The present work is a critical study of the dynamics of Muslim understanding of Christianity during the late 19th and the early 20th century in the light of the polemical writings of the well-known... Show moreThe present work is a critical study of the dynamics of Muslim understanding of Christianity during the late 19th and the early 20th century in the light of the polemical writings of the well-known Syro-Egyptian Muslim reformist Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Rida (1865-1935) and his associates. It is observable that neither Muslim nor Western scholars paid due attention to his views on Christianity. No full-scale study of his perspectives on that subject has been undertaken so far. Although there are scattered and brief remarks in some individual studies on some of his works on Christianity, investigation is still needed by focusing on his polemics and answers to the social, political and theological aspects of missionary movements among Muslims of his age. The base of our analysis in the present study encompasses Rida’s voluminous publications embodied in his magnum opus, the journal al-Manar (The Lighthouse). The core of these writings on the Christian beliefs and scriptures consisted of polemic and apologetic issues, which had already existed in the pre-modern Islamic classification of Christianity. However, al-Manar polemicists have added to their investigations many modern aspects largely influenced by Western critical studies of the Bible. There is no documented public debate (munazarah) between Rida and his contemporary missionaries. But al-Manar developed certain sorts of arguments drawn from critical studies about biblical texts, church history, political confrontations in the period of colonialism, and evidence of what it perceived as the wrong picture portrayed by missionaries (and some Christian Arabs) of Islam. Show less
This project focuses on the political manifestations that can be found in the Argentinean film productions made after the dictatorship, since 1983 until nowadays. The proposed path relates the... Show moreThis project focuses on the political manifestations that can be found in the Argentinean film productions made after the dictatorship, since 1983 until nowadays. The proposed path relates the works with their socio-political, historical and cultural context, and allows the understanding of the transformations of the links (both ethic and aesthetic) between the filmed world and its referents This tesis posits that the memory of the violence that took place in this country during the 70s imprinted a significant mark in the articulation of discursive worlds as well as in any Argentine artistic production. It also considers the memory as a practice that acts in the Argentine collective imaginary, incorporating more extended historical periods that, in terms of causes and consequences, precede the last dictatorship and extend themselves into the present. Thus, the notion of memory is the focus that links the past events with every specific present, and, simultaneously, it is the hermeneutical frame of a research based on a corpus formed by diverse expressive genres. The specific systems of representation of those political events, whose impact manifested itself in the accounted period, are analyzed. We analyze the (fictional and documentary) film figurations of the myths and narrations of the peronismo (a contradictory political movement) and the ways of social irruption revealed in a climate of popular revolt that accompanied profound economical and institutional-political crisis at the dawning of this century. Show less
The main focus of this dissertation is exploring the position of people with disabilities within two Islamic sciences, namely, Islamic Theology and Islamic Jurisprudence as reflected in the early... Show moreThe main focus of this dissertation is exploring the position of people with disabilities within two Islamic sciences, namely, Islamic Theology and Islamic Jurisprudence as reflected in the early and modern writings of Muslim scholars. Within Islamic Theology, attention is paid to the opinions of early and modern Muslims theologians and philosophers on the existence of disability in this life, the wise purposes behind the existence of this phenomenon in addition to the efforts of these scholars in order to reconcile between the existence of this phenomenon on one hand and specific divine attributes such as the Mercy of God. Within Islamic Jurisprudence, the contentions of early and modern Muslim specialists in Islamic law have been probed into concerning a broad scope of topics with modern relevance such as the human dignity of people with disabilities, their employability, medical treatment, social life with main focus on marriage-related issues, financial life and means of living for this group of people. Show less
