Suchergebnisse

Futures studies and foresight are new disciplines for Central Asia. Their methodology is making the first steps in the region. The present paper tests how narrative foresight can be applied in the field of religious education reform. For Kazakhstan, Islamic education has become a critical aspect of socio-cultural life. Its present situation requires radical changes, and the seven core questions of narrative foresight methodology help to research the vital dimensions of the problem in the quest for a solution. Going through the history of the issue, the forecast for current trends, identifying critical assumptions, and building alternative futures helps to arrive at the preferred future for Islamic education in Kazakhstan. With a new vision, some practical steps come forward that can guide to that new reality embodied in a new metaphor.

Abstract
This paper proposes a discussion of the Muslim presence in modern Western Europe and the trends that accompany it. The author argues that such debates could not be conducted in the absence of Muslims themselves and introduces Ziauddin Sardar (a modern British Muslim intellectual) and his thinking on "multiculturalism". Sardar's vision on the matter radically differs from the traditional interpretations, which usually involve European Union policies regarding ethnic minorities. Sardar's theory is built on a broader context and develops such concepts as "diversity", "identity", and "power". His approach transcends the boundaries of a limited geographic area and could be applied to non-Western regions. The author attempts to apply it to Kazakhstan, in an attempt to see how it could work in the Kazakh sociocultural context. The main focus is on the ethnic and religious characteristics of the Republic. Finally, the paper contains some suggestions for the further development of Sardar's theory of multiculturalism. The conclusions offer a justification of the possibility and necessity to transform the idea of "multiculturalism" into "interculturalism".