Suchergebnisse

The task confronting the person who seeks to survey the current state of the literature dealing with Islam as a religion is both enormous and complex. Since Muslims have traditionally considered themselves to be a religious commonwealth whose very identity is fixed by a shared religious commitment, it follows that virtually every writing on any subject whatsoever having to do with Muslims might be considered to fall within the field of religion. Even if one restricts his attention, as we propose to do here, to a more narrow view of religion, the task is still formidable. Muslims have been no less prolific than other major religious communities in producing dissident opinions from within their own fold. The history of Islamic sects, each with its own peculiar thought system and religious practice, is a field of study in itself and one that might well challenge the most energetic scholar. Far from being monolithic, as many of the scholarly cliches about Islam presuppose (e.g. Islam is a religion of Law, Islam is a religion of the Book, etc.), the religious experience of Muslims is diverse and multiform, defying the most sophisticated attempts to reduce it to order and system. No informed approach to the religiousness of Muslims can deal solely with a narrowly marked out "normative Islam". The deviations from the norm are also part of the reality of historic Islamic experience and cannot be set aside in favor of what one may prefer as religiously or conceptually pure. It quickly becomes clear to the perceptive inquirer that the meaning of Islam is an historical phenomenon cannot be stated in terms of a unified doctrinal system, a universally accepted set of rites, or common institutions.

Examines the evolution, since 1989, of the Islamic fundamentalist movement in Central Asia and the Middle East, focusing on the role of Afghanistan and the Taliban; includes role of ethnicity within Islamic sects, and shifting relations between Islamic groups and the US.

In early 18th-century Aleppo there was a schism in the Greek Orthodox Church, and a new sect emerged called the Melkite Church, in communion with Rome. The Melkites, also called Greek Catholics, needed their own church, but it was illegal to build a new church in the lands of the Ottoman Empire; however, if a Christian church already existed, it was protected and it was forbidden to tear it down. Adapted from the source document.

The historical Islamic state developed interesting methods of quasi-consociational and semi-corporatist aggregation of communities. From quite early on, Sunnism became the religion of the ruling elite and of the state as well as part of the state's legal and cultural system. Subsequently, the geographical distribution and the political economy of the Islamic sects and of the religious minorities manifested quite distinct features that were mainly a function of their relationship to the state. Whereas the Islamic sects did not come to terms ideologically and organizationally with the state, the religious minorities, on the whole, adjusted themselves mentally and behaviorally to its requirements. By comparison, the contemporary Middle Eastern state, both the secular and the Islamic, is achieving less success in dealing with its communal problem. Certain groups are excluded in the former type in spite of the secularist slogans, and certain groups are excluded in the latter because of the ideological or religious nature of the state. Improvisation is needed, and Muslim statesmen and intellectuals may need to go beyond, and even outside, conventional Islamic jurisprudence in order to deal with this issue.

Many writers have associated contemporary manifestations of extremism with early Islamic sects, which is argued against in this article. The study employs critical analysis of available sources and argues for additional scrutiny. Our position is supported by detailed scrutiny of early sectarian contributions to the development of Islamic thought. We discovered remarkable limitations in the tracing of the roots to the early firaq (sects) due to a strong reliance on secondary sources muddled in the complexities of dogmatic polemics. Nonetheless, relevant historiography improved our view of what actually happened when nascent Muslims confronted humorless political and social problems. Rather than producing extremist deviants, early Islamic thought was exceedingly dynamic and governed by a pressing need to defend sound Islamic principles. Early Muslims sought answers to perennial issues and did much to stimulate subsequent Muslim philosophy and thought. Indeed, any negative understanding of this early legacy undermines the dignity of that era and people.

The study enquires into the state of Islam and Islamic law in Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) and in People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). After a brief historical introduction and description of the general characteristics of YAR and PDRY, the author discusses Zaydism and Shafiism (Islamic sects), Arab personality and Islam, Islamic law, personal law etc. in these two countries. Women in Yemeni society. Enrolment of girls at schools in YAR. Political mobilization of women in PDRY through the Yemeni Socialist Party. (DÜI-Sen)

Abstract
This paper employs Critical Discourse Analysis to examine resistance discourses as created by the Ahmadiyya followers – a self-defined sect of Islam – to argue against negative discourses undermining them in Indonesia. In some legal proclamations and statements delivered by state officials and the representatives of majority Muslims in the country, the followers of the sect, especially those affiliated to the JAI (Jemaat Ahmadiyya Indonesia) are excluded from Islamic community. By using Van Dijk's ideological square, this study aims at identifying resistance discourses created by the JAI followers as the defence strategies to oppose negative discourses presenting them as the non-believers of Islam. The resistance discourses are apparent in both written and spoken texts, such as books, articles, speeches, and public debates created by the sect. The finding reveals that the JAI followers create discourses of victim, defender of Islam, imperialism, illegitimacy, and discourse of public deception using various discourse strategies namely victimization, scare tactics, positive attribution, quotation, power delegitimising and negative portraits of misbehaving.

One of the more interesting phenomena in Islamic religious history is the development of the schools of law. This phenomenon has seldom failed to arouse ourinterest, though it has consistently eluded our understanding. The difficulty in grasping the significance of the schools of law is evidenced by vacillation in translating the termmadhhab. This term was first translated as 'sect,' then as 'rite' or 'school.' But a Sunni madhhab could not be a sect, since the term 'sect' is applied to a dissenting religious body, one that is heretical in the eyes of other members within the same communion. That is not the case with the Sunni madhhabs, all of which are regarded equally as orthodox. Nor is the term 'rite' an adequate one, since it applies to a division of the Christian church as determined by liturgy; and, unlike a transfer from one rite to another in Christianity, a transfer requiring certain formalities, the transfer in Islam is made from one madhhab to another without any formalities whatsoever. The term 'school,' for lack of a better term, is the most acceptable; it is the one that offers the least difficulty.

Following the toppling of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni-Arab leader, the United States has facilitated the rise to power of the Shiites in Iraq. This significant development raises questions regarding Washington's relations with the two dominant Islamic sects, Sunni and Shiite. The author examines American-Shiite relations in three settings: Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. It argues that sectarianism does not drive U.S. policy in the Islamic world and that despite signs of rapprochement between the United States and the Shiites, the two sides still have long way to go before they can reach an understanding. Adapted from the source document.

Abstract
This study focuses on a discourse practice that metaphorically associates ISIS with an early Islamic sect known as the Kharijites. This practice constructs a discourse that calls back the background knowledge and memory of historical narratives and experiences that create conceptual frames that communicate meanings of war and atrocities. These meanings were used by King Abdullah II of Jordan to justify Jordan's military participation against ISIS (circa 2014–2018). On the basis of the "blending theory" of conceptual metaphor, this study shows how the discourse practice of depicting ISIS as the Kharijites has undergone selective associations with the ideological aim of constructing persuasive and coercive discourses to justify military intervention against ISIS, primarily by foregrounding scripts of threat and victimization. That, in turn, leads to the instigation of illusive and incomplete associations.

This introduction to a special journal issue, "The Genealogy of Terrorism," notes that Islamist terrorism is not coming to a close, but rather is becoming a global phenomenon. Since the 11 Sept 2001 attacks in the US, its targets have included Bali, Bosnia, China, Indonesia, Denmark, Germany, Spain, England, Israel, Jordan, Algeria, Argentina, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, & Tunisia. Thus, it is not simply against US policies & is even against modern Islamic sects. Based on discontent with modernity, it is bent on violence & whatever it can gain parasitically in the international system. While it seeks to fulfill a Salifist dream of returning to the 7th-century Caliphate, its lessons in violence have come from modern sources such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, & the Red Army Faction. The contributions to this issue portray the genealogy of today's Islamist terrorism. Adapted from the source document.