How Muslims in Indonesia consider their religious practices, politics and culture as Islamic is described in this volume. By examining the various ways Bima Muslims constitute their Islamic... Show moreHow Muslims in Indonesia consider their religious practices, politics and culture as Islamic is described in this volume. By examining the various ways Bima Muslims constitute their Islamic identities and agencies through rituals and festivals, this book argues that religious practice is still vigorous in present Bima. It explores the reproduction of religious meanings among various local Muslims and the differences between social groups. Islam is represented as divided between the traditionalist Muslims and the reformist Muslims, between the royal family and the ordinary Muslims, and between Muslim clerics and lay people. Consequently, there is no single picture of Islam. As Bima Muslims construe their Islam in response to their surroundings, what it means to be a Muslim is constantly being negotiated. The complexity of religious life has been a result of the duality of socio-political settings in Bima which stems from the early period of the Islamization of Bima to the present. Show less
In public debate and academic discussions about Islam in Western society, reference is often made to the role of the imam in processes of acculturation of Muslims. Throughout these debates, we come... Show moreIn public debate and academic discussions about Islam in Western society, reference is often made to the role of the imam in processes of acculturation of Muslims. Throughout these debates, we come across the important question of how imams transmit Islamic norms and values to Muslims living in secular, non-Islamic societies. This descriptive-exploratory research considers this question specifically looking at the role of the imam in the local mosque in the Netherlands. This dissertation describes and analyses the external perspective of the views circulating in the public debate on imams between 1993 and 2004. The internal perspective has been brought into focus empirically by describing and exploring his role, authority and influence in two mosque-communities and one Islamic student association. The internal perspective further divides into the perspective of the imam and the perspective of a group practising, mostly young and highly educated Muslims who grew up in the Netherlands. The imam finds himself in a field of tension between expectations from the majority society and expectations of the believers. The indicative findings from the internal perspective have been compared with the external views. The outcome of this comparison is used to clarify the ongoing public __imam-debate__. Show less
Religious scholarship can be offensive to believers, as conflicts from the time of Galileo and Spinoza to the recent critique of Danish religious scholars in the wake of the infamous Muhammad... Show moreReligious scholarship can be offensive to believers, as conflicts from the time of Galileo and Spinoza to the recent critique of Danish religious scholars in the wake of the infamous Muhammad cartoons have shown. Studies of this type of scholarship have been appropriated by believers as a means of reinventing their own identities - as the training of twentieth-century Muslim clergy demonstrates. This volume offers a unique collection of training materials from European Muslim clergy since the 1940s - including Third Reich reports on debriefing imams, surveillance files on Muslim activists, and information on Bosnian clergy and their training centres - as well as an exploration of religion and academic freedom in general, accompanied by appendices in both Arabic and English Show less
