bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On Others as Evil
Authors: Butterworth Charles E.
Published: December 2020

The first part of this essay’s title is inspired by the antepenultimatespeech of Garcin in Sartre’s famous play Huis Clos or No Exit:So that’s what Hell is. I never would have believed it . . . Youremember: sulphur, pyre, the grill. . . Ah! what a joke. There’s noneed for a grill; Hell is Others.’Given the tendency these days for differing parties to turn every encounterwith their interlocutor4eir other-away from what could be a fruitfuldiscussion and reduce it to a series of mutual recriminations, Garcin’sinsight seems especially apt. Yet when the discussion concerns the West ascontrasted to the Middle East, even Christianity or Judaism as contrasted toIslam, there is far too much for each interlocutor to learn from the other todwell so on bygone slights, especially since those slights arise from thevery ignorance that exploration of our different ways-exchange in the bestsense of the term-should overcome. For exchange to be fruitful, eachparty needs to look at the best in his or her own tradition, rather than at theworst, or even the ordinary, and to ask that the interlocutor do the same forhis or her tradition.Like Homer, we can begin by praying for inspiration of sorts:Tell me Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven far journeys,after he had sacked Troy’s sacred citadel.But like the wily, ever devious, as well as unremitting curious and farsightedOdysseus of whom Homer sings, we need then to reflect on thethings we see and experience. Odysseus is a man well-traveled, a man ofbroad experience-albeit not entirely by his own choosing. Were it notthat he never abandons the desire to regain his homeland and hearth, toarrive at the happiness he understands to be truly his, he might even becalled multicultural. After all, Homer also says the following of him:Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of,many the pains he suffered in his spirit on the wide sea, strugglingfor his own life and the homecoming of his companions ...
Editorial
Authors: Abugideiri Hibba
Published: December 2020

The feature articles in this issue of MISS constitute a foray into twodifferent, but related, topics: political authority, as discussed by TamaraSonn in “Political Authority in Classical Islamic Thought,” and by SalimMansur in “Constitutionalism and Ethnic Conflict: The Case of Pakistan,”and the interrelationships among God, humanity, and the universe, asfound in Yusuf Waghid‘s “In Search of a Boundless Ocean and NewSkies: Human Creativity is a Matter of A‘mdl, Jihad, and Ijtihad,” andMasudul Alam Choudhury’s ‘Toward Islamic Political Economy at theTurn of the Century.”In her article, Tamara Sonn analyzes the source of political authorityin the ideal Islamic state. Breaking up Islamic political authority betweenthe executive and the legislative-judicial branches, Sonn reveals how thelegislative-judicial branch, that is, the branch that ensured that the entiregovernment was functioning according to the laws of God, was dominantin classical Islamic political theory. Unlike Christianity, where theologywas the source of politics, Islamic legal thought constituted the source ofpolitical ideas, so much so that “the identity of a community as Islamic ornot lies not in the behavior of the leader but in whether or not Islamic lawprevails.” Far from espousing a theocracy, concludes SOM, the idealIslamic state is governed as a “nomocracy.”In a similar vein, Salim Mansur‘s article is a critical examination of therelationship between constitutionalism and ethnic conflict, with a focus onPakistan. Mansur challenges the analytical scheme that identifies developedsocieties with mature institutions of legitimate order that provide forpolitical stability, continuity of political authority, and established rules forconflict settlement as well as, conversely, identifies developing societieswith the weakness or absence of such institutions. Instead, he argues thatconstitutional norms, designs, and processes need not be separated fromissues of institution building and that “the idea of constitutionalism needsto be integrated into the study of developing societies in order to discoverhow it contributes to a conciliatory process of political participation andpluralism in a society that might be potentially open to fragmentation alongethnic lines.”The other two feature articles found in this issue address the complexquestion of the relationship among God, humanity, and the universe. Yusuf ...
The Failure of Political Islam
Authors: Al-Ahsan Abdullah
Published: December 2020

Olivier Roy, a researcher at the National Center for ScientificResearch in Paris, wrote Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan ( 1985) andcoauthored, with Andre Brigot, War in Afghanistan (1985). Roy seems tohave earned the respect of Western policy makers by making successfulpredictions about the war in Afghanistan. Publication of his present workwithin two years of its original publication by a leading American universityis a reflection of this. In the present work, translated by Carol Bolk, hehas undertaken a general work on Islam and politics in contemporarytimes and has made another courageous prediction: "Any Islamist politi•cal victory in a Muslim country would produce only superficial changesand law" (p. ix).Roy writes in the context of a historical situation that "many consideran era of an Islamic threat" (p. 1) but does not identify the nature of thisthreat. What is this threat and to whom is it directed? From some of hisremarks, it seems that the threat is directed toward Westem civilization, ingeneral, and our contemporary nation-state system, in particular. His assuranceto those who take the “Islamic threat” seriously is that the nation-stateframework continues (and perhaps will continue) to be the determining factorbecause “the UN has globalized Muslim states.” Despite its rhetoric,even revolutionary Iran has become just another nation-state and “the FIS’sAlgeria will do nothing more than place a chador over the FLN’s Algeria”(p. 60), counsels Roy ...
Inscription as Art in the World of Islam
Authors: Haron Muhammed
Published: December 2020

During April 1996, the Hofstra Cultural Center organized an internationalinterdisciplinary conference that focused upon the role of inscriptionin Islamic art. The conference included diverse areas of inquiry. Forinstance, it accepted a paper that addressed the usage of Arabic script asinscription in different parts of the world and provided an opportunity to listento papers that considered inscription as an icon as well as its context,function, and comparative features. In addition, the coordinators organizedan exhibition of the works of several artists who were invited specificallyto talk about their works. This exhibition started with the opening of theconference and continued into May. On display was a unique blend of traditionaland modem uses of Arabic calligraphy--objects from the seventhcentury as well as those produced via contemporary technology.Habibeh Rahim, who is attached to Hofstra University's department ofphilosophy, and Alexej Ugrinsky of the Cultural Center, were the conferencedirector and coordinator, respectively. The former initiated the ideaand, with a committee of individuals, hosted the conference and exhibiteda selection of Islamic art. This exhibition was supported further by permanentdisplays in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, theBrooklyn Museum, the Pierpont Morgan Library, and the New York PublicLibrary.The conference opened with prayers from each of the major religioustraditions and two brief addresses by Habibeh Rahim and DavidChristman, the dean of New College and current director of HofstraMuseum. The first session, chaired by Sheila Blair (Harvard Univeristy),consisted of the following scholars and presentations: Valerie Gonzalez(Ecole d'Architecture Provence-Mediterrainee Centre Habitat etDeveloppement, Marseille, France), "The Significant Esthetic System ofInscriptions in Muslim Art"; Peter Daniels (University of Chicago),"Graphic-Esthetic Convergence in the Evolution of Scripts: A FirstEssay"; Solange Ory (Universite de Provence at Aix-Marseille, France),"Arabic Inscriptions and Unity of the Decoration"; Sussane Babarie (NewYork University), "The 'Aesthetics' of Safavid Epigraphy: AnInterpretation"; Ali al-Bidah (Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyah), "Aesthetic andPractical Aspects of a Hexagonal Emerald in Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyah";and Howard Federspiel (McGill University, Canada), "Arabic Script on ...
Making Peace with the PLO
Authors: Freij Hanna Y.
Published: December 2020

This is a timely and engaging book about the secret peace talks between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It is a detailed case study of Israeli decision making that produced a sea change in Israeli policy in a period of serious challenges to Israel from Islamic militants within and outside Israeli-controlled areas. Mak.ovsky underscores that a signif­icant factor in Israel's dramatic shift toward the PLO was the latter's promise to control and repress Islamist mi1itants, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The book gets its detailed and highly nuanced portrayal of the Israeli and PLO decisions from a number of interviews with Israeli and PLO officials, Israeli academician, and trained and critical observers of Israeli politic . The author presents a highly complex picture of the dynamics between Yitzhak. Rabin and Shimon Peres and the impact of the domestic environment on Rabin's calculations to enter into negotiations with the PLO and Arafat. The sections on Israeli domestic politics and the relationship between Rabin, Peres, and Yossi Beilin are essential for any comprehensive understanding of how Israel is likely to pursue future negotia­tions with Syria and the PLO in Rabin's absence. The book starts with a quick survey of the historical background of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict Although significantly weakened by the Israeli inva­sion of Lebanon in 1982, the PLO was not destroyed and Israel failed to reduce its support in the occupied areas (p. 6). The intifada not only saved the PLO from political oblivion, it asserted the importance of the inside, nondiaspora Palestinians in the struggle against Israel, which Arafat i currently trying toundo. The American-sponsored Madrid peace talks allowed Arafat to get afoothold in the negotiations as part of the Jordanian delegation. The Shamir governmentargued that negotiations were limited to "personal autonomy" for thePalestinians, a position the Palestinian delegation flatly rejected.The second chapter focuses on the background that got the Oslo process started.Initially, the PLO asked the Norwegians to get involved in order to start adialogue between them (PLO) and Israel. International academic conferences ...
Pakistan Chronicle
Authors: Banu U.A.B. Razia Akter
Published: December 2020

The book Pakistan Chronicle--authored by Morrice James, who had twentyyears of experience in South Asia, of which nine years were in Pakistan asdeputy and head of the United Kingdom's diplomatic mission-may not be anexcellent academic research document, but it deserves credit for certain merits.The psychoanalyses and behavioral studies of some Pakistani military and politicalelite, especially Ayub, Bhutto, and Zia, are some of the book's outstandingcontributions. The book contains excellent discussions on different pacts andtreaties Pakistan conducted, such as the Mutual Assistance Pact with the UnitedStates (1954), the Indus Water Treaty (1960), the Tashkent Declaration (1966);the crises Pakistan faced, such as the anti-Qadiani Riots in 1953, the Kashmir dispute, and the Bangladesh War in 1971; and the Afghan conflict that involvedthe two superpowers. In the 1960s. the author observed that India consideredKashmir an integral part of itself and nonnegotiable, and that position has notyet changed.As the British high commissioner, the author could give a firsthand descriptionof national and international forces that strained Pakistan’s relationship withthe West, especially Britain and America, and of how Pakistan gradually developeda pro-Chinese foreign policy ...
Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal
Authors: Bangura Ahmed Sheikh
Published: December 2020

Senegal is one of the most stable sub-Saharan African countries. LeonardoVillal6n's book, Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal, attributes that stabilityto the forms of religious organization provided by Senegal's unique brandsof Sufism. Most Senegalese are affiliated to a marabout (Sufi leader) and aremembers of a Senegalese Sufi order. These orders remain the most pervasiveforms of social organization. Leonardo Villal6n's work, devoted to an examinationof the shape of Senegalese society, therefore focuses on its most salient feature:the forms and patterns of its religious organization.The author argues that the Senegalese Sufi orders, developed in the wake ofFrench colonialism, provide an effective mode of social organization vis-a-visthe state. They check the hegemonic ambitions of the state and give a measureof leverage to the disciple-citizens in their dealings with it. This maraboutic systemexplains much of Senegal's relative success in maintaining a dynamic balancebetween state and society. In other words, the Sufi pattern has become thebasis for the establishment of a religiously based "civil society." While this balanceremains precarious, as there are conceivable factors that can disrupt it, ithas thus far shielded Senegal from the instability and strife that continue tobedevil many African societies ...
Islamic Educational Institutions
Authors: Waghid Yusuf
Published: December 2020

Historical BackgroundBy way of background, I shall give a brief summary of Islamic educationalinstitutions. First, according to Shalaby, the institution where theQur’an, Hadith (sayings and deeds related to the Prophet Muhammad),Arabic grammar, stories of the prophets, reading, and writing weretaught is the maktub (elementary school). This maktub is different fromthe Dar al-Arqam (see previous article), where the early Muslimsreceived their “quality” of training (educational framework of thinkingand practicing). Bashier describes the Dar al-Arqam as “a sort of schoolout of which the best cadres of nascent Islam graduated.” It is my contentionthat the Dar al-Arqam was more a nmjh (i.e., a place where discussion,teaching, and learning activities took place) Moreover, accordingto Makdisi the maktab became known asthe institution of learning where elementary education took placeand the studies which led to the level of higher education, such asspecialization in law.For him, the maktab was recognized as an elementary school where“khan, calligraphy or writing, . . . [was] taught, as well as the Koran, thecreed (i‘tiqad) and poetry.” This claim is supported by Tibawi whoasserts that “teachers . . . receive[d] pupils in special places possibly aroom in a house . . . for instruction . . . known as [m]aktab or [kuttab,both derived from the Arabic root ‘to write This idea of the maktab ashaving been an elementary school is vindicated by the fact that pupilsentered the school at ages seven to ten, and were placed under the careof the mu‘allim (the most common term used to designate the teacher ofpupils at elementary level). according to Makdisi, studies of the maktabled to study in a “masjid-college or madrasa and to the halqat of theSecond, after the arrival of the Prophet (May the peace and blessingsof Allah be upon him) in Madinah, the first mosque in Islam (MasjidQuba) was erected. The mosque became the major institution in Islamfor the dissemination of Islamic education, and its importance cannot bedenied. It was used as a political and cultural center, a court of justice, aneducational institution, and above all a place of worship. For this reason,the mosque is considered the “first institution of learning.” ...
Reform Within Islam
Authors: Gencer Bedri
Published: December 2020

When the western influence or civilization came to impinge upon the Muslimworld in the late eighteenth century, a profound process of transformation beganin Muslim thought. There had been so many encounters between the West andthe East, or in other words, between Islam and Christianity over centuries in variousways and on different levels. However, this was a novel phenomenon, withoutantecedents, resulting from "the technical age" and accordingly from a stateof comparative superiority among nations placing them inexorably in an objectivehierarchy in terms of their use of the possibilities of this age. (The term"technical age" is used here as defined by Marshall G.S. Hodgson in TheVenture of Islam as a universal human development, contrary to the term "modemage," which implies western superiority.) Having lost the sense of absolutesuperiority provided by their faith, Muslims had come to feel themselves morevulnerable to the Western challenge than ever. Quite naturally this led Muslimthinkers to question their thought, religion, and civilization in comparison withthose of the West Few if any thinkers, like the architect of the Majalla, AhmedCevdet Pa????a. the foremost intellectual figure in modem times, in whom theauthentic 'alim tradition was embodied, remained bound to the idio-sources andpossibilities of Islamic thought in coping with the Western challenge to the bitterend. The bulk of the Muslim intelligentsia and 'ulama, far from possessing astaunch, implicit faith in the self-sufficiency of Islamic legacy, as AhmedCevdet Pa§a has, felt themselves as bound to compromise with western thoughtin some way or other. Then a new way of thinking on the part of Muslimthinkers "Islamic modernism" came into being.Seen in this light, Islamic modernism marks a decisive rupture in the historyof Islamic thought in that it represents an attempt at renewal from outside, asopposed to the ihya or tajdid tradition codified by the Prophet himself, which ...
Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance
Authors: Al-Zu'bi Bashir
Published: December 2020

The course was organized by the Islamic Development U.K., in cooperationwith the Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, andLoughborough University, Loughborough, U.K. More than 100 guestspeakers, organizers, and participants attended.The participants were very active in panel discussions. The topicsincluded Islamic banking and fm ance, Islamic economics, economicdevelopment from the Islamic perspective, the creation of money, therationale of prohibiting interest and its prohibition in western literature,debt, equity, Islamic fund management, the role of zakat in the eradicationof poverty, Islamic finance in the West, and the new halal investmentcompany in Europe. As a starting point, Dr. Umer Chapra presented a paper on the presentstate of Islamic economics. He emphasized the importance of economicsin explaining the fall of Muslim power. He also pointed out the effect ofIslamic values and institutions, including zakat and the abolition of interest.He added that now it is time to solve the practical problems that theMuslim countries are facing and also to show ways of realizing theIslamic vision of a society where development is taking place with justice.Dr. Monawar Iqbal talked about the rationale of Islamic banking andthe services that people are in need of, e.g., investment in the form ofmudarabah, musharakah, and murabah.Attention was juid to the following features of Islamic banking: risksharing, productivity as compared to credit worthiness, moral dimension,equity, efficiency, stability, and growth.The experience of Islamic banking in Pakistan, Iran, and Sudan wasdiscussed. In addition, there was a discussion on multinational entities(e.g., Islamic Development Bank). Dr. Iqbal emphasized the major problemsfacing Islamic banking such as lack of profit sharing on the assetside, adverse selection, moral hazard, lack of project appraisal machinery,lack of project monitering, defaulters and the issue of penalties,illogicality of the Islamic financial market, short-term asset structure,excess liquidity, short-term placement of funds, lack of a lender of lastresort, difficulties in issuing letters of guarantee, and taxation.Despite these problems, 192 Islamic banks were operating by the endof 1996. An analysis of 166 of these banks was made by Dr. SamirShaikh, who described their current profile and showed that their netprofit in 1996 was $1,683,648. On the suggestion of Dr. Tarigullah Khanthe principles of Islamic finance were grouped into the following categories:benevolence, sharing principle, deferred sale-principle, andsharing-cum-deferred sale ...
Defining Islam for the Egyptian State
Authors: Sabet Amr G. E.
Published: December 2020

Defining Islam for the Egyptian state is an interesting historical study of an importantreligious institution in Egypt: The State Fatwa Office (Dar al lfta '). It traces this institution'sdevelopment from its inception in 1895 to the last quarter of the twentieth century,focusing on the role of official muftis and their "sometimes ungrateful task" of definingIslam for both the state and an increasingly conscious Muslim public (p. I).Uncomfortably situated between a state bureaucracy and an emerging Muslim publicconcerned with the transmission of Islamic values, occupiers of the seat of ifta' wereburdened with the task of asserting the compatibility of Islam with modern demands.Thus, their fatwas were different from those of their predecessors in that they were vestedwith new institutional authority and directed toward a Muslim public that did not existbefore the end of the nineteenth century. Therefore, this study goes beyond the office'srole as an official or state institution to analyze further its relation to Egypt's Islamicpolitical discourse. As this office occupies a well-defined position in Egyptian society,'l.A!.t'l????'l. as \he mout..tl.\)i.e<:.e 0ct: an offic.i.al l????lam th.at has 09ted for accommodati.on betweenstate and religion, and produces fatwas within the framework of existing state law, studyingDar al Ifta' offers significant advantages. By analyzing representative samples of itsfatwas in their social and political contexts, this study demonstrates how such fatwas canbe used as a source for studying modem Islamic social and intellectual history. In thissense, the history of Dar al Ifta' provides a rare glimpse into major themes of twentiethcenturyIslamic thinking. The main source for following its historical development is itswork-the fatwas it has issued (book cover & p. I) ...
Editorial
Authors: Malkawi Fathi
Published: December 2020

Psychology is the study of human behavior in its observable and unobservabledimensions. It is important to study psychology in order to understandhuman actions and their relations to various aspects of human life.From an Islamic standpoint, human behavior is distinctive from otheranimate and inanimate beings, because it is based on a conscious responseto divine commandments. Human behavior in this sense is subject of revelation.Revelation addresses humans to behave intentionally towards therealization of Allah’s commandments in their lives. Revelation, humanbehavior and human life are the three main components of the religiousphenomenon which is an intrinsic reality in human psyche and social realityof all nations in human history.Psychology is an old science. It is a response to Man’s existential anxietywhich is as old as human consciousness. Man has been indulging in psychologicalanalysis since he started trying to understand himself, his behavior,his emotions, his thinking and learning process, etc. In the West, psychologywas a part of philosophy. But since the early twentieth centurywhen it became the last field to breakaway from philosophy, it has becomea separate discipline, enjoying the status of science. In the Islamic historyof knowledge, education of the self and of others was based on well developedpsychological principles such as motivation (internal and external),gradual change, and individual differences. The study of human behaviorwas also the subject of many Muslim scholars in their attempts to elevatethe personality of individual Muslims from Islam to Iman and to Ihsan; andto avoid the various sicknesses of the heart. This subject was also of a majorconcern to the Sufis. Al Ghazali for example developed the science ofbehavior “Ilm al-Suluk”. His book Al-Ihia has long chapters on variouspsychological phenomena using a systematic methodology. A1 Ghazaliwould typically choose a particular psychological problem, study it,describe it, analyze it, compare it with other problems, advance a diagnosisand then prescribe ways to deal with the problem ...
The Postcolonial Crescent
Authors: Kelli Deonna
Published: December 2020

Identity politics has become the catch phrase of the postmodern age. Withconcepts such as "exile," "migrancy," and "hybridity" acquiring unprecedentedcultural significance in the late twentieth century, the postcolonial age givesway to new identities, fractured modes of living, and new conditions of humanity.Literature is a powerful tool to explore such issues in an era where a greatdeal of the world is displaced, and the idea of a homeland becomes a disrupted,remote possibility. The Postcolonial Crescent: Islam's Impact onContemporary Literature, is an attempt to discuss how Muslims negotiateidentity at a time of rapid and spiritually challenging transculturation. The bookuses fiction written by Muslims to critique the effects of colonialism, counteractmodernity, and question the status of Islamic identity in the contemporaryworld. It also can be considered as the primary introduction of contemporaryIslamic literature into the postcolonial genre. Muslim writers have yet to submit a unique and powerful commentary on postcolonial and cultural studies;this work at least softens that absence.The Postcolonial Crescent was conceived as a response to The SatanicVerses controversy. Therefore, it is “intimately involved in the interchangebetween religion and the state, and demonstrates that the roles Islam is playingin postcolonial nation-building is especially contested in the absence of broadlyacceptable models” (p. 4). Conflicting issues of identity are approached byinterrogating the authority to define a “correct” Islamic identity, the role ofindividual rights, and the “variegation of Islamic expression within specificcultural settings, suggesting through the national self-definitions the many concernsthat the Islamic world shares with global postcoloniality” (p. 7) ...
Prolegomena for an Islamic Perspective of Educational Management
Authors: Atari Aref T. M.
Published: December 2020

This article proposes an Islamic perspective to educational administra­tion based on the Islamic worldview, the general purposes of the Shari'ah and the Islamic position on fundamental paradigmatic issues. It then relates the Islamic perspective to the field of educational admin­istration, and generates, within the constrains of space, applications for selected areas of the field. The article concludes with a discussion that sets forth the "prolegomena" for an Islamic perspective of educational administration.
Liberal Islam
Authors: Khan M. A. Muqtedar
Published: December 2020

Reviewing anthologies is not an easy task, for they typically include a largenumber of articles by different authors, and in this case also on six differentthemes. I shall therefore not even attempt to review or summarize the individualcontributions, but focus on the author's rationale and his justification forconsidering this particular collection as representative of liberal Islam. Theissues raised by the authors in this anthology, which seek to challenge manymedieval and orthodox interpretations of Islam, will certainly be familiar tomost of the readers of AJISS.In this interesting book, Kurzman presents a fascinating conundrum toMuslim and orientalist scholars of Islam who seek to impose a monolithic andahistorical character on Islam, and choose to either ignore or marginalize thecontinuity of difference in understanding and interpretation in the still developingcorpus of Islamic thought. Kurzman presents an anthology of writingsby a diverse group of contemporary Muslims that clearly demonstrate a concernfor democracy, rights of women, freedom of thought, rights of minorities ...
Islam and the Discovery of Freedom
Authors: Maqsood Ruqaiyyah Waris
Published: December 2020

This very stimulating and perceptive work was born out of the author’s solidconviction that freedom is the ideal that all societies should strive for and thatthe history of humanity has been one of constant struggle against oppressiveforces of authority in order to realize this utopia. The original edition of herwork, The Discovery of Freedom: Man’s Struggle Against Authority, unfortunatelylacked academic credibility due to several factual errors it contained,and was withdrawn from circulation after its publication by the author herself,and would have been relegated to the obscurity of history were it not for thework of Dr. had-ad-Dean Ahmad. He chose to concentrate on the section ofher work relating to Islam and published it separately from the original versionunder this new title, Islam and the Discovery of Freedom. By providingdetailed annotations and a running commentary throughout, as well as rectifyingmost of the historical errors, he has been able to redeem the force and qualityof the author’s original argument.Although more famously known for her mother’s best selling book, LittleHouse on the Prairie, Rose Wilder Lane (18861968) was a journalist dedicatedto the cause of freedom as well as a best selling author and biographer inher own right. She acquired her knowledge of Islam through her work for theRed Cross just after the First World War when she documented their activitiesin Russia, the Balkans and the Middle East.To understand the important place Mrs. Lane has given to Islam one has tounderstand the central thesis of her original work. She maintains that mankindhas made three notable attempts to free itself from the shackles of oppressivepower and authority. The first attempt was orchestrated by the ProphetAbraham, the second by the Prophet Muhammad and the third, though less radical,resulted from the American Revolution. Her study highlights the dangersof unbalanced distribution of power, for she argues that vesting total controland authority in a single leader or small group of people is highly dangerous asthe word and opinion of that authority can very easily become Law, suppressing,and even persecuting, all those with different views. Furthermore, sheasserts that this state of affairs is nowhere more apparent nor more dangerousthan in the societies whose leader(s) claim to speak for or act in accordancewith “the will of God.”The example of Abraham is used to reflect a society where superstition andthe capricious will of its gods dominated all areas of life. It is a type of control ...
Growth, Inequality and Globalization
Authors: El Diwany Tarek
Published: December 2020

To what extent is some poverty necessary for economic growth? Doespoverty motivate the poor to work harder, enabling them to both escape theirpoverty and in the process increase the total wealth of society? Or does povertyon balance promote those negative influences such as ill-health and a lack ofproper education that prevent the poor, and hence society, from attaining itsfull wealth potential? What effect does a redistribution of wealth from rich topoor have upon the growth rate? Would the poor manage the extra wealththereby gained in a manner more beneficial for society than when the rich managedit? How does income disparity within an economy wax and wane asgrowth takes place, and how does income disparity between economies changein the face of globalization? Perhaps most important of all, what can politicaleconomists learn from past experiences in informing policy recommendationsfor the future?Such are the questions to which two professors of economics address inGrowth, Inequality and Globalization: Theory, History, and Policy. In the firstof two discussions on the topic, phillipe Aghion from University CollegeLondon adopts a largely mathematical approach. In the second discussion,Jeffery G. Williamson from Harvard undertakes an empirical analysis. Thesetwo approaches compliment one another rather well.Two ideas are generally handed down to the modem student of economicson the relationship between growth and wealth inequality. One is based uponan incentives theory according to which inequality promotes faster growth. Theother derives from the Kuznet's hypothesis which holds that, as an economypasses through a growth phase, inequality first increases and then decreaseswith the onset of maturity. Aghion labels both of these ideas as fallacies, brieflyciting recent evidence which shows widening income inequality in the UnitedStates. His mathematical modeling further shows that, under certain circumstances,increases in inequality (as measured by the increased dispersion ofinvestment holdings among members of the society) can lead to lower growth.This is because the marginal return on investment for the poor is greater thanfor the rich. In plain language, poor people can create more wealth with anadditional unit of investment assets than the rich can. Hence, if the rich haveall the assets, society as a whole may not achieve the highest available returns.In a perfect capital market, the rich could perhaps lend or invest their surplus ...
Experimental Tests of the Moms Economicus
Authors: Yavas Abdullah
Published: December 2020

This article has multiple objectives. It seeks to identify those assumptionsof neoclassical economics which are vindicated by experimentaltests and those which fail such tests. The author tries to simultaneouslyexpose the limitations of neoclassical economics and Islamic economicsby pointing out that some assumptions of the rational choice modelfail while others, often ignored by Islamic economists, are proven valid.The article also seeks to summarize the results of experimental testingabout agent behavior under a controlled environment. The author hopesthat this initiative will encourage Islamic economists to use experimentalmethods as a means for testing their theoretical assumptions. Theauthor concludes that human agents are neither as self-regarding as thehomo economicus model predicts nor are they as other-regarding as themodel homo Islamicus predicts.
Islam, Gender, and Social Change
Authors: Roald Anne Sofie
Published: December 2020

The anthology, Islam, Gender and Social Change, starts with an introductionby Professor John Esposito, one of the coeditors, and it continues with an overarchingchapter "Islam and Gender: Dilemmas in the Changing Arab World" by the other coeditor, Professor Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad. The introductiongives a short survey of gender issues in Islamic history and it points out thatreforms in women’s issues have more often than not been a State rather than agrassroots concern. The strength of the introduction is that in contrast to manyof the other articles in this volume, it takes into account not only the feministpoint of view on gender but deals with the various views that exist in Muslimsociety.Haddad’s chapter introduces the first part of the anthology titled “Islam,Gender, and Social Change: A Reconstituted Tradition,” which gives the readera short survey of the modem challenges facing Arab society. She sees themain factors of change in the Arab world as the economic fluctuations of the1970s and 1980s: labor migration, women’s entrance into the labor market,State ideology and politics, the Islamic movement’s role in society, UnitedNations’ recommendations, and input from Western feminist movements. Sofar, so good; however, in her following comments, Haddad has a tendency tovictimize Arab Muslim women, particularly the religious-oriented- viewpointwhich, as a researcher on the Muslim world, I cannot always agree with.This victimization is partly a result of how Muslim women are often describedfrom an outsider’s perspective, either from a Western or a secular Muslim pointof view. Victimization of Muslim women is not only a feature in Haddad’s articlebut also in many of the other articles in this book. Interestingly, even thefew Muslim contributors do not have a particular Islamic outlook; rather, theyare part of a Western research paradigm. The fact that Islamic-oriented Muslimwomen are generally defined within a frame of Western research traditionsreinforces, on the one hand, attitudes of “we” and “them” and, on the other, thenotion that these women are victims rather than women responsible for theirown lives ...
Challenging Media Representations of the Veil
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: December 2020

The image of the Muslim woman’s veil in the popular western media isthat it is a symbol of oppression and violence in Islam. The forced coveringof women in postrevolutionary Iran, or lately, under the Talibanin Afghanistan seems to confirm this image of the veil. But this singularimage of the ‘veil’ is not the whole story of covering. Since the late1970s scores of Muslim women, from Arabia to Asia to the West, havebeen voluntarily covering. The re-covering movement challenges thereductive image of the veil as a symbol of Muslim women’s oppression.Due to the ubiquitous image of the veil as a symbol of oppression orviolence, Muslim women living in the West who cover often suffer discrimination,harassment, even assault. Hence, it is important to understandthe multiple meanings of the veil, and to challenge the media toimprove their representation of its meanings.
Routes to Writing in Southern Africa
Authors: Haque Amber
Published: December 2020

Writing is certainly one of man's greatest inventions, and good writing is askill which elevates one's position in the society of the learned. The otherside of the coin is poor writing that leads to poor communication and oftenmiscommunication between the writer and the reader(s). Writing in theacademic world is all the more important, as it is the only means ofscholarly expression. The quality of good writing skills is a cause ofconcern for many teachers at various stages of education, especially at thetertiary level. This is perhaps more true of students whose native languageis not English, and for lecturers who have to teach such students.The book under review is a collection of essays written by lecturers andwriting specialists primarily at the University of Western Cape (UWC).It is divided into six major parts and fourteen chapters. The essays arewritten on various themes that provide guidelines for developing writingskiUs in the academic setting. The book is edited by Brenda Leibowitz,Director of the National Center for Curriculum Research and Developmentat the Department of Education, and Yasien Mohamed, a senior lecturer inthe Department of Foreign Languages at UWC.The editors have compiled this book with the aim of providing insight,reflection, and guidelines that would empower lecturers to teach theirsubject more effectively and especially to help students with the writingaspect of their university study. Mohamed, who wrote the introduction tothe book, comments that writing and its development should be viewed asa "humanistic" activity, which recognizes the natural and creative forms ofpersonal narrative writing, as opposed to a scientific approach, wherewriting is viewed as a product rather than a process. Actually, thisempathetic approach to writing development is evident lhroughout thebook.Part I of the book consists of one chapter only and deals with theimportance of writing and teaching in the academia, emphasizing the needfor lecturers to be evaluative of their own writing practices. Basing theadvice on many years of experience as a trainer of writing, the authorsuggests many useful writing strategies including the use of dialogicmaterials, mind mapping, free writing, and writer's support groups.Part II deals with diversity, culture, and writing, and consists of chapters ...
Principles in Planning Library Education Programs in the Muslim World
Authors: Namlah Ali I.
Published: December 2020

ABSTRACTFour major principles for planning library education programs in[the] Muslim World are considered of importance: the environmentalneeds, the application of programs, the cultures, backgrounds andtraditions of the nation, and the future changes. The Muslim World isacquiring expertise largely from non-Muslim nations throughrecruiting expert planners or through sending their students todeveloped countries to acquire knowledge, then apply it. Bothapproaches are seen to have some problems at the time of acquisition andapplication of planned programs. These problems are discussed andplanners are expected to be aware of these principles before they starttheir plans. Blind application of library technology is considered themain reason for the failure of library education programs in someMuslim World countries. A balance of application, in accordance withthe four principles, is recommended.IntroductionI. The Muslim WorldWhat is meant by the phrase “the Muslim world” is those countrieswhich have a high percentage of Muslims compared to non-Muslims.The Muslim World is a part of what is called “less developed countries,”“developing countries,” the “Third World,” or the “South.” The phases areused to refer to those countries-including the Muslim world-which areless advanced in technologies due to the existence of many factors, someof which are: ...
The Concept of State in Islam
Authors: Iqbal Justice Javed
Published: December 2020

The state in Islam is founded on certain principles which, according tothe faith of a Muslim, are laid down in the Qur’an and Sunnah of the HolyProphet. The first principle is that all authority in the universe vests inAllah, Who is the Omnipotent and Omnipresent Creater of the universe.Thus, according to a Muslim’s faith Allah alone must be obeyed to theexclusion of all others, and obedience may be rendered to man only underAllah’s command in the case of the Prophets whereunder renderingobedience is in fact to Allah and not to human beings. The secondprinciple is that the law has already been laid down by Allah in the formof commands of what is good and what is evil, in the Qur’an, which is thepure word of Allah whereas Sunnah of the Holy Prophet is theauthoritative exposition of the Qur’an. These commands have been sentin the form of revelation from time to time to the Prophets for theguidance of mankind, the last being the Holy Prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him) through whom the faith had been completed andperfkcted in the Qur’an. Allah has already placed in the nature of manthe knowledge of good and evil and has furhter clarified the distinctionbetween good and evil in the Qur’an. Thus, the law of Allah, properlycalled, consists of Awumar and Nawuhi (the positive and negativeinjunctions of the Qur’an) and it is on this basis that according to aMuslim’s faith all legislation has already been made by Allah and everyMuslim is enjoined to promote good and to suppress evil.In the Qur’an no mode of lite is prescribed for a politically andeconomically subjugated Muslim community. In Sura 4: Verse 59 theMuslims are commanded to obey Allah, to obey the Holy Prophet andthose having authority over them, who are from amongst them.Consequently, a Muslim is to render obedience firstly to Allah, then tothe Holy Prophet, lastly to those members of the Muslim comminity whocommand authority over him provided that they are acting only inexecution of the commands of Allah and the Holy Prophet. So, it isevident that rendering obedience to those who command authority over ...
The Tragedy of Lebanon
Authors: Faksh Mahmud A.
Published: December 2020

I.Since the end of World War 11, approximately eighty new states havebeen established. Only two, Pakistan and Cyprus, have undergone theagony of dismemberment when Bangladesh broke off in 1973 and theTurkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was declared in 1983. The worldmay now be witnessing the possible breakup of yet a third state:Lebanon, whose disintegration has been accelerated since the June 1982Israeli invasion.Shortly after the invasion began, Henry Kissinger assessed itsconsequence for Lebanon’s future, concluding, “It is neither desirablenor possible to return to the status quo ante in Lebanon.” One possibleoutcome was that some Syrian and Israeli forces would remain in thenorthern and southern ends, respectively, and the central government’sauthority would ostensibly cover the rest of the country. Implicit in theKissinger diagnosis is the possibility of eventual partition.Though the gloomy assessment by the “wizard” of US. foreign policyshould by no means be construed as a portent of an official shift awayfrom the publicly stated US. support of “Lebanon’s sovereignty andterritorial integrity,” a shadow was cast on the country’s prospects.Subsequent developments have seemed to indicate that Lebanon’sdemise looms larger than at any time since the beginning of the civil warin 1975-76.For over a year and a half national fragmentation has proceededinexorably. What many people once could imagine only with difficulty,they now acknowledge: in reality, Lebanon is facing possible death. TheSouth (35 percent of the land area) is occupied by Israel; the North andthe Biqa’ (45 percent) are controlled by Syria; Kasrawan (15 percent) iscontrolled by the Christian Maronite forces (the Lebanese Front forces),which are not subject to the government’s authority. The rest of thecountry-beleaguered Beirut and environs-was until the February1984 breakdown under the government’s shaky control supported bysymbolic US., French, Italian, and British units. The Multi-NationalForce (MNF) was subject to increasing attacks by Muslim leftist factions,as witnessed in the October 23 bombing of the quarters of U.S.Marines and French troops. Thus, instead of keeping peace, the MNFbecame ,a partisan force trying to protect itself. The US. and Frenchforces in particular seemed to have outlived their usefulness as“peacekeepers.” Recurrent fighting in southern Beirut and in theadjacent Chouf mountains, that pitted Christian Maronites and armyunits against Shi‘ite and Druse Muslims constantly threatened theexistence of President Amin Gemayel’s government and consequently arenewal of the civil war. This situation culminated in February 1984 inthe resignation of the Shafiq al-Wazzan’s cabinet, the loss ofgovernment’s control of West Beirut to Muslim-leftist militias, and theimminent collapse of Amin Gemayel’s presidency ...