The Bundeszentrale fur Politische Bildung (BPB), Projektgruppe Migration, organized an international conference on 'Muslime und Islam in Europa: Die Integration einer religiosen Minderheit' at the... Show moreThe Bundeszentrale fur Politische Bildung (BPB), Projektgruppe Migration, organized an international conference on 'Muslime und Islam in Europa: Die Integration einer religiosen Minderheit' at the Ost-West-Kolleg, Bryhl, Germany, from 10 to 13 July 2002. The conference compared the processes of integration of Muslims in Western Europe and discussed the Islamic Charter drawn up by the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. Show less
Islamic organizations, claiming to represent the interests of the 8 to 9 million-strong Muslim immigrant communities in Western Europe, have been asserting a human rights claim to communal autonomy... Show moreIslamic organizations, claiming to represent the interests of the 8 to 9 million-strong Muslim immigrant communities in Western Europe, have been asserting a human rights claim to communal autonomy to apply Islamic law, the sharica, to their family or personal matters. Always included among the latter are marriage, divorce and inheritance. Show less
The attack on New York's Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 had negative repercussions all over the globe, including in Argentina. Since then, leaders of the Muslim community in Argentina have been... Show moreThe attack on New York's Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 had negative repercussions all over the globe, including in Argentina. Since then, leaders of the Muslim community in Argentina have been invited by the mass media to explain the causes of the attacks, as if Muslims all over the world were in some way linked to the terrorists and their ideas. Although they were approached with respect on many radio and television programmes, there were clear expressions of discrimination and ridicule of Muslims and their beliefs. Show less
The events of September 11 and their aftermath brought with them the 'discovery' of Al-Jazeera by much of the world, due to its coverage of the war. The Arab-speaking world of course had known of... Show moreThe events of September 11 and their aftermath brought with them the 'discovery' of Al-Jazeera by much of the world, due to its coverage of the war. The Arab-speaking world of course had known of its existence for 5 years. Arab-speakers had already asked the questions that are now being posed in the West: What is Al-Jazeera's role? Who finances the station? What are its working methods and its style of coverage, especially of political events? What is its influence on viewers? What will be its future? Show less
Never has any Arab-owned media venture attracted so much Western attention as Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, broadcaster of 24-hour news and current affairs from the tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar. Al... Show moreNever has any Arab-owned media venture attracted so much Western attention as Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, broadcaster of 24-hour news and current affairs from the tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar. Al-Jazeera was just five years old when it soared to international prominence in late 2001 through its presence inside Afghanistan and access to the videotape of Usama bin Laden. Yet media coverage of Al-Jazeera itself, as a newsworthy institution in its own right, long predated the September atrocities and subsequent US air strikes on Afghanistan. Indeed, the very uniqueness of Al-Jazeera's output in Arabic provides an insight into the unusual power relations that have produced such a prolific stream of suicide attackers from Arab countries. Show less
The ISIM commenced the project 'Rights at Home: An Approach to the Internalization of Human Rights in Family Relations in Islamic Communities' on 1 October 2001. This project seeks to promote... Show moreThe ISIM commenced the project 'Rights at Home: An Approach to the Internalization of Human Rights in Family Relations in Islamic Communities' on 1 October 2001. This project seeks to promote respect for human rights within the family and community in different parts of the Muslim world, particularly with respect to the rights of women and children. Show less
It is largely agreed that formal Islamic leadership centres on the calim who function as experts of the sharica. It is similarly accepted that informal expressions of Islamic faith are extremely... Show moreIt is largely agreed that formal Islamic leadership centres on the calim who function as experts of the sharica. It is similarly accepted that informal expressions of Islamic faith are extremely common Ð but there is less agreement regarding the functional roles performed by those who lead these informal expressions of faith. It is suggested that there are three such (distinct but overlapping) roles, one of which is examined here. The three roles are, broadly speaking, the provision of healing, the oversight of major festivals, and the storage of core religious knowledge. Leaders of these groups collectively provide leadership that is intrinsically religious in nature. As leadership is ceded to them, they in return help those around them re-create a sense of faithcentred corporate identity. The following briefly looks at how healers operate as informal leaders who help to shape Islamic faith in rural Bangladesh. Show less
The Bosnian Young Muslims, a reformist Islamic movement that emerged in Sarajevo in 1939 and - officially - ceased to exist ten years later, is even today subject to many controversies. The... Show moreThe Bosnian Young Muslims, a reformist Islamic movement that emerged in Sarajevo in 1939 and - officially - ceased to exist ten years later, is even today subject to many controversies. The attempts to characterize this movement include a whole range of contradictory designations, ranging from hostile approaches in which the members of the movement are depicted as pan-Islamist terrorists whose activities aimed at the overthrow of the Yugoslavian state and establishing of an Islamic order, to sympathetic views in which it is presented as a basically democratic movement established on Islamic humanitarian principles that tried to resist the dictatorial communist regime of post-war Yugoslavia. Show less
With the vastly expanding use and popularity of the world wide web in the closing decade of the 20th century, Muslims began presenting themselves on the web through sacred texts, images and stories... Show moreWith the vastly expanding use and popularity of the world wide web in the closing decade of the 20th century, Muslims began presenting themselves on the web through sacred texts, images and stories. This transmission includes hadith, the sayings and acts of the Prophet. Studying the transmission of the hadith through the internet and its function in the Islamic on-line discourse helps in understanding the conception of a new discourse of Islamic jurisprudence. Through the description of different formats of hadith, it is possible to analyse the complex relation between the texts and the new medium. Show less
The question of adoption has been largely overlooked in studies of the Muslim world given that Islam officially prohibits it on potent religious alibis. Considering such a practice from an... Show moreThe question of adoption has been largely overlooked in studies of the Muslim world given that Islam officially prohibits it on potent religious alibis. Considering such a practice from an ethnographic perspective, and not exclusively a legalistic one, opens up new dimensions in the study of family and kinship in the Muslim world. Yet, such a practice is predicated on the existence of children to be adopted as 'raw material' in the first place. And while historically there have been, and still continue to be, various intra-family exchanges of children outside legal frames and the practice of Islamic tutelage, kafala, the Muslim world, as elsewhere, is experiencing the problem of abandoned children as a by-product of deep social permutations. Show less
In 1972 three members of the Japanese Red Army carried out a notorious suicide attack on people gathered in one of the halls of Tel Aviv airport; they killed twenty people and wounded eighty. A few... Show moreIn 1972 three members of the Japanese Red Army carried out a notorious suicide attack on people gathered in one of the halls of Tel Aviv airport; they killed twenty people and wounded eighty. A few days after 11 September, a Swiss man killed several members of the regional parliament of Zug and then killed himself. These two examples are given in response to those narrow explanations of the phenomena of violence, death, martyrdom and suicide that see them in the light of the 'clash of civilizations', bearing in mind that only a very short space of time separates us from the American Unabomber, the Japanese Aum sect and Timothy McVeigh, all of whom were driven, respectively, by their anti-technology delusions, their rush to reach the millennium and their hatred of the federal government, to shorten the distance that separates life from death. Show less
In 1937, Haj Alla al-Qadmiri intoned 'Bismallah' (In the name of God) up to one hundred times in the course of a night's work.Qadmiri was an imam of the municipal slaughterhouse of Fez. Placing... Show moreIn 1937, Haj Alla al-Qadmiri intoned 'Bismallah' (In the name of God) up to one hundred times in the course of a night's work.Qadmiri was an imam of the municipal slaughterhouse of Fez. Placing each animal on its side, he slit its throat from ear to ear while uttering this blessing. After the ritual sacrifice, butchers, also Moroccan Muslims, prepared the animal for sale by removing its skin and dressing its meat. Qadmiri's job seemed an age-old tradition, but it was an innovation dating to 1912, when the French established the Protectorate of Morocco. Show less
The accused persons have practised sodomy. Oriental society criminalizes homosexuality and delinquency, which are condemned by Islam and all divine religions. This practice, if spread, will destroy... Show moreThe accused persons have practised sodomy. Oriental society criminalizes homosexuality and delinquency, which are condemned by Islam and all divine religions. This practice, if spread, will destroy the whole society.' The state security prosecutor's report contained these words regarding the case of the 52 Egyptians accused of sodomy, who were arrested on 11 May 2001 on the tourist Queen Boat. On 14 November, 23 of them were found guilty. The main two accusations were obscenity (in Egyptian criminal law, obscenity means sodomy) and contempt of religion. Show less
The lives of Muslims in America changed on 11 September 2001. The initial reactions of panic, guilt, defiance, and confusion, were accompanied in subsequent days with physical threats and hostile... Show moreThe lives of Muslims in America changed on 11 September 2001. The initial reactions of panic, guilt, defiance, and confusion, were accompanied in subsequent days with physical threats and hostile acts against Muslims. An opinion piece in the New York Times arguing that Muslims hate us not for what we do but for what we are was widely quoted in the media. Veiled women did not appear in public, several students on our campus left theirs at home. A great number of scholars of the Middle East and the Islamic world shouted themselves hoarse insisting that there existed a direct correlation between US foreign policy and the events of 11 September, and others reiterated their anti-liberal stance by pointing an accusing finger at what they regarded as their fellow academics' failure to warn the public about inevitable threats from the outside. Vigilance became the prescriptive word aimed at both New York landlords and college professors. Show less
Al-Wihdat is a legendary camp in the history of the Palestinian struggle for liberation, self-determination and national identity. It was established in 1955 for 5,000 refugees, three kilometres to... Show moreAl-Wihdat is a legendary camp in the history of the Palestinian struggle for liberation, self-determination and national identity. It was established in 1955 for 5,000 refugees, three kilometres to the south of Amman's city centre and inhabited by refugees from the villages between Jaffa and Jerusalem. Shelters and tents dominated the camp scene until the early 1970s. Al-Wihdat was a main centre of activity of Palestinian nationalists in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Show less
Albanians have been Muslims for more than 500 years and they do not need outsiders [Arabs] to tell them what is the proper way to practise Islam.' Mufti of Kosova, Rexhep Boja's recent retort to... Show moreAlbanians have been Muslims for more than 500 years and they do not need outsiders [Arabs] to tell them what is the proper way to practise Islam.' Mufti of Kosova, Rexhep Boja's recent retort to the efforts of Arab NGOs to impose their Salafi practices on Kosovar Albanians reflects a largely unappreciated phenomenon in the post-communist Balkans. The following exposes the questionable manner in which Western powers have compartmentalized their priorities in the region and how Saudi-based humanitarian agencies have filled in the vacuum. At issue is how Western policies of 'conflict resolution' have left 'ethno-religious' communities at the mercy of international, 'faith-based' organizations that, in turn, exploit the poverty and fragmented social conditions of - in our case here - Albanians. Show less
Shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy published a short book (137 pages) by Martin Kramer entitled... Show moreShortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy published a short book (137 pages) by Martin Kramer entitled Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America. Kramer is the editor of the Middle East Quarterly, a journal founded by Daniel Pipes and others who feel that the discipline of Middle Eastern Studies, as practised in the United States, has become too pro-Arab and too 'dovish'. Kramer, a former director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, shares Pipes's views, though he has generally been less strident in expressing them. Ivory Towers on Sand is primarily a critique of scholars dealing with issues related to American foreign policy in the Middle East. Kramer is not especially troubled by current trends in the study of Sufi poetry. Show less
As 'Bosnia' awakened the dead among Muslims worldwide, new expressions of Muslim identity have emerged on college and university campuses in the US that stress the liberation of Islam from... Show moreAs 'Bosnia' awakened the dead among Muslims worldwide, new expressions of Muslim identity have emerged on college and university campuses in the US that stress the liberation of Islam from geographic determinism. Among Muslim student activists in California, this trend is often articulated in phrases such as 'there is no colour in Islam', or 'I consider myself Muslim first, Arab second.' Based on research among young Arab and Muslim Americans between 1996 and 2001,2 this essay traces a particular interplay between the 'local', the 'national', and the 'global' that gives rise to Muslim student activism in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Show less
Presently, more than one third of the world's Muslims are living as minorities in non-Muslim countries, a fact which has posed challenges not only for the host countries but also for the Muslims... Show morePresently, more than one third of the world's Muslims are living as minorities in non-Muslim countries, a fact which has posed challenges not only for the host countries but also for the Muslims themselves. Most Muslims perceive Muslim minorities as an integral part of the larger Muslim community, umma. Many insist that Muslims must be governed by Islamic law, often that of the country of origin. Home countries are expected to offer human, political, and financial resources in order for the minorities to live Islamically. This perception is quite problematic: on the one hand, it implies that while the Muslims have been living in these countries for three generations, their presence is seen as transitory - it cannot conceive of Muslims living permanently under non-Muslim rule; while on the other hand, this perception tends to imagine Muslim minorities as colonies of the Muslim world. Apart from the question of whether Muslim countries are in a position to play the role described above, other serious questions are raised for the future of the Muslim minorities. Show less
