicitly separate and less clearly defined meaning than in Western philosophy. Lack of consensus within the international community on the definition and criteria of intervention exacerbates even further the flaw of not incorporating non-Western thought into the decision-making process of intervention. In the aftermath of the Cold War, Hashmi proposes this as a long overdue moment for reassessing the UN chapter on intervention, reappraising the value of human rights and justice, and most important, including Islamic thought into the new system.

Without a thorough grounding in the pre- and post-1917 historical dimension of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, one will have difficulty comprehending the depth of sentiment, indeed passion, it arouses among the disputing parties, in this case among Armenians, whether inside or outside the Soviet Union.The roots of prying Nagorno-Karabakh from Muslim control via Russian intervention go back to the seventeenth century when Armenian emissaries contacted the Romanovs and urged them to liberate fellow Christians from Muslim domination. This, in part, led to the eighteenth century Russian campaign to conquer Transcaucasia, the Tsarist court encouraged by the possibility of local Christian support. Through Muslim eyes (a conviction held to this day), this was an act of political sabotage casting the Armenians in the role of political collaborators in collusion with the new Tsarist overlords, a suspicion that finds its modern echoes today as Armenia and Azerbaijan compete for Moscow's support in determining the status of the autonomous region.

It is widely known, though scarcely recognized, that large sections of the Indian Muslim intelligentsia have been greatly conscious of their fraternal links with their co-religionists in other countries, following their history with interest, deriving comfort in their accomplishments, and lamenting their slow but steady decline. In the nineteenth century, in particular, when Islam seemed to fall on evil days because of the convergence of European Powers on the heartlands of the Muslim world, the heritage of the past stood forth as a symbol of community pride and distinction and the emotional need of most Muslims to vindicate their humiliation was intensified. This was expressed in the adventurist movements of the 'Wahabis' in India and Arabia, and the Sanusis in Sudan, the Fulanis and the Mahdists in Nigeria, and the Pan-Islamists in Egypt. At another level, Islam was defended from the polemical and hostile attacks of nineteenth century Western orientalists, and against the intellectual and moral imperialism of the West.

В статье исследуются нормативно-правовое регулирование брачно-семейных отношений в средневековой Турции, роль в этом процессе государственных и правовых источников. Показано, что такое регулирование не входило в сферу государственно-правового, а для мусульманской части населения, составлявшей большинство, строилось на основе религиозно-правовых источников, принципов и норм мусульманского права. ; This article is dedicated to a research of legal regulation of matrimonial relations in the medieval Turkey and also of a role of the government and legal system in this process. The article shows that legal regulation of matrimonial relations was not a part of state-legal regulation system, and for majority of Muslim people, it was based on religious and legal sources and principles, and also on Muslim legal standard.

Laskar Jihad introduced itself to the world in April 2000, when a procession of its members marched to the presidential palace in Jakarta brandishing sabres. By the following month, two to three thousand of the group's members had travelled to Maluku (the Moluccas), in eastern Indonesia, to fight alongside local Muslims locked in a cycle of communal violence with the region's Christian population. Their intervention turned the tables in a conflict in which the Christians had previously appeared to have the upper hand. Despite widespread criticism of their response to its activities, the Indonesian authorities have so far taken little sustained action against Laskar Jihad. The group's emergence has aroused speculation on whether itheralds an expansion of the political influence of conservative Islam among the world's largest Muslim population. (Contemp Southeast Asia/DÜI)

In the wake of the Gaza conflict, President Barack Obama cannot avoid setting out terms of engagement with the Middle East. The most obvious priority is to provide a template for renewed peace efforts between Israelis & Palestinians, backed by the reconstruction of Gaza's damaged infrastructure. As urgent as this is, the Obama team would be mistaken to divorce short-term goals from a deeper reassessment of the dynamics of the Muslim world. Adapted from the source document.

The Islamic minority in Sweden is trying to carve a place for itself in the legal & institutional framework created over time in Sweden; simultaneously, Swedish officials are trying to adapt society to new multicultural & multireligious realities. The article discusses the specific structures, problems, & possibilities for the Muslim minority in different areas such as public funding, cemeteries, & mosques. The article closes with a discussion of religious minority rights from the perspective of individual vs group rights. 27 References. Adapted from the source document.