bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Stereotypes and Prejudice in Conflict
Authors: Gandolfo K. Luisa
Published: October 2020

During the last twenty years, a discernible increase in the analysis of stereotypesand the role they assume during conflicts has occurred, with significantinterest emanating from the field of social psychology. For the authors ofStereotypes and Prejudice in Conflict: Representations of Arabs in IsraeliJewish Society, years of research have culminated in a publication thatunflinchingly explores such diverse topics as delegitimization tactics andunity as well as the development of perceptions among pre-schoolers.Daniel Bar-Tal, a professor in Tel Aviv University’s Psychology Department,is the author of several notable works on the issue, including SocialPsychology of Intergroup Conflict (Springer-Verlag: 1998) and HowChildren Understand War and Peace (Jossey Bass: 1999). Likewise, YonaTeichman, a clinical psychologist at Tel Aviv University, brings a level ofexpertise honed from extensive research on the development and applicationof an implicit, free-response measure of social representations based on thesystematic analysis of human figure drawings. Through this dynamic, theystrive to contribute to future peace endeavors by prompting the criticalanalysis of one’s own society and the processes that impede conflict resolution,while encouraging new perspectives that will end the violent cycles thatsustain conflict.From a strong opening chapter, the authors negotiate through twelvechapters adeptly, the most notable of which include chapter 4, “Representationof Arabs in Public Discourse”; chapter 5, “Representation of Arabs inSchool Textbooks”; and chapter 10, “Studies with Schoolchildren, Adolescents,and Young Adults.” All of these chapters are supported by a plethoraof tables comprising generalization, characterization, and negativity; color ...
Religion and African Civil Wars
Authors: Launay Robert
Published: October 2020

This volume contains an introduction and seven case studies by anthropologists,historians, and theologians. The papers were originally presented at a1999 conference on “Religion and Social Upheaval in Africa” in Denmark.As a result, some of the papers are somewhat out-of-date, although the questionsthey raise are, sadly, just as relevant as ever to the continent’s currentsituation.As Niels Kastfelt points out in his introductory essay, the authors rejectany approach that seeks to understand African civil conflicts in terms of a“New Barbarism,” an irrational manifestation of “tribal” or religious atavism.This strategy, which is perhaps most typical of journalistic accountsbut also finds some support among academics, clearly constitutes an obstacletoward any meaningful comprehension of the phenomena in question. Ina similar vein, they equally reject any notion of a “conflict of civilizations”or that African civil wars can be explained in terms of the incompatible religiousvalues of Christianity, Islam, and indigenous African religions.Rather, their papers provide a detailed account of the local context in a historicalperspective by focusing on the political, economic, and explicitlyreligious phenomena.Indeed, the lines of cleavage in many of these cases are not defined inreligious terms. As a result, the nature of the relationships between “religion”and the civil wars in question are so disparate that the volume does notquite hang together. For example, René Devisch’s paper on Kinshasa is notreally about civil war, but rather about the effects of the collapse of stateauthority and the formal economy, both of which unleashed rampant violencein the city but also led to the emergence of independent Christian healingcommunes as a sort of refuge ...
Interpreting the Qur’an
Authors: Nguyen Martin
Published: October 2020

The book Interpreting the Qur’an is a welcome addition to the developingfield of Qur’anic studies, as it contributes specifically to the study of tafsir(Qur’anic exegesis). In a field that still lacks adequate historical surveys andmonographs, Saeed offers an insightful work on how the exegetical traditioncan be read and understood. He attempts to plot various trajectories of developmentthat span the classical and modern periods leading up to the present.However, the success and accuracy of his historical inquiry is largelyaffected by his more prominent and overarching objective: developing amodern methodology of scriptural interpretation. Over the course of twelvechapters, Saeed embarks upon an attempt to reevaluate and redefine how theQur’an is understood.In the introduction, the author states that he is dealing only with theQur’an’s ethico-legal concepts, the source material of Islamic jurisprudence(fiqh). Traditionally, this material has been read in a “legalistic-literalistic”fashion. However, the author hopes to replace it with a “contextualist” approach, which would take “into consideration both the socio-historicalcontext of the Qur’an at the time of revelation in the first/seventh centuryand the contemporary concerns and needs of Muslims today” (p. 1) ...
An Introduction to the Science of the Hadith
Authors: Sadeki Behnam
Published: October 2020

Contemporary western scholarship on the hadith literature largely ignoresmost of the relevant secondary scholarship, namely, that produced by premodernhadith specialists, including the discussions and assessments foundin the rijal literature, the `ilal genre, and other works. Perhaps this neglectis born of the conviction that as religious persons, pre-modern scholarswere incapable of “doing” real history. Or perhaps it reflects the suspicionthat their assessments were designed exclusively to vindicate doctrinallycorrect hadiths. Neither assumption does justice to the traditional field ofhadith studies. It is thus fitting to understand this discipline, not onlybecause attention to the secondary literature is a requirement of responsiblescholarship in any field, but also because doing so can benefit the modernreevaluation of the hadith literature.The first step toward understanding traditional hadith scholarship is toknow its terminology. In English, there may be no better introduction to thisterminology than Eerik Dickinson’s translation of Ibn al-Salah’s (d.643/1245) classic work. In addition, the book briefly addresses some of thedefects that could appear in the hadiths, contradictions in their isnads (chainsof transmission) or matns (texts), such as when one transmitter relates a traditionwith an incomplete isnad and another transmitter provides a completeone, various subdisciplines of hadith studies and other matters.Ibn al-Salah’s book can help correct certain modern misunderstandingsabout the nature of traditional hadith scholarship and the technical meaningsof such basic terms as sahih, da`if, munkar, and tadlis. To give an example,the traditional discipline is often faulted for rating as sound (sahih) hadithsthat can be recognized as ahistorical. This presupposes, incorrectly, thatsahih means authentic. Yet Ibn al-Salah indicates that classifying a hadith assahih means no more than saying that its isnad and its variants satisfy certainformal criteria. He asserts that, therefore, such a classification does not ...
A Dialogue
Authors: Faghfoory Mohammed , Tourage Mahi
Published: October 2020

MOHAMMED FAGHFOORY: I read the review on my book, Kernel of theKernel, in a recent edition of the journal [21:2] and would like to respond tosome of the reviewer’s remarks. The bulk of the review is, in fact, takenfrom the book itself and is nothing more than a description of each chapter’scontent. That is fine by itself, and your journal’s format requires that. It is,however, to his concluding paragraph that I would like to address myresponse, where he talks about Sufism in light of feminist literature and theories,which are alien to Islamic spirituality.First, the reviewer’s statement that “No women are found among all theShi`ite scholars and masters of esoteric sciences” is simply wrong. As earlyas the first Islamic century, Sufism produced masters like Rabi`ah `Adawiyah,to whom Hasan al-Basri, the celebrated patriarch of Basrah and thefirst major Sufi master, referred to frequently for spiritual advice. To this,one must add prominent women like Sayyidah Nafisah (the daughter ofImam Hasan) and Sayyidah `A’ishah (the daughter of Imam Sadiq), whosemastery of exoteric and esoteric knowledge have been acknowledged bySufi masters like Ibn `Ata’llah Iskandarani and many others. One might alsomention Fatimah of Nayshabur, the Persian Nizam, and another Fatimahwho was, in fact, the spiritual master of the octogenarian Sufi master Muhyal-Din ibn al-`Arabi.More problematic is the reviewer’s statement on Sufi doctrine and itsview on men and women. When God decided to manifest Himself, He did sothrough Revelation, cosmos, and human being (microcosm). We read in theQur’an that God is Ahad (He is One, Absolute) and Samad (Sufficient toHimself, Infinite). This means that everything is contained in Him. Thus, God ...
Muslim Identities
Authors: Sein Layla
Published: October 2020

The AMSS 35th Annual Conference, held from 27-29 October 2006 andcosponsored by Hartford Seminary’s Macdonald Center for the Study ofIslam and Christian-Muslim Relations, analyzed “Muslim Identities: ShiftingBoundaries and Dialogues.” Welcoming and introductory remarks werepresented by Seminary President Dr. Heidi Hadsell, Program Chair Dr. JaneI. Smith (co-director, Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam andChristian-Muslim Relations), and AMSS President Dr. Rafik Beekun.Many regular participants mentioned how they look forward to the collegialatmosphere. In fact, as the majority of presenters were Ph.D. candidates,Program Chair Smith stated that “often at academic meetings like thisone, younger scholars listen while the more experienced ones dominate theconversation. … This conference displayed a seriousness of interchangeamong the participants and an appreciation of the contributions of everyone.”Friday’s three panel sessions explored the engagement of Muslim discoursesand institutions with democracy and political transitions in Iran, ...
The Israeli Lobby and the U.S. Response to the War in Lebanon
Authors: Srour Soha
Published: October 2020

On 28 August 2006, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)sponsored a panel discussion on “The Israeli Lobby and the U.S. Responseto the War in Lebanon” at the National Press Club, Washington, DC. StephenWalt (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard) and John Mearsheimer(University of Chicago), authors of the controversial article “The IsraeliLobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” were featured.The panel began with opening remarks by Corey Saylor (governmentaffairs director, CAIR) and Nihad Awad (executive director, CAIR). Awaddiscussed the war in Lebanon and the situation in Gaza, described Israel’sdropping of cluster bombs on civilian Lebanese towns, quoted a HumanRights Watch report that states Israel does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, as well as an Amnesty International report describingIsraeli actions in Lebanon as war crimes. He concluded: “Our one-sided supportfor Israel is a liability in the war on terror. It has turned much of theworld, including our European allies, against us.”Stephen Walt summarized the main arguments of his research articlewith John Mearsheimer. Among them are that comprehending the recent warin Lebanon requires an understanding of the pro-Israel groups’ politicalpower in the United States; that the Israeli lobby’s influence has led to policiesthat are not in the United States’ national interest, or in those of theregion’s countries, including Israel; and that $3 billion of American taxpayers’money is given unconditionally to a wealthy industrial nation. Hequoted former American negotiator Aaron Miller’s remark that the UnitedStates acted as Israeli’s lawyer during Oslo and has been even more onesidedunder President Bush ...
Citizens Abroad
Authors: Terc Mandy
Published: October 2020

This book explores a critical and often neglected aspect of emigration fromMiddle Eastern countries. Rather than focusing on the policies of the statesreceiving Middle Eastern immigrants, Brand’s research studies the policies ofthose Middle Eastern states from which emigration originates. She attributesthis neglect to the chauvinism of scholars writing from the Americas andWestern Europe who have made their own countries the central actors of theirresearch. Her other theoretical contribution is to challenge and deconstructsimplistic and outdated conceptions of state sovereignty. She selects four casestudies (viz., Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Jordan), noting each one’s variedlevels of involvement in the expatriates’ lives, the emigrants’ differentdestinations, and the dissimilar relationships between the expatriates and theircountries of origin. By bringing together four disparate cases in one book,Brand addresses the larger question of how emigration from states impactsthe originating states’ conceptions of their own sovereignty ...
Islam in Southeast Asia
Authors: Daniels Timothy P.
Published: October 2020

This book is a revised version of the proceedings of a conference of the sametitle held in Singapore during 2002. The papers comprising this highly relevantand timely text cover topics from the history of Islam in Southeast Asiato Islamic doctrine, politics, civil society, gender, modernization, globalization,and the impact of 9/11. However, Islam and politics are the centralthemes, with special attention given to the challenges of the recent contextfor Southeast Asia’s Muslim-majority societies. As such, it is of interest toscholars of diverse fields, including history, political science, internationalrelations, religious studies, sociology, and anthropology.The introduction, “Understanding Political Islam Post-September 11,”criticizes the inequality and militarism of western-dominated globalizationand the violent responses of political Islam or radical Islamism. Clear definitionsof these pivotal terms used throughout the collection would sharpen theargument about the particular kind of political uses of Islam that the authorsview as a threat. The editors provide an adequate and enticing overview ofthis interesting collection of papers. However, it would be helpful toacknowledge that they focus on Malaysia and Indonesia, with the exceptionof one paper on the Philippines. Addressing the situation of Muslim minorities in the mainland Southeast Asian countries of Burma/Myanmar,Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, where they live under the hegemony ofBuddhist or communist majorities, would add an important comparativedimension ...
Muslims in Western Societies
Authors: Helps Lisa
Published: October 2020

“There is no ‘Islam’ and there is no ‘West’,” boldly proclaimed the programof the Trudeau Foundation’s conference held in Vancouver, BC, Canada on16-18 November 2006. Rather, the premise was that there are numerousIslams (religious, political, and geographical) and many Wests. Given thiscontext, some 160 scholars, activists, and policymakers came together underthe more general heading of “Muslims in Western Societies” to discuss,debate, and make sense of the complex interactions among and manifestationsof these many Islams and many Wests.The event was organized around five themes: “Religious Belief, Secularism,and the State”; “Immigrant Societies, Cultural Memory, and CulturalChange”; “The Multicultural Challenge”; “Muslim Women inWestern Societies”; and “Muslims, Political Violence, and the SecurityEstablishment.” Plenary sessions were held on each theme. In addition,because it was a working conference, attendees participated in discussiongroups organized around these same themes and presented summaryaccounts of their two-day deliberations in a closing plenary.Perhaps because of the Canadian setting, multiculturalism was one ofthe concepts that received much attention and served as a touchstone duringmany of the weekend’s discussions. During the panel on the challenge ofmulticulturalism, Will Kymlicka (Queen’s University) outlined the historyof multiculturalism in Canada and argued that in order to accommodate thecurrent concerns of Muslims and other religious minorities, Canada mustupdate its multiculturalism policy. In the early 1970s, Canada officiallybecame “multicultural” at the behest of Ukrainian Canadians who wanted toprotect their language and culture within the framework of official biculturalismand bilingualism policies. In the 1980s, the logic of anti-racismentered multicultural debates, and now, Kymlicka insisted, religion hasarisen as a cultural element in need of protection. He urged that we update,rather than abandon, Canada’s multicultural policy.In “Muslims, Political Violence, and the Security Establishment” (and inthe working group on the same topic, in which I participated), Rex Brynen ...
Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia
Authors: Kersten Carool
Published: October 2020

Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia is partly the outcome of a trend in thescholarship on Southeast Asian Islam that has gained momentum from themid-1980s onwards: namely, a corrective of the tendency to regard Islam asa “thin veneer” (as the Dutch historian van Leur had described it) over mucholder and supposedly more profound cultural deposits from the Indian subcontinent.The tremendous influence of the late Clifford Geertz’s characterizationsin his The Religion of Java (University of Chicago Press: 1976 [newed.]) only seemed to confirm this. However, a younger generation of American anthropologists, among them John Bowen, Robert Hefner, and MarkWoodward, explicitly challenged that view when they began publishingtheir findings in the 1980s. These writings showed that there was a vibrantand truly “Islamic” cultural legacy in Indonesia and elsewhere.The present volume also demonstrates the significance of the Australianacademe’s role in furthering our understanding of Islam in Southeast Asia.Both editors are associated with the Australian National University(ANU), one of “Downunder’s” epicentres of Southeast Asian studies. GregFealy is a recognized authority on the Nahdlatul Ulama, the mass organizationuniting more than 20 million of Indonesia’s traditionalist Muslims,while Virginia Hooker is a leading scholar in the field of Malay-Muslim literatureand history. In fact, the pioneering research of two former ANU academics,Anthony Johns and his student Peter Riddell, provided importantevidence of the close, long-standing, and sustained contacts of Muslimscholars from the “Lands below the Winds” with centers of Islamic learningin the Middle East ...
The Just War and Jihad
Authors: Sabet Amr G. E.
Published: October 2020

The fifteen chapters of this book bring together scholars from a variety offields to examine and analyze what they perceive to be a relationshipbetween religion and violence. Generating a feeling of déjà vu, they rehashpreviously developed assumptions, arguments, and biases that tend to ignoreunderlying causes related to the “existence of the sacred,” for reasons apparentlybeyond the domain of secular comprehension. The articles reiterateconventional secular arguments about the dangers of religious convictionson “peace” and tend to vary in quality and consistency, which reflects on thebook’s overall merit.Although it is not feasible to go into each chapter’s details, it is importantto underscore their basic thrust and common theme: the issue of legitimationand what confers legitimacy on action, be it violent in nature, such asin war or conflict, or simply legal and organizational. Hector Avalos (chapter6) puts it candidly. In the “relative” framework of “empirico-rationalism,”he argues that religious violence is always “immoral,” positing that “life,” asa manifestation of that which “exists,” is worth more than that which does notexist (p. 113). However, this does not preclude war in the absolute. Onearrives at this conclusion after reading J. Harold Ellens’ “The Obscenity ofWar” (chapter 2) as well as the Committee for the Scientific Examination ofReligion’s (CSER) “Protocol on Religion, Warfare, and Violence” (chapter 15) ...
A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca and a Siege in Sanaa
Authors: Varisco Daniel Martin
Published: October 2020

It should be noted that the trespassing English pilgrim Arthur Wavell is definitelynot postmodern; his “modern” account of a trip in disguise to Makkahand Madinah was originally published in 1912. The author revels in explaininghow he pulled off the role of a Zanzibar Muslim on hajj, as though heis presenting a how-to guide for fellow swashbucklers. Previously, he hadcarried out intelligence work for the British Army in South Africa and, in1906, settled on a farm near Mombasa, where he learned Arabic and metMuslims. He died at the young age of thirty-four while fighting in EastAfrica.Wavell presents a riveting tale with a self-serving hubris that could easilybe dismissed as a remake of Sir Richard Burton’s earlier and more celebratedpenetration of Makkah. But there is good reason to read this datedbook, if only for the historical view of travel to Makkah near the end of theOttoman caliphate. Wavell traveled from Damascus on the Hijaz railway thevery year (1908) that it reached Makkah. His trip was made partly out ofcuriosity, no doubt fueled by the fact non-Muslims are forbidden to enter ...
Ideas, Images, and Methods of Portrayal
Authors: Rippin Andrew
Published: October 2020

This ambitious collection of sixteen essays (plus an introduction by the editor)ranges widely across Islamic history and scholarly disciplines. The unifyingtheme is reflected in the title: Muslim texts are examined for their conceptualframeworks as conveyers of a cultural ethos. While some essays aremore successful than others in enunciating this theme’s more theoreticalaspects, the range of topics covered means that most readers will find somethingof interest and relevance and will likely be stimulated to apply themethods of analysis to their own area of study.Sebastian Günther’s introduction does an admirable job of highlightingeach essay’s contribution to creating an overall picture of Muslim intellectualhistory and the “cultural specificity of Islam that facilitated theadvancement of intellectual life and the formation of ‘modern’ societies”(p. xiv) by paying attention to the ideas, forms, content, and impact of textualartefacts from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries.Stephan Dähne begins the volume by focusing on the Qur’an and itsuse in political speeches attributed to Abu Hamza al-Shari (d. 747),Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr (d. 692), Uthman ibn Hayyan al-Murri (d. after713), and Abdallah ibn Tahir (d. 844). Ute Pietruschka then deals with theChristian community’s literary activity under the Umayyads as it developedin Syriac (and emerged in Arabic), maintained the Byzantine tradition,and was impacted by Islam. Keeping with the Christian theme, SandraToenies Keating discusses the work of the Christian apologist Abu Ra’ita(d. ca 835) and his attempt to defend Biblical scripture from the Muslimcharge of falsification (tahrif) ...
Memories in Translation
Authors: Ami Naama Ben
Published: October 2020

The book’s title and subtitle are both concise and apt characterizations. Aftermore than sixty years of work as a translator and a writer, Johnson-Daviestakes the reader on a journey through memories told as if relived throughwriting. The language is clear, fluent, and businesslike. Interspersed in theaccount are humorous anecdotes about some of his more embarrassing experiencesas a translator.The book has a foreword by Naguib Mahfouz (d. 2006), the Nobel Prizewinning(1988) Egyptian writer with whom the author had an acquaintanceshipgoing back sixty years and several of whose books he translated.Twenty-two photographs show the author at various times in his life (1922-2000) at work, with friends, writers, poets, and various personalities. Everyphotograph is fully documented as regards location, names, date, and other ...
The Canadian Muslim Network Tribute to Civil Liberties in Canada: In Honour of Maher Arar and Monia Mazigh
Authors: Aboulnast Tyseer
Published: October 2020

The Honourable Mr Stephane Dion, Leader of the Liberal party of Canada,M. Gilles Duceppe, chef de la Parti Bloc Quebecois, The Honourable JackLayton, Leader of the NDP party, senators and parliamentarians, Mr. Ararand Dr. Mazigh, honored guests, or in likely more appropriate terms for thisevent, friends and fellow Canadians:Assalamu Alaykum. May you all be in Peace.Let me welcome you all with the greeting of Islam on behalf of theCanadian Muslim network; a network of Muslim organizations acrossCanada from BC to Alberta all the way to Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.The network was put in place to create an environment of collaborationand communication between Muslim organizations on issues of interestto Muslim Canadians nationally as well as to enhance communication andcollaboration between Canadians of Muslim faith with Canadians of all otherfaiths.The list of names of the organizations in the network is at the back ofyour program (attached here as appendix), and I invite you to look at it indetail to appreciate the breadth of representation here tonight. This initiativeis also supported by a multitude of other organizations that are also listed atthe back.As you may expect civil liberties is high on our agenda. The CanadianMuslim Network is proud to have organized this incredible event to pay tributeto our cherished civil liberties in Canada, to recognize the massive effortthat many in this room exerted to ensure we restore our civil liberties and protectthem for the future of our children and to remind ourselves that while wehave reasons to celebrate our recent successes, the road ahead is still long.We are here today to pay tribute to civil liberties in Canada. Canada is acountry that was never defined by the colour of the skin of its people or theirreligion, rather Canada was always a country defined by its values. Canada ...
International Symposium on Islamic Civilization in Southern Africa
Authors: Haron Muhammed
Published: October 2020

AwqafSA (www.awqafSA.org.za), a South African Muslim NGO, has beenin constant contact with IRCICA (the Islamic Research Centre for IslamicHistory, Art and Culture: www3.ircica.org), an affiliate of the Organization ofthe Islamic Conference, for several years regarding possible cooperation. On18 April 2005, this contact culminated in Halit Eren’s (director-general, IRCICA)meeting with a few organizations and their representatives regarding theforthcoming “International Symposium on Islamic Civilization in SouthernAfrica,” scheduled for the following year. AwqafSA and IRCICA, aware ofthe fact that very little research has been done on Islam in southern Africa,have strongly advocated holding a symposium to bring scholars, researchers,and stakeholders together to share their thoughts on their respective countriesand communities. At this meeting, it was agreed that AwqafSA would be thelocal host in partnership with IRCICA and that the University of Johannesburgwould be the third partner in this important historical venture.The symposium took place between 1-3 September 2006 at theUniversity of Johannesburg. A few months earlier, on 28 June 2006 to beexact, Ebrahim Rasool (premier, Western Cape Province) formally launchedthe symposium at Leeuwenhof, his official residence. In his short speech, hestressed the multicultural nature of South African society and the importanceof holding such a symposium in the country, a symposium that will allowparticipants – particularly South Africans – to do some “rainbow gazing”and critically assess their position within South Africa. The premier was alsoone of the keynote speakers at the symposium. Essop Pahad (minister,Office of the President) connected the symposium proceedings to the AfricanRenaissance process as well as to the significant Timbuktu Project(www.timbuktufoundation.org; www.timbuktuheritage.org) spearheaded byShamil Jeppie (the University of Cape Town). He also touched upon newevidence of the influence of Islam in the Limpopo Valley, northern SouthAfrica. In his concluding remarks, he emphatically rejected Huntington’s“clash of civilizations” thesis ...
A Concise History of the Middle East, 8th ed.
Authors: Gandolfo K. Luisa
Published: October 2020

In a discipline rich in studies addressing the multifarious aspects of theMiddle East, a publication exploring the region’s history fromthe pre-Islamicperiod to the present confronts a fervent contest in establishing itself as anotable work. As the authors of A Concise History of the Middle East indicatefrom the outset, the challenge of conveying the relevance of past eventsto contemporary affairs is both complex yet essential. For Arthur GoldschmidtJr. and Lawrence Davidson, the course is well-worn, as their publicationenters its eighth edition since 1979.With a plethora of maps depictingthe transitory regional borders dating from the Byzantine period to the presentday, alongside cogent depictions of the Hashemite lineage and the Ottomansultans and a piquant narrative, Goldschmidt and Davidson provide anaccount that proves – although directed toward undergraduate students andneophytes to the Middle East – a satisfying meander through regional triumphsand despairs over the course of twenty-one chapters.Consigned as “a dreary bore, a dead subject suited only to cranks,antique-lovers, or perhaps a few students seeking bits of small talk withwhich to impress their peers” (p. 2), the authors grapple with the waningallure of history in contemporary society in their introduction. Aware of thelimitations, the opening chapter strives to rouse the reader with a swiftassessment of the Middle East’s global contributions to language, religion,philosophy, mathematics, and science.Avoiding the plaintive plea to comprehendthe origins of the current conflicts, the authors combine drollness withfacts to ensure that the narrative does not falter and reiterate poignant questionsthroughout the publication, such as: “AsAmericans, who may at times ...
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
Authors: Nyang Sulayman S.
Published: October 2020

The arrival of Islam in the United States ofAmerica has been dated backto the coming of slaves fromAfrica. During this unfortunate trade in humancargo from the African mainland, many Muslim men and women came tothese shores. Some of these men and women were more visible than others;some were more literate in Arabic than the others; and some were betterremembered by their generations than the others. Despite these multiple differencesbetween the Muslim slaves and their brethren from various parts oftheAfrican continent, the fact still remains that their Islam and their self-confidencedid not save them from the oppressive chains of slave masters. Thereligion of Islam survived only during the lifetime of individual believerswho tried desperately to maintain their Islamic way of life. Among theMuslims who came in ante bellum times intoAmerica one can include YorroMahmud (erroneously anglicized as Yarrow Mamout), Ayub Ibn SulaymanDiallo (known to Anglo-Saxons as Job ben Solomon), Abdul Rahman(known as Abdul Rahahman in the Western sources) and countless otherswhose Islamic ritual practices were prevented from surfacing in public.1Besides these Muslim slaves of ante bellumAmerica, there were otherswho came to these shores without the handicap of slavery. They came fromSouthern Europe, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. TheseMuslimswere immigrants to America at the end of the Nineteenth Century andthe beginning of the Twentieth Century. Motivated by the desire to come toa land of opportunity and strike it rich, many of these men and women laterfound out that the United States ofAmerica was destined to be their permanenthomeland. In the search for identity and cultural security in their newenvironment, these Muslim immigrants began to consolidate their culturalresources by building mosques and organizing national and local groups forthe purpose of social welfare and solidarity. These developments among theMuslims contributed to the emergence of various cultural and religious ...
Cosmopolitan Islamic Identity and Thought
Authors: Cutting Christopher
Published: October 2020

The Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) held its Third AnnualCanadian Regional Conference on “Cosmopolitan Islamic Identity andThought” on 24 November 2007 at Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo,ON). Opening the event with her keynote address, “Consumption andCosmopolitanism: The Veil, The Body, The Law,” Reina Lewis (Universityof East London) pointed out that in British culture, cosmopolitanism has notyet appropriated the Muslim veil as a desirable object of fashion consumptionfor the majority society, although Muslim women have appropriatedand indigenized some western fashions. However, this does not prevent themajority society from making interpretive “readings” of the veil relative todominant fashion cultures and participating in neo-Orientalist discourses.Despite the (shockingly) recent British legislation of 2003 that finallyexplicitly forbids religious discrimination, some recent prominent publicdiscourse on the veil in Britain has turned its attention to the issue of faceveiling as a potentially insidious fashion practice, arguing essentially (anduncritically) that visibility is equal to transparency, integrity, and truth ...
Written for the West
Authors: Tourage Mahdi
Published: October 2020

The burgeoning cannon of memoirs and fiction written by or about Iranianwomen has saturated the literary scene of post-9/11America. We have seenliterary works translated or mostly written by exiles that entice the curiouswestern reader with Orientalist tales ofMuslim women as veiled, unveiling,powerless victims, or brave escapees of an inherently oppressive patriarchy.The titles and contents of many of these works show that appealing to a specificpolitical climate and power structure is a key factor behind their production,dissemination, and consumption. Therefore, despite this literaryboom, it is not certain whether these books add anything to our knowledgeof Muslims or if, in fact, they actually obfuscate it.I read several such memoirs while drawing up the required reading listsfor the undergraduate courses that I teach at anAmerican liberal arts college.Working under the assumption that exposure to literary self-representation isan effective way of familiarizing students with contemporary Muslimwomen’s lives, I eventually chose three books written in English by threecontemporary Iranian women specifically for western audiences. In its ownparticular way, each one addresses gender and the experiences of women inMuslim societies: Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir inBooks (Random House: 2003), Fatemeh Keshavarz’s Jasmine and Stars:Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran (University of North Carolina Press:2007), and Shirin Ebadi’s Iran Awakening: A Woman’s Journey to ReclaimHer Life and Country (Random House: 2007) ...
Music Education and Muslims
Authors: Jones Alyson E.
Published: October 2020

Diana Harris presents her research on teaching music to Muslim students inthe United Kingdom. She argues that music educators have to take intoaccount that music is a sensitive issue formanyMuslims. The fact that musiceducation is compulsory for British pupils until the age of fourteen presentsan ethical dilemma for those who, for religious reasons, do not feel comfortableparticipating in music classes.With this book, the author intends to help state schoolteachers understand the history and position of music in Islamandhelp teachers in state and independent Islamic schools provide music classesthat their students might find more acceptable.Harris has drawn upon her extensive experience as a music educator inthe United Kingdom at schools where the pupils have been predominantlyMuslim. Her other sources include interviews conducted between 1999-2005; participant-observation fieldwork undertaken at schools in the UnitedKingdom, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey; and scholarly sources concerningmusic and Islam. Harris stresses that she has tried to approach this topic asdelicately as possible, and that in her capacity as a music teacher, she wouldnever force her pupils to participate in activities that run counter to their personalbeliefs. How the musical components of the national curriculum (performing,composing, listening, and appraising) are to be achieved dependsupon the individual teacher, who can, therefore, tailor classes to the needs ofspecific pupils ...
The Role of Popular Muslim Movements in the Indian Freedom Struggle
Authors: Fatima Altaf
Published: October 2020

We all know the old adage that “history belongs to the victors.” In the caseof Muslim India, this is reflected in the historical accounts ofMuslim SouthAsia’s decline during the eighteenth century and its final defeat in 1857.Written mainly by European and Hindu historians who often had no contactsbeyond the Mughal court’s outer fringes, they could hardly be expected topresent theMuslim interpretation of events. Closer to our own time, the successof M. K. Gandhi’s (1869-1948) non-violent mass movement, whichfinally forced the British out of India, has overshadowed earlier Muslimefforts to obtain the same goal. In this article, a glimpse is offered into thisoften ignored history in order to remind people that Gandhi’s movement didnot arise in a vacuum, but rather in a particular historical context in whichMuslims had played a prominent role ...
Indian Sufism since the Seventeenth Century
Authors: Rizvi Sajjad H.
Published: October 2020

Based on his doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of London,the present book is a wonderful study of the Sufis ofAurangabad (and, moregenerally, in the Deccan realms of Hyderabad’s Nizams) and their consequentlegacy in independent India. Green builds upon earlier research on theMuslim Deccan undertaken by Carl Ernst (Sufism at Khuldabad, which isadjacent to Aurangabad) and Richard Eaton (Sufis of Bijapur) and brings tothe fore insights from religious studies on the nature of holy men and theirinteraction with politics, words, and worlds.The Deccan has a rich Muslim heritage: Persianate from the fourteenthcentury and then dominated by the Mughals and their successor states fromthe end of the seventeenth century. This heritage also accounts for the significanceof Sufis and their shrines in the region: theAurangabad shrines are animportant facet of this landscape, and this book is a welcome introduction tothem. Green also furthers the theoretical position of Ernst and Eaton: the centralityof the cult of saints for Sufism means that the studies should focus onshrines as “realms of the saint.” Sufism is thus not merely about masters anddisciples or obscure and metaphysical arguments about gnosis, enlightenmentand themarvellous; rather, it concerns sacred spaces and geographies ofspiritual vitality and currency centered on the saints’ shrines.Starting fromAurangzeb’s conquest of the Deccan and establishment ofhis capital at Aurangabad (the former Khirki of the Nizam Shahs) and followingthrough to the legacy of the Panchakki shrine in the 1990s, Green’swork comprises five chapters that weave together an incisive textual analysisof Persian and Urdu sources, readings of architecture as repositories ofSufi text, and fieldwork among Aurangabad’s Sufis ...
Medieval Islamic Medicine
Authors: Varisco Daniel Martin
Published: October 2020

One of the acknowledged contributions to late medieval western educationwas the tradition of Islamic medicine, both for its role in preserving earlierGreek medical knowledge and, as the authors of this book demonstrate, forinnovative and creative advances in medical diagnosis, treatment, and patientcare. Pormann and Savage-Smith provide an informative overview of thehistory of medicine in the Islamic world, from the Prophet’s sayings to theperiod of extensive contact with European colonialism. Their work supplementsand updates the slim volume ofManfred Ullmann, to whom this bookis dedicated, entitled Islamic Medicine (Edinburgh University Press: 1976). Consciously avoiding a sweeping history of a vast scientific field, theauthors narrate a readable story of Islamicmedicine and provide suggestionsfor further reading at the end of each chapter. Without question, this volumecan be considered the best and most critical introduction to the field and aguide for future research.One of the most important critical issues probed is the impact of Greekmedicine, especially as mediated through Byzantine sources, on the emergenceof a distinctive “Islamic” approach to medicine. The synthetic corpusof the Hippocratic writings and the works of Galen formed the holistic basisfor the scientific development of medical theory (chapter 2), including thehumoral system, diet, pharmacology, disease diagnosis, anatomy, and surgery.The authors also discuss other currents of medical knowledge, from theAlexandrian medical curriculum to the knowledge found in Sasanid Persia,Syriac Christian sources, India, and even unto China. The translation of non-Arabic texts was a major contribution, but “Greek medicine as well as someelements of other medical traditions were transformed and not merely givenpermanent right of abode as aliens, they were assimilated, adapted, andfinally adopted in the truest sense of the word into Islamic society” (p. 37) ...
Muslim Geographies
Authors: Phillips Richard
Published: October 2020

“Muslim Geographies,” a conference and public lecture organized byRichard Phillips (University of Liverpool) with support from the Economic&Social Research Council (ESRC Research Grant RES-000-22-1785), tookplace on 4-5 April 2008 at Liverpool University and the Merseyside MaritimeMuseum. The event had several goals: to draw together and advancegeographical research involving Muslims, provide a forum for debate aboutthe spaces that shapeMuslimlives, and establish informed dialogue betweenMuslims and non-Muslims as well as between academics and activists.These goals were pursued through a public lecture and debate, to whichmembers of Muslim, activist, and other local communities were invited. Tomake the conference as inclusive as possible, the eventwas free, some of the sessions were held off-campus, and researchers in architecture, sociology,religious studies, anthropology, public policy, geography, and other disciplineswere invited to participate.The opening session, “Envisaging Geographies of, for, and byMuslims,”traced current trends and future directions in geographical research involvingMuslims. Peter Hopkins (Newcastle) presented, and the ensuing discussionfeatured panelists Claire Dwyer (University College London), Ayona Datta(London School of Economics), and Kevin Dunn (New South Wales). Thepanelists complicated the term Muslim geographies by acknowledging theheterogeneity of Muslims’ experiences and identities and expressed concernabout how academic research represents Muslims. Nevertheless, they identifiedthe purchase of geographical research on key areas of Muslim life,including their integration, relationships, surveillance, and identities ...
Advancing Muslim-Christian Dialogue Today
Authors: Johnston David L.
Published: October 2020

Books Reviewed: Philip Jenkins, God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, andEurope’s Religious Crisis. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press,2007; Jane Idleman Smith, Muslims, Christians, and the Challenge ofInterfaith Dialogue. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007;Irfan A. Omar, ed., A Muslim View of Christianity: Essays on Dialogue byMahmoud Ayoub. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 2007.Not surprisingly, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent comments aboutintegrating more of Shari`ah law within the United Kingdom’s legal systemraised a firestorm of protest in Britain and in many parts of the world. Yetfor twenty-five years already, Britain’s Muslims have been using Shari`ahlaw in community arbitration; by simply adding elements of Islamicjurisprudence in family matters, Muslims would be able to settle mostdivorce cases through arbitration, thus freeing up already congested divorcecourts. Why is this suggestion so outrageous?The only explanation for the deluge of complaints has to do with thesuper-charged and dangerously polarized socio-cultural and religious atmosphereof the “West” in the 2000s. Besides 9/11, other events have contributedto the ratcheting-up of Muslim-European tension: the Danish cartoon saga;the assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh; the London bombings;the “Fitna” film; and, most recently, the tendentious DVD distributedto nearly 30 million American households in swing states during the presidentialcampaign, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.” Withright-wing politicians determined to raise the specter of “Islamofascism,” anymention of including aspects of the Shari`ah in “enlightened” secular legalstructures is enough to give some people fits of panic.Yet this is the context in which we must insert the three books underreview, each of which examines a particular aspect of today’s vastly complexMuslim-Christian relationship. Philip Jenkins marshals his consider ...
The Story of the Qur’an
Authors: Girdner Scott
Published: October 2020

The resources for instructors dealing with the Qur’an in their courses haveimproved in recent yearswith the completion of Jane DammenMcAuliffe’sEncyclopaedia of the Qur’an (Brill: 2001-06) and Cambridge Companionto the Qur’an (Cambridge University Press: 2006) and Andrew Rippin’sBlackwell Companion to the Qur’an (Balckwell: 2006). But however usefulthe collected articles of these works are, new students of the Qur’anoften respond more enthusiastically to such narrative approaches as thevignettes in Bruce Lawrence’s The Qur’an: A Biography (AtlanticMonthlyPress: 2007). The more integrated narrative approach of Ingrid Mattson’sThe Story of the Qur’an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life provides anew accessible introduction to the Qur’an and its history. Mattson illuminatesthe perspectives of believers and critical historical scholarship bytelling the story of the continuities and ruptures in the reception, transmission,and interpretation of the Qur’an among diverse communities inchanging historical contexts ...
An Apology
Authors: Usman Azhar
Published: October 2020

On September 11th, 2008, while countless American flags whipped inthe wind and the television and radio waves were dominated by remembrances,recordings, and stories about the terror attacks of seven years ago,I attended the funeral of ImamW.D.Mohammed (may God be pleased withhim). Forme, it was a somber day, but I found myselfmostly lost in thought:about African-American Muslim communities, about the challenges aheadin American Muslim institution-building, and about the future of Islam inAmerica. If you don’t know who ImamWDMwas, you should look him up.The Sufis say: “The true sage belongs to his era.” And of the many giftsgiven to ImamWDM by God, perhaps the most obvious and beneficial onewas the Imam’s profound understanding of the principles of religion, and hisadeptness at intelligently applying those Islamic principles in a socially andculturally appropriate manner befitting the everyday lives of his NorthAmerican followers. While carefully respecting sound, traditional jurisprudentialmethodologies of the Islamic religion, and the collective religioushistory and time-honored scholarship of classical Islam, he promulgated creativeideas and dynamic teachings across many domains of human endeavor,including theology, law, spirituality and even ethics and aesthetics, thattogether articulated a vision for a quintessentially “American Muslim” cultural identity. And he did all of this before anyone else, with quiet strengthand unending humility – a true sage indeed ...