Abstract This article presents empirical data on trends in charitable giving among Muslims in Switzerland. It provides insight into mechanisms of mutual aid within a relatively young migrant community, looks at how Islamic charity is practiced in a non-Muslim society, and clarifies the importance of Islamic aid agencies. I argue that the charitable behaviour of Muslims in Switzerland is characterized by their migration situation, and by giving preferences and habits of the home country. Traditional Islamic charity, though subject to changes, is widely practiced and actively promoted by Islamic charities and local Muslim associations. It enforces the sense of religious belonging and group identity.
The Russian scientific community stills have interest in «Muslim brotherhood» movement. In particular, this interest is connected with the rejection of a number of organizations affiliated with «Muslim brotherhood» in the French Republic to sign the «Charter of Principles». It is known that the foreign press and Russian scientists have repeatedly noted the fact of the connection of some religious organizations in France with «Muslim brotherhood», but scientific literature in Russian pays insufficient attention to how this connection is implemented. In this paper, the author reveals some channels of interaction between the Islamic community of France and «Muslim brotherhood». In addition, the author will show how Muslim Brothers use «Muslims of France» (former «Union of Islamic Organizations of France») as the foremost propagators of their values and ideas. Including in the political space of the Fifth Republic.
The article investigates cultural memory of a very long islamization happened in the Caucasus from the 7th through the beginning of the 19th centuries as it was reflected in the cult of Muslim saints, namely in the case of sheikh Abu Muslim who is believed to have converted Caucasus highlanders into Islam in the early Islamic period. His name appears in countless chronicles and memorials. The sheikh, his relatives and companions are credited with dozens of shrines. The study is based on the texts of Arabiclanguage chronicles and commemorative notes (tawarikh), compared with the data of epigraphy and field materials of the author he collected mainly inDagestan. After the works of Russian classics in Islamic studies from Kazembek to Bartold and M.-S. Saidov nobody confuses this hero of Caucasus Islamization with the famous religious leader from Khurasan who helped the 'Abbasids to seize power in the Caliphate in the middle of the eighth century and was never to theCaucasus. However, as the author argues, one should not deny his existence and therefore reject his cult as an odd historical mistake. A comparative analysis of the chronicles, memorials, and oral traditions devoted to his deeds suggests that different Islamic missionaries of foreign and local origin fused in the figure of Abu Muslim. A study of his cult in terms of cultural memory allows answering a number of important research questions concerning main stages and actors of Islamization in the Caucasusho operated in the region under study from the Middle Ages through the modern times, its social and cultural background as well as changing directions and networks.
Abstract This article shows that British homosexual Muslims face rejection and identity conflict between their homosexuality and their Muslimness. The opposition between Islam and homosexuality has created a feeling of exclusion, illustrating the assumed incompatibility between being Muslim and being homosexual. Homosexual Muslims face religiously motivated homophobia rooted in the heteronormative precepts of Islam. In parallel, they face Islamophobic attitudes in which Islam is now used as a form of civilisational opposition to the British values of tolerance and inclusion and the wider homosexual community see it as a threat to their very existence. Nevertheless, the results show that the hostility of Muslims toward homosexuality is evolving, and the heteronormative discourses are now coexisting with more neutral and even homo-friendly approaches. A new bicultural belonging among homosexual Muslims is being constructed to address individual strategies of managing both identities and is fostering new interpretations of acceptance of different sexualities within Islam.
The history and contemporary situation of Muslim communities in Eastern Europe are explored here from three angles. First, survival, telling of the resilience of these Muslim communities in the face of often restrictive state policies and hostile social environments, especially during the Communist period. next, their subsequent revival in the aftermath of the Cold War. And last, transformation, looking at the profound changes currently taking place in the demographic composition of the communities and in the forms of Islam practiced by them. The reader is shows a picture of the general trends common the Muslim communities of Eastern Europe, and the special characteristics of clusters of states, such as the Baltics, the Balkans, the Višegrad states and the European states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
TARIQ RAMADAN has become one of Europe's most controversial figures as he has attempted to bridge the gap between Muslims and the mainstream in France. His latest book is Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (Oxford University Press, 2003). Timelisted him last year as among the world's top 100 thinkers and scientists. Though he was appointed Henry R. Luce Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame the US government revoked his visa. Ramadan spoke from Geneva with NPQ about the two French hostages taken in Iraq. Accompanying this interview is a commentary by Ramadan about the US revocation of his visa.
