bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Islam and Economic Development
Authors: Khan Shujaat A.
Published: December 2020

Islam and Economic Development is another intellectual contributionby M. Umer Chapra, a well-known Muslim social scientist and author ofToward a Just Monetary System and Islam and the Economic Challenge.He has been devoting time, energy, and experience to the cause of Islamizationof knowledge, and this work, which shares much in theme, tone,and territory with his earlier works, reflects his deep commitment anddedication to a painstaking task. This thought-provoking book, whichoffers a global and integrative perspective of the phenomenon of developmentwithin the framework of an Islamic worldview, is divided into sixchapters, preceded by the author’s preface and a foreword by Zafar IshaqAnsari, and followed by notes and refelences, a bibliography, and anindex.Chapter 1, “The Kind of Development,” initiates the discussion of thebook’s general theme by presenting the issue of development in terms ofgoals and the strategies employed to realize those goals. The two basicgoals-efficiency and equity-are defined within the Islamic concept ofjust development, which is derived from the concepts of tawW (theoneness and unity of God), khikifah (the vicegerency of human beings), and 'adalah (justice)The terms “efficiency” and “equity,” as defined on page 8, needfurther explanation, especially when the authm has discussed the importantanalytical issue of the optimality and the maximization of the twovariables. Moreover, the concept of khilafah (state) and the two basicgoals that it seeks to achieve, ‘adalah (justice) and falah (general well-being),could have been better linked to the time basic pillars of Islam:tawhid, risalah (prophethood), and dkhirah (the hereafter).Chaptet 2, ”Can Secularism Foster Just Development?,” features developmentstmtegies of the two prominent secular systems: the freemarket system and the socialist system. Chapra points out that thereallocation of nsources cannot be realized within the value-neutralframework of secular systems. He notes that the ftee market system,which is based on the concept of self-intenst, cannot motivate people toact in the interest of society. He shows the futility of the Swirling pattern ...
Law, Culture, and Human Rights
Authors: Mattson Ingrid
Published: December 2020

This conference, unfortunately, lacked focus and direction. Theconference brochure and posters were the first indication that distressingleaps of association were going to be made. One wondered why, forexample, Malcolm X, Yasser Arafat, and Saddam Hussein were picturedon the brochure when their actions and ideas were in no way related toanything disclls.5ed in the conference. And why was a picture of a jubilantHanan Ashrawi set beside a miserable looking woman in a black chador?This crass visual melange of "Islamic" figures would not have been sosignificant if the conference had been more focused, but this was not thecase. Still, there were a number of interesting debates and discussions.The inclusion of a panel of medievalists was one strange feature ofthe conference. While Joseph van Ess's paper on the role of the individualin medieval Islamic culture was intensting, it was anachronistic ina conference on contemporary human rights. As I listened to Michaelcook's talk on "al 'Amr bi al Ma'ruf and Human Rights" (from amedieval perspective), I recalled a statement by an Exeter scholar thatorientalists mlize fundamentalists' wildest dreams when they leap backa thousand years to explain current events. It is hard enough to deal withMuslims who want to reinstate a medieval political order without havingCook offer a few of his own suggestions ...
Editorial
Authors: AbuSulayman ‘AbdulHamid
Published: December 2020

In this issue of AJISS, we present four main research articles. In acritique of modernist synthesis in Islamic thought, M. A. Choudhurysets the horizon for his inquiry with this question: Is there a possibilityfor the unification of knowledge in modernist epistemological comprehension?This is, of course, a pivotal question for Muslim socialscientists, for whom social and epistemological theories are the mainconcern. What prompted this line of inquiry from a small butgrowing body of Muslim theorists was their realization of theconflictive and dichotomous nature of the dominant westerntheoretical constructs. Of equal importance is the ubiquitous andprofound sense of crisis that has afflicted the human soul and life inthe postindustrial age.For more than a century, Muslim ulama, intellectuals, andreformists statesmen could discern no alternative to the adoption ofwestern sciences and, subsequently, its concepts of social order andknowledge. What was simply seen as a benign synthesis betweenIslam and modernity led to the obscuring of the taw&& traditions andworldview, as well as to the hindering of the possible emergence ofan alternative route for humanity’s future.Choudhury’s focus on theory is met with Mawdudur Rahman’sconcerns about reality. In his endeavor to provide a holistic analysisof Islamic education, however, Rahman strictly avoids separationbetween what is theoretical, moral, and normative on the one hand,and what is practical, worldly, and positivist on the other.Also in this issue, Taha J. al ‘Alwani concludes his study of therights of the accused in Islam. Our hope is that he has succeeded inbringing to light the relevance of the Islamic fish heritage to contemporaryIslamic societies, as the debate over civil and human rights hasintensified significantly. In another sphere of inquiry, Shahid Vawdamakes a substantial contribution to the understanding of anthropologicalaspects of the spread of Islam in a South African township ...
The Emerging of Islam in an African Township
Authors: Vawda Shahid
Published: December 2020

IntroductionWhile Islam is a fairly dominant religion in Africa, it is verysmall and has been treated as insignificant in southern Africa. Forexample Trimingham, in his survey of the phases of Islamic expansionin Africa, makes the dismissive comment: “Islam’s penetrationinto central and south Africa is so slight that it may be ignored."The presence of Muslims in South Africa, albeit a small percentageof the total population, cannot easily be ignored in terms of theirsocial, economic, and political contribution to the country as individuals,as members of an ethnic group, or as a religious minority. Apartheid has not only prompted a diverse set of responses fromMuslim organizations,s but the political and social events of the lasttwenty years have influenced conversion rates among the nominallyChristian African majority. Although there have been academicattempts to analyze the implications of some of these phenomena.there has been no ethnographic research at a local level to understandhow events in the sociopolitical arena shaped proselytizing work, theconversion process, and the interethnic relationships of the Muslims.This paper, based on ethnographic research in the townships ofKwaMashu-Ntuzuma-Inanda, located near Durban, is a contributiontoward understanding the position of African Muslims. The paper islimited to data collected during the latter half of 1992 and early 1993 ...
Islamic Resurgence and Western Reaction
Authors: Chaudhary Mohammad Akram , Berdine Michael D.
Published: December 2020

Islam is an ideology and a world religion with more than onebillion adherents spread around the globe (Kettani 1986). I Muslimsare a majority in more than forty-five countries from Africa toSoutheast Asia. Their populations continue to grow, as do the Muslimpopulations in the former Soviet Union, China, India, Europe, andthe United States. Islam seeks the evolution of a social structure basedon the concept of the unity of mankind and comprised of individualswho are ·living moral and spiritual lives. It seeks to build a transnationalsociety in which such narrow loyalties as color, race, and soon are negated, in which complete submission to the will of Allah isdisplayed, and in which Muhammad is the model to follow in dailyaffairs and is recognized as the chief interpreter of revelation.Denny (1993, 345) introduces Islam as "a vigorous, complexamalgam of peoples, movements, and goals, and not the monolithic,centrally coordinated, hostile enterprise that outsiders sometimesassume it to be." Muslim society is further characterized as having thecapacity to resolve any changes, new situations or problems facingthe ummah through the application of ijtihad. In the ever-changingsociocultural and socioeconomic conditions, it is ijtihad that preventsfossilization and precludes the development of stereotypes withinIslam. With ijtihad, Islam has the inherent capacity to address andrespond to change while still following the teachings of the Qur'anand the Prophet. Thus the term "fundamentalism," with its nonMuslimorigin in early twentieth century Protestant Christianity, hasno place in, and is therefore irrelevant to, the Islamic schema. This isnot only because of the specifically Christian heritage and nature ofthe term, but also because of the derogatory and negative undertonesthat have been attached to it. The term "Islamic fundamentalism" is,in fact, an oxymoron, for one cannot be a Muslim if one does notadhere to the fundamentals of Islam. Denny (ibid., 345-46) writes: ...
The Word of Islam
Authors: Nourallah Riad
Published: December 2020

Anthologies have been known to string together mangled piecesof writing in ways reminiscent of a tanner's drying rack or a horrorfilm studio's collection of gory rubber limbs and masks. But thereseems to be little disparity, disjunction, or morbidity in Professor Williams'sbook, his second major attempt to "let Islam speak for itself."The first was the seminal Islam, which came out in 1961 and brokenew ground as well as a few fetters. The new endeavor sets out tooffer the faith (and the culture associated with it) a better-tuned mikeat a time when the dominant world media is busy blackening its nameand reputation. Of course, even with the best of intentions, the task ofintroducing Islam in capsule form, its own essential simplicitynotwithstanding, is both impossible and unfair. The editor, however,is alive to the predicament and recognizes that Islam, like "every greatreligion," is akin to an "ocean, with many bays, inlets, and unplumbedareas." In essence, "we can only come to it, smell it, taste it,touch it, observe what thrives there, and listen to its many moods."The sentiment may betray an outsider's perspective, but it isrefreshingly honest and respectful. Moreover, it is the product of along engagement with and pondering over such pedagogic issues as"how one may most effectively and practically study Islam." Noshort-cut, not even a good anthology, is recommended. Rather,read the texts which convey its tradition in as wide a range asone can. An original text is worth more than many words ofexplanation. Go to the sources and listen to voices that haverung with authority for generations, that Muslims have recognized,and use only enough introductory material to set thevoice in its context.Some may argue whether presenting translated extracts from thebasic Islamic canon to a modern and arguably hostile or misinformedaudience requires ample commentary. But the editor, in addition tohis main concern of presenting that canon in meaningful digest form,takes care to demarcate the territory between ancient and modem. Bethat as it may, to a large degree he succeeds in choosing (and translating)highly pertinent and interrelated excerpts as well as in introducingthem with conciseness and clarity, erudition and sympathy ...
The Arab World
Authors: Ghadbian Najib
Published: December 2020

This book has an ambitious and comprehensive goal: to analyzethe degenerate contemporary condition of the Arab nation and thenpresent a “theory of action,” a vision to transcend the current state ofdecline and continue the process of nahdah. Barakat’s proposedapproach to the analysis of Arab society is one that he characterizes asdynamic (treating society as changing rather than static), dialectical(emphasizing social contradictions and class struggle), and critical(aimed at transforming the status quo). He treats the Arab world as asingle unit rather than as a number of nation-states. The emphasis onsociety rather than political entity does not negate his cognizance thatthe Arab world has the potential for both unity and divisiveness.Barakat arranges his analysis into three sections: Arab identity andissues of diversity and integration, social structures and institutions(i.e., family, social classes, religion, and Arab politics), and thedynamics of Arab culture.In his diagnosis of the Arab world’s maladies, Barakat offersinteresting and useful insights. In making room for these insights, heblasts orientalist discourse for its “static and mosaic’’ portrait of theArab world and presents a more cogent analysis of Arab reality. Infact, most orientalists do not acknowledge the existence of the Arabworld, but speak rather of a “Middle East” that contains a dizzyingarray of religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups. They characterize theArab part of this region as hopelessly divided, culturally inferior, andunable to modernize. Barakat points out that orientalists contradictthemselves when they speak of both the divided nature of Arabsociety and the existence of an “Arab mind” or mentality. Moreover,most orientalist “scholarship” explains resistance to change amongArabs in terms of cultural attitudes, thereby ignoring the prevailingrelationship of dependency and the socioeconomic and political contextsof this resistance. Such assertions “reveal the animosity towardArabs (and especially toward Muslims) that underlies many scholarlypretensions” (p. 22). Barakat cleverly exposes the agenda behind suchscholarship: the justification of Israel’s existence and the preservationof the status quo under Zionist and western hegemony ...
The Search for God's Law
Authors: DeLorenzo Yusuf Talal
Published: December 2020

When one works in the field of Shari'ah studies, a field widelyperceived as holding little excitement (for those who pursue careers init and for those who don't), one rarely encounters a book that sendsone into the poetic ecstasy of a Keats, for example, on the occasion ofhis first looking into Chapman's Homer. Nonetheless, in any intellectualenterprise there are joys that perhaps only the initiated, so tospeak, may truly share. In fact, in the field of Shari'ah studies, as inmany of the fields related to the study of classical Islamic disciplines,the esoteric delights to be tasted these days are many, particularly inview of the continual stream of carefully edited works from theclassical period ... especially when so many of them were believedlost, eaten by worms in some dreary desert setting or sent tumblingtoward eternity in the bloody waters of the Tigris when Baghdad wasoverrun by Mongol hordes. But, to return to the present, it is certainlynot everyday that something really significant happens in the field. InThe Search for God's Law, that significant something has happened.Less than a decade ago, a distinguished western scholar lamentedin the Journal of the American Oriental Society that "despite the greatinterest shown in U$iil al fiqh by Orientalists throughout the world, nogeneral and systematic work dealing with this most important Islamic ...
A Critique of Akhtar’s Model of an Economic Economy
Authors: Khan Shujaat Ali
Published: December 2020

In an article entitled “Modelling the Economic Growth of anIslamic Economy,”l M. Ramazan Akhtar presented a mathematicalmodel that subjects Allahs attributes to measurement and underminesthe cause of the Islamization of knowledge, which he intended toserve. In his article, there are several flaws, mistakes, and inconsistenciesthat deserve comment and criticism. This paper has examinedcritically Akhtar’s model and found it to be neither informative norpredictive. Before presenting the critique, however, I would like tocomment on some of the general weaknesses of the article.In the opening paragraph (p. 491), Akhtar says: “Growth dependson several factors, among them a consistent increase in the amount ofphysical goods and services produced over a given period of time.This is usually taken as an index of economic growth.” Although economicgrowth is defined and measured by the increase in the amountof goods and services produced over a given period of time, it doesnot imply that the former depends on the latter. There is no cause andeffect relationship between the two.In his “Review of the Literature” (p. 492), Akhtar makes a generalstatement that Muslim economists use the terms “economic growth”and “economic development” interchangeably. The economic literaturethat has been produced since the early 1960s makes a clear distinctionbetween these two terms and views economic growth as anecessary, but not a sufficient, condition for economic development(Clower 1966). Most Muslim economists hold this mainstream view.If there are still some using the terms interchangeably, they are theexceptions.In the second paragraph on page 495, Akhtar gives an Englishtranslation of Qur’an 39:9. In fact, this is a translation of 41:10-aserious mistake and not a typographical error.The last paragraph on page 491 reads: “The hypothesis is examinedtheoretically because statistical data for empirical analysis is not available.”But at the end of this paragraph, he asserts: “Analytical resultsshow that moral factors make a positive contribution to both income ...
Divine Madness
Authors: Jalloh Alusine
Published: December 2020

This book is a welcome addition to the few book-length biographiesof important African historical figures. The study, which consists of anintroduction and six chapters, offers a fresh and balanced perspective onone of Africa's most controversial nationalists: Mohammed AbdulleHassan, the mullah of present-day Somalia. Not only is he relevant tounderstanding modem Somali nationalism, but he also occupies a significantrole in the wider context of African resistance to western imperialism.In brief, he represents the clash between Islamic and western values incolonial Africa.Divine Madness begins with an examination of the early, colonial,and contemporary literature on the subject in various languages. In fact,one of its strengths is the author's use of a variety of foreign and indigenoussources. Sheik-Abdi draws extensively on archival and documentarydata in Italian, Arabic, English, French, and Somali. Moreover, heincorporates oral accounts from Somalis to complement his archivaland documentary research, a method that enhances the indigenous perspectiveon Mohammed Abdulle Hassan and his activities in the Hornof Africa.In addition, the author presents, in the first and second chapters, anoverview of Somaliland in its historical context. This serves as the backgroundin recounting Hassan’s life and times. Along with a detailedexamination of the Cushitic inhabitants of Somaliland, Sheik- Abdi discussesthe background to the mullah-led Dervish uprising by focusing onthe European colonization of Somaliland and its attendant problems.Perhaps the main response of the colonized Cushitic people to westernimperialism was a deeper and more intense commitment to Islam andpan-Islamic unity, which brought about religious militancy and revivalism ...
National Seminar on Muslims and Islamic Scholarship in Twentieth Century Nigeria
Authors: Aliyu Chika Umar
Published: December 2020

This seminar was organized by the Center for Islamic Studies (CIS),Usmanu Danfodiyo University (UDU), Sokoto, Nigeria. Many importantpersonalities and academics of merit attended. The main theme wasdivided into seven subthemes: Islamic scholarship in modem Nigeria, intellectualcontributions of notable Muslim scholars, Muslim relationswith non-Muslims, Muslim religious groups and national unity, the influenceof foreign Muslims on Muslims in Nigeria, contemporary innovation(bidah) and the challenge of Islam, and Muslims and religiouspractices.Twenty-two papers were presented. During the opening ceremony,speeches were made by Zayyanu Abdullahi (vice-chancellor of UsmanuDanfodiyo University) and Sambo W. Junaid (director, Center of IslamicStudies, Usmanu Danfodiyo University). The paper by Colonel YakubuMu’azu (governor of Sokoto State) was delivered by his representative,Muhammad Lawa Maude (commissioner for works, housing, and environment).The representative of Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki (sultan of Sokoto)Magajin Rafi of Sokoto also attended the opening ceremony.In the first session, M. G. Maitafsir (Faculty of Education, UDU) presented“Islamic Scholarship in Nigeria Today: A Way Forward.” He discussedthe problem facing Islamic scholarship and offered solutions. BelloD. Bada (Department of Modem European Languages, UDU), speakingon “The Role of Hausa Proverbs in the Propagation of Islam in Nigeria,”explained how some Hausa proverbs containing codes of “do’s” and“don’t’s” similar to Islam help to establish the Islamic faith and practices.Habib al Hassan (Translation Bureau UNESCO, UDU), in his “TheKnowledge of HisLsb and Its Teachers in Hausaland (1900-1914),” pointedout that many Nigerian scholars specialize in this area. In a similar paper,“How Hisab is Performed in Hausaland (1900-1914),” he showed throughfigures and illustrations how mathematics is mixed with magic to find certainhidden facts and to perform certain good or bad actions ...
Islamists and Women in the Arab World
Authors: Ghadbian Najib
Published: December 2020

IntroductionBroadly speaking, contemporary discourse assumes that Islamists arebad for women. Any gain in Islamist political influence is considered adisastrous regression in women’s human rights. At a time when the movementto put women’s rights on the international human rights agenda-avaluable movement indeed-seems on the brink of joining the group ofworld and regional powers targeting Islamists as the next great threat tohumanity, it is urgent that Islamists formulate a strong and just analysisof the gender issue.While the stereotypical view of Islamists, like most stereotypes, hassome basis, it is, as are all stereotypes, completely inadequate for understandingthe issue. The fact that one can locate a Saudi shaykh, anEgyptian imam, or a young Algerian militiaman who is unmistakablymisogynistic does not provide the key to understanding the entire rangeof Islamist views on gender roles or the implications for women of risingIslamist influence. The indictment of Islamists as oppressive to womenemerges from the context of western hegemonic power in the world anddeploys the language of women’s liberation to justify political and economicassaults against contemporary Islamist states and political forces.The problem is that women do face oppressive conditions in the Muslimworld, as do their counterparts in the West, but these are different fromthe oppressive conditions imagined and constructed for Muslim womenfrom a western frame of reference ...
An Islamic Perspective on Organizational Motivation
Authors: Abdel Rahman Abdel Rahman Ahmad
Published: December 2020

Organizations are an indispensable part of our lives, for they provideservices for satisfying our basic needs. Central to any organization's performanceis the motivation of its members. Indeed, organizational motivationis related closely to some fundamental questions in organizationtheory in particular and to public administration in general. Such questionsfocus on how organizations can be made efficient and responsiveor accountable to their clients. Since organizations are simply humancollectivities, in essence these questions apply to organizational membersand, in particular, to what motivates them to be efficient and responsive.Although various models of organization have addressed, eitherimplicitly or explicitly, the question of motivation in organizations, theyhave yet to come up with satisfactory answers. The significance of organizationalmotivation does not consist of its close relationship to the fundamentalquestions of organizational efficiency and responsiveness alone,but also of its relevance to how organizations are structured. As this latterconsideration may affect such concepts as human dignity, freedom,respect, brotherhood, and justice, this is tantamount to saying that organizationalstructures are not morally or spiritually neutral, inasmuch as thesevalues have moral and spiritual roots.Organizational structures are founded on certain underlyingassumptions about human nature and motivation that underpin severalprincipal organization models. One common characteristic of thesemodels is the assumption that the individual has certain self-centeredneeds that govern his/her behavior and that the organization can, by satisfyingthese needs, motivate the individual to contribute towards the ...
Editorial
Authors: Nafi Basheer
Published: December 2020

This issue of AJISS provides a multidimensional perspective of today’sIslamic intellectual experience. What seems to contribute markedly to theshaping of this experience is the ongoing creative process of integrating thecontemporary with the historical and the particular with the universal. TheMuslims’ commitment to humanity’s persistent struggle for meaning andharmony is, in essence, deeply linked to their belonging to the social anddiscursive manifestations of the Islamic historical epoch.Similarly evident is that neither studying Islam nor seeking the constructionof an Islamic view of our times can be conducted coherently withoutinvoking human history and intellectual achievements located outsideof the traditionally defined boundaries of the Islamic intellectual venture.Examples abound. Western epistemological tools and concepts are nowused widely, with little hesitation, by an increasing number of Muslimsocial scientists. On another level, the emergence of world global systemshas left its imprint on the Muslims’ perceptions of universal justice. Theinfluences of non-Muslim suffering and struggle are becoming part of theMuslim consciousness. In a startling reflection of this development, thetragic history of Native Americans has recently been sought as an allegoricalwell-spring by Arab anti-imperialist poets. For Islam and the world,despite many pitfalls and dangers, this process of integration is ultimatelybound to transfer the Muslims’ worldview to an era that is fundamentallydisctinctive from the preceding “centuries of the Islamic experience.”Charles Hirschkind’s “Heresy or Hermeneutics: The Case of NasrHamid Abu Zayd” provides a lucid example of how modem Islamic intellectualismand its image, the discipline of Islamic studies, are predicated ona wide variety of sources, whether historical or contingent, traditional orotherwise. The case of Abu Zayd and his prolonged conflict with Islamiccircles in Egypt has been of particular interest to the western and Arab secularmedia alike. Emerging from the halls of the University of Cairo, thecontentious debate surrounding his ideas has marched all the way to theEgyptian judiciary. But Hirschkind is not a judge, and AJISS is not a courtroom.The focus here is on “the contrastive notions of reason and history,” ...
Why Muhammad?
Authors: Hofmann Murad Wilfried
Published: December 2020

God‘s reasoning is unfathomable. Nevertheless, not only orientalistsbut Muslims are well-advised to ponder on occasion questions linked tothe Night of Destiny (laylut al qadr): Why, of all people, was Muhammad,a person who lived in Arabia, of all places, and in the seventh centuryC.E., chosen to deliver God‘s final message in Arabic, a heretoforeobscure language in the larger world of that time? In our quest foranswers to such questions, human reasoning may provide the followinganswers:1) Seventh-century Arabia could not be reached by the power projectionof the region’s two dominant hegemonical states. The Christian(east) Roman empire of Heraclius I and the Iranian empire of theSasanian Shah Chosraw II Parwez were completely absorbed in an ongoingstruggle that would ultimately turn out to be fatal for both of them.The dualist Persian religions of Mithraism and Manichaeism had beenconsolidated into the official state religion of Zoroastrianism. Bothempires would not have tolerated a new religion that, like Islam, couldhave shaken their very foundations. Only in the far distant and obscureland of Arabia could a new ideological state-community arise and consolidateitself before either of the two neighboring superpowers had achance to intervene.2) Arabia enjoyed a central geostrategic position with regard to theknown world at that time, being at a similar distance from Morocco andChina as well as England and Japan. Muslim expansion was greatlyfacilitated by the fact that in geographical terms, Islam was never marginal.3) At that point in time, the languages of commerce and intellectualdiscourse-Latin, Greek, Persian, and Hebrewhad become solinked and interwoven as media for the transportation and interpretationof previous divine relations that they were now unsuitable for the newIslamic message. In order to bring about a theological revolution, particularlyin the Christianized world, the Qur’anic message required avirginal language. We see how true this assessment is when we consulta translation of the Qur’an made by Christian orientalists. Wheneverthey encounter terms like al kulimut, al amr, or al ruh (al quddus) they ...
The Plight of Islam in Europe
Authors: Horvath John
Published: December 2020

With the cold war officially “over,” political scientists are busy settingthe stage for the next pattern of conflict. Cold war ideology, best describedas “a perpetual war for perpetual peace,” has left an unexpected vacuumin world politics. With the post-cold war world order more unstable anddangerous than at any time since the end of the Second World War, manyin the West find themselves struggling with an identity crisis. The goldenage that was to arise from the defeat of communism has not come-oneither side of the Iron Curtain-and prospects for world peace are moreunlikely now than at any time during the cold war. In order to come toterms with this bankruptcy of present-day foreign policy, western societyhas begun to search for pariahs. As Kunstler observes, “it seems that theAmerican public perennially needs identifiable villains to stimulate itsgastric juices.” Consequently, Islam and Muslims have become the latesttarget.Unlike previous enemies and opponents, which were based onnation-states and stimulated through nationalism and calls for patriotism,today’s “evil empire” is based on civilizations and fueled byracism. According to Huntington, “the fault lines between civilizationswill be the battle lines of the future.” Hence Islam is seen as a distinctthreat. The cultural fault lines between Islamic civilization and other civilizationsaround the world, from the Balkans and the bulge of Africa toCentral Asia, are considered the most violent and unstable areas onearth. In Huntington’s words, “Islam has bloody borders.”’ Such a viewof Islam and Islamic civilization as something cancerous to global stabilityis a perfect replacement for the former enemy and its ideology: theex-Soviet Union and communism. Once again, the American (and westem)military-industrial complex can justify the continued need to producearms while “defense” budgets continue to divert monies fromsocial expenditures.In Europe, as elsewhere, there is a basic misunderstanding of whatIslam is and represents. Stereotypes of “Muslim terrorists” have permeatedsociety. Anyone with a beard and/or a dark complexion is often treated assuspect. Muslims are generally seen as fanatics, worshipping the likes ofAyatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein and wanting nothing more in lifethan to kill Salman Rushdie. While many Westerners consider Muslims tobe fundamentalists, Muslims can view Westerners as being just as ...
Islamic Banking in Pakistan
Authors: Khan Shujaat A.
Published: December 2020

The book under review is a revised edition of Muhammad AkramKhan's Islamic Banking in Pakistan. In this slender yet eloquent volumethe author, who has many other published works in the field of Islamiceconomics and finance to his credit, examines a cornerstone of governmentpolicy during the early 1980s: the Islamization of banking inPakistan. He gives a candid and coherent account of this major development and asserts that it failed because of the lukewarm attitudes of theadministration and political leadership as well as because of the pervertedoutlook of the bureaucrats, elites, and bankers. In the final analysis, hesuggests some concrete measures that are designed to help policy makersand strategists in reconstructing the financial institutions within the frameworkof Islamic laws. The subject matter of this book has been dividedinto six chapters, which are preceded by Muzaffar Hussain's preface andfollowed by concluding remarks, endnotes, an exhaustive bibliography,and an index.In chapter one, Akram provides an historical overview of the processof Islamization of banking, makes some important observations, anddraws logical conclusions. He points out that the Council of IslamicIdeology, a constitutional body consisting of scholars of all shades andschools of thought, categorically prohibited interest (riba) in all of itsvarious forms. However, no sincere effort was ever made by the governmentto eliminate interest and to build an interest-free economy. Theprocess of Islamization, which was initiated in the early 1980s andslowed down during the latter part of the decade, finally came to a completehalt in early 1992. The government, instead of invigorating theIslamization process, filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against theShari'ah Court's decision calling for the abolition of all interest-basedactivities by June 1992.In chapter two, the author goes to the roots of the problem andshows that a lack of political will was the single most important factorcausing the systematic failure of this experiment in Pakistan. He showsthe futility of inconsistent policies and inappropriate strategies pursuedby the State Bank of Pakistan, such as allowing banks to continueinterest-based operations side by side with interest-free activities.Given freedom of choice, banks and other financial institutions showeda much higher interest in such interest-based financing techniques asmark-up and buy-back agreements and little or no interest in suchmodes of finance as musharakah, mudarabah, and ijarah, all of whichare based on Islamic principles associated with profit-loss sharing. Heobserves that the situation was aggravated further when the governmentexcluded the management of public finance from the jurisdictionof the Shari‘ah court and continued its own interest-based activities asusual ...
Al Ghazali between Philosophy and Sufism
Authors: Ceylan Yasin
Published: December 2020

Al Ghazali embarked on his investigation of four different schools ofthought that were influential in his time-BaJinism, theology, philosophy,and Sufism’-in order to find truth in them. The first three did not satisfyhim, while Sufism provided him the truth for which he had been searching.There have always been notable Sufis of varied backgroundsthroughout the history of Islamic thought. Whereas most of them receivedthe traditional education, some had so much interest in logic and philosophythat they pursued these fields in depth. However, none of them penetratedinto these sciences as far as al Ghazali, who acquired an intimateknowledge of both philosophy and theology.Of all of the theologians who penetrated philosophy so deeply, nonebut al Ghazali managed to escape its harmful impact and, after masteringit, refute it. Many previous intellectuals had attacked philosophy from theviewpoint of religious or other convictions, but none were as original andinfluential as al Ghazali. Their arguments against philosophy were nottaken seriously, for they were unable to use philosophical terminologyproperly and could hardly grasp the meanings of the various complicatedand abstract arguments.However, al Ghazali’s case is completely different. His rejection ofphilosophy and his status as the author of such philosophical works as TheIntentions of the Philosophers and The Inconsistency of the Philosophers,which rank high in the Islamic version of Peripatetic philosophy, are milestones.The contents of these two books have been subjected to frequentdistortion by various factions: Theologians hailed these works as representingthe victory of religious faith over philosophical thinking, whileintellectuals inclined toward philosophy considered them to be examplesof sheer antagonism toward philosophy in general. However, this case isnot so trivial that it can be exploited by a scholar-jurist or so shallow andlacking in depth that it can be considered “a prejudicial act against philosophy”by a mediocre philosopher.Al Ghazali himself discloses why he was frustrated by philosophyin his quest for truth and why he chose to adopt Sufism instead. Hisaccount may be summed up as follows: His disillusionment with philosophywas, derived from its destructive effect on the fundamentals ofreligion, while his attraction to Sufism was rooted in the fact that ethicalrefinement and the purification of the soul were necessary conditionsin this discipline ...
Promises of the Modern Scientific Search for Human Nature's Multifaceted Soul
Authors: Dhaouadi Mahmoud
Published: December 2020

Since time immemorial, hwnan beings have sought to understand theessence of human nature. One well-known explanation-human nature isdualistic, body and soul, and composed of organic and spiritual dimensions-has not ended the debate over subissues that proceed from the mainconcept of hwnan nature. Our concern here is how the spirit and the bodyinfluence each other. As modem knowledge and science are far from havingthe last word in this domain, the perplexity of human nature continuesto engage the attention of philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, and scientists.In real terms, nothing has changed in our dualistic human natureexcept its labeled names.In general, modem psychologists have come to see the dualism ofhuman nature in its innate/learned dimensions. Some modem philosophershave stuck by the asserted dualism of hwnan nature, making only slightmodifications concerning its spirit/body duality. For them, human natureconsists of a body/mind dualism.' Modem scientists have also tried to solvethe riddle of human nature's puzzling dualism. Behavioral psychologistshave sought to eliminate entirely, or at least as much as possible, the innatestate (the inner, spiritual dimension) of our dualistic human nature, with theresult that they view the latter as no more than a mere reflection of theexternal environment(s). In a similar manner, the French sociologist EmileDurkheim has oriented his own sociology toward the concept of /es fairssociau.x, which he believed to be the only forces that one needed to considerwhen explaining human behavior. His resulting perspective bears astrong resemblance to behaviorism, for both desire to eliminate the innate,the psychological, and the spiritual side of human nature.Contrary to Durkheim's rigid social determinism and behaviorism'snarrow S-R, sociologists have emphasized the importance of humannature's innate biogenetic2 factors and how they shape and determinehuman behavior. For them, the social behavior of human and nonhumanliving beings can be explained by biogenetic determinants. For example,the practice of not marrying one's very close relatives can be seen as a result ...
Science in the Islamic Polity in the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Nadeem Khurshid Ahmad
Published: December 2020

This conference was a rare occasion for Muslim scientists and scholarsto assemble and discuss the challenges facing the ummah. Inauguratedby Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, the president of Pakistan, the conferenceconsisted of fifty papers presented in eight inaugural and plenary sessions.The issues discussed were of both theoretical and practical import.The theoretical papers focused on such questions as the nature and significanceof science, the concept of Islamic science, and Islamic epistemology.According to Ziauddin Sardar, who gave the public lecture "IslamicScience: The Way Ahead," science is a highly complex and multilayeredactivity, forno single and simple description of science can reveal its truenature; no romantic ideal can describe its real character; no sweepinggeneralization can uncover its authentic dimensions. In particular,both the extreme positions of scientific fundamentalism andfundamentalist relativism are untenable.He stated that science has been under the influence of the dominantwestern paradigm and that the selection of research priorities is of fundamentalimportance in scientific research, for "often it is the source of fundingthat defines what problem is to be investigated.'' Some 80 percent ofAmerican research is funded by the "military-industrial complex" and isgeared to producing military and industrial equipment.As modem science is based on western values and the priority given toscientific investigation is determined by western requirements, sciencemust be indigenized. Muslim countries have a valuable and untapped reservoirof knowledge and experience. so such an indigenization would be likea rediscovery. But this process, Sardar maintains, "must begin by a rejectionof both the axioms about nature, universe, time, and humanity as wella5 the goals and direction of western science and the methodology whichhac; made meaningless reductionism, objectification of nature, and tortureof animals its basic approach." By Islamic science he means a scientificactivity pursued within the framework of a set of fundamental Islamic concepts.Sardar supports the concepts, identified by Muslim scientists at theStockholm Seminar (1981), that should shape the science policies ofMuslim societies: tawhid (unity), khiliifah (trusteeship), 'ihiidah (worship), ...
Intellectual Origins of Islamic Resurgence in the Modern Arab World
Authors: Smith Charles D.
Published: December 2020

Most studies of Islamist resurgence have focused on specific aspects ofthe Islamist political agenda and have sought to identify their intellectualroots in the writings of thinkers from the medieval period of Islamic history.Influenced by Iran’s Islamic revolution, these authors have been concernedprimarily with political Islam. It is rare to find a book that seeks to establishmodem Islamist thought within the context of western critical theoryand indigenous political conditions, or that explains its ideas in light of aconflict between revolutionary discourse and state hegemony. Abu-Rabi”sbook is thus all the more welcome, as it establishes a basis for considerationof Islamist thinkers that will be an essential reference in the fbtwx.The subject of this book is the thought of Sayyid Qqtb, consideredwithin the parameters of Islamic modernism, westernization, orientalism,and the contemporary Islamist response to these factors. Abu-Rabi‘ says heis undertaking an intellectual history of his subject, that of “a popular religiousmovement . . . founded by lay Muslim intellectuals” often at oddswith the traditional political and religious elites. But he considers this questionin light of the “question of continuity and discontinuity in modem Arabthought.” Influenced by Foucault, he argues that the question of epistemologicalacts and thresholds, of conceptual ruptures in the development ofideas, must be countered by the reality of continuities in Islamic thought,by the fact of an ongoing Islamic discourse whose exposition may changeaccording to historical circumstances but whose essence and focus of concernremain constant (pp. 5-6).The idea of continuity and discontinuity is a valuable method for consideringvarious themes in Arab thought, ranging from the liberal thinkersof the nuhdah (renaissance) to both secular and religious Arab responses tothe challenge of colonization and the question of how best could Arab-Islamic societies survive foreign occupation. Essential here is the questionof Arab Muslim “decline,” how and why it occurred, and how this declinemay be reversed. Abu-Rabi‘ surveys a variety of Muslim thinkers to positthree approaches to the relevance of Islamic tradition to the resolution ofthe problem of decline: the rejection of tradition in favor of intellectualstimulus from the West; a conservative approach calling for the “revival of ...
The Resurgence of Central Asia
Authors: Ahrari M. Ehsan
Published: December 2020

As Boris Yeltsin's ruthless suppression of Chechnya's struggle forindependence becomes one more item in a series of turbulent and bloodyevents involving Russia and some of the republics of the former Sovietunion and the former Yugoslavia, Ahmad Rashid's The Resurgence ofCentral Asia: Islam or Nationalism grows in significance for students ofthat region. The author is a Pakistani journalist with a vast knowledge ofthe area. He has utilized effectively his many travels to the region in developingan authoritative history of Central Asia.Rashid shifts gears back and forth in history quite effectively in thisstudy to make his points. For instance, in the first chapter he notes that"much of the world's ancient history originated in Central Asia, for it wasthe birthplace of the great warrior tribes that conquered Russia, India, andChina" (p. 8). Also note his following observation: "Central Asia hasalways been different At the heart of Central Asia is not the story of princesand their courts, but the story of the nomad and his horse" (p. 9). In thesame chapter, he quotes a Turkoman foreign ministry official's concern,expressed to him in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's implosion to theeffect that "the future is extremely bleak. The West will help Russia andother Slav republics to survive, but who will help us?" (p. 4). This book isreplete with such examples. The first chapter contains a condensed versionof the " great game" between the two colonial powers of the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries: Russia and Britain.Russia underwent two major revolutions in the twentieth century: onein 1917 and the second in 1991. The first revolution, bloody as it was, ...