bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
THE COOKS’ TOUR SYNDROME
Authors: Mahroof M. M. M.
Published: December 2020

The western world, from ancient times, say from Herodotus onward,was and is interested in how others live. Herodotus’s Histories wasunabashedly curious about the lives of the Egyptians, Persians, and otherraces that inhabited the immediate or remote environs of ancient Greece.The then-Gmk world, while conscious of the intellectual and socialpower of the Greeks vis-a-vis other races, did not descend to the peddlingof romantic made-up stories of other peoples; this culminated in laterEuropean tales, the keystone of which was Mandeville’s Travels.The Greeks and the later Romans, while maintaining the essentialsuperiority of Greeks and Romans, nonetheless were inclined to the viewthat there were social and economic gradations among the Greeks andthe Romans themselves. The fruits of Graeco-Roman civilization werereserved for those who were “gently” born. The decision makers, as wellas most philosophers (the ultimate thinkers of those times), came fromsocially privileged groups. There were a few exceptions: The philosopherSolon was held to be an oil-seller, a fact that Plutarch never fails tobelabor in his Parallel Lives. In fact, Plutarch’s work reads like anancient Almanach de Gotha or Burke‘s Peerage.The Romans, who, unlike the ancient Greeks, conquered a large partof Euro-Asia, were careful to limit citizenship to specific foreigners.Among native-born Romans, aristocratic birth was the key to social and ...
ONE-DAY SEMINAR ON ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE
Authors: Shehu Salisu
Published: December 2020

IIIT (International Institute of Islamic Thought) in Nigeria, in conjunctionwith the Muslim Forum of Bayero University, Kano, jointlyorganized and conducted a one-day seminar on the Islamization ofknowledge. The seminar took place on 5 Rabi' al-Awwal, 1417 (20 July1996). It was one of a series of programs designed for faculty outreach.Therefore, academic staff in the various faculties of the university wereinvited and constituted the primary audience.The primary aim of the seminar was to educate and mobilize Muslimacademicians in the university toward the Islamization of Knowledgeprogram. It has been observed that, although a number of departments inthe university offer Islamically oriented courses and several papers hadbeen presented in some departmental and even some international seminars,many academic staff still do not have a proper understanding of theidea behind the Islamization of knowledge. For this reason, all the paperspresented focused on the concept of Islamization of knowledge itself.Of the papers presented, two are included here. The first paper was thekeynote address delivered by Dr. Bashir Shehu Galadanci, the coordinatorof IIIT in Nigeria. Dr. Galadanci gave a precise and concise summaryof the journey thus far and the issues involved in the Islamization ofKnowledge program. First and foremost, he gave a brief analysis of thetheoretical and conceptual framework upon which the idea of the programwas built. He further analyzed the divergent views and the controversiesinvolved in the program. He then gave a concise historical reviewof its undertaking, the efforts and achievements so far made on the program,and some of the problems usually encountered both locally inNigeria and internationally ...
Islam and Politics in Central Asia
Authors: Ahrari M.E.
Published: December 2020

The emergence of the five independent and predominantly Muslim statesKazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan. Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan-in theaftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union raises the issue of the role of Islamin their future development. Since Islam does not allow a separation of religionand politics, Islamic political panies have already been active, albeit with differentintensity, in these countries. None of these countries has had a history ofindependence; for a long time, they were colonized (their most recent history ofcolonization goes back to the 1860s. when the Russians began to conquer andcolonize the Central Asian villages) by czarist Russia, then from 1917 by thecommunist czars. Consequently, after independence their political elite (for themost part, former communists) remain substantially unfamiliar with the practiceof democratic governance. As such, even after changing the names of communistparties in their respective countries, they essentially practice authoritarianpolicies in which little or no political pluralism is tolerated. Therefore. anyevolution of democracy in these statei in the immediate or middle-range futureis unlikely. However. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are two exceptions to thisrule.Not coincidentally. both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan top the list of ethnicallypluralist states, and their economies are doing well compared to their CentralAsian counterparts. However, this ethnic pluralism has not only polarized theirpopulations along indigenous and Russian lines but also keeps their leaders fromallowing any substantial role for lslamist parties. Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan,and Tajikistan have a lesser problem emanating from ethnic pluralism.However, the lion's share of these countries' problems stems from the acutelyauthoritarian nature of their leader hip, and, more imponant, their severe economicunderdevelopment. One has to keep these variables in mind as one readsMehrdad Haghayeghi's book, Islam and Politics in Central Asia.Describing the presence of Islam in Central Asia, The author states that "thesedentary populations of the oasis enclaves and the tribal populations of theSteppe and the surrounding regions" were differently influenced by Islam. Hegoes on to observe:The enormous size and remoteness oft.he Steppe, the lack of adequate military manpower.the political instability at the heart of the Arab empire, and the absence of ...
Muslims as Co-Citizens in the West-Rights, Duties, Limits and Prospects
Authors: Hofmann Murad Wilfried
Published: December 2020

One major side-effect of the current process of economic and culturalglobalization seems to be that our world is becoming multireligious. Inparticular, this results from the accelerated spread of Islam. There arealready six million Muslims in the United States, virtually all of themAmerican citizens, with an impressive and growing infrastructure. InEurope, due to labor migration, foreign students, war refugees, and asylumseekers, the number of Muslims is around four million in France,perhaps three million in the United Kingdom, and 2.5 million inGermany. Altogether, including Bosnia-Hercegovina, there may beabout twenty million Muslims in western and central Europe today.Due to its structural tolerance vis-A-vis “peoples of the book,” theMuslim world has always been multireligious. Islam expanded into formerlyChristian temtories-the Near East, North Africa, Spain,Byzantium, the Balkans-without eliminating the Christian communities.Nowhere is this more evident than in Cairo, Damascus, and Istanbul,and in countries like Greece and Serbia. This situation was facilitated bythe fact that the Qur’an contains what may be called an “IslamicChristology.”Coexistence with the large Jewish populations within theMuslim empire-aside from the Near East in Muslim Spain,and subsequentlyin North Africa and the Ottoman Empire-was facilitated, inturn, by the extraordinary focus of the Qur’an on Jewish prophets in generaland Moses in particular! On this basis, Islamic jurisprudence developedthe world’s first liberal law called al-siyar for the status of religiousminorities (al-dhimmi).~In the Western world, developments were entirely different. Here, religiousintolerance became endemic, even between Christian churches; ...
Political Science
Authors: Monshipouri Mahmood
Published: December 2020

Adopting an issue-oriented approach toward understanding Islamic andWestern political thought, Professor Abdul Rashid Moten places these two tradition'swithin historical and contemporary contexts. Moten's book thereby providesa comparative analysis of key issues, including Islamic research methodology,Islamic law, Islamic political and social order, strategies and tactics ofvarious Islamic movements, and the link between Islam and politics.In chapter 1, Moten examines the secular domination of Muslim thought andculture, arguing that secularism was imported into the Muslim world throughthe efforts of a Westernized elite. He adds that no such secular state had everexisted in the Muslim world. This owes much to the fact that there was (is) nocommon ground between Islam and secularism (p. 7). With secularism camenationalism, liberal political institutions, and the pursuit of a capitalist economicsystem. Nationalism, Moten notes, wedged its way into the Muslim world,dividing it into new nation-states and client states (p. 12). Since independence,secularism has failed to meet the socioeconomic and political needs of Muslimsocieties. The rising tide of Islamic revivalism against secular regimes inAlgeria and Turkey demonstrates disenchantment with the shattered secularistdreams in the Muslim world (p. 16).Chapter 2 attempts to scrutinize the inherent link between Islam and politics.The pillars of Islam, Moten writes, go beyond moral and spiritual upliftment;they entail both practical and symbolic significance in all aspects of life. InIslam, ethics sets the tone for politics, and the rules of political behavior originatefrom ethical norms. Political life cannot be separated from the broaderframework of the religious and spiritual life (p. 21 ). Islamic rulers have hardly,if ever, emphasized the separation of religion and politics. Since the nineteenthcentury, Islamic modernists and revivalists have debated the nature of this separation.The reemergence of Islam in Muslim politics and societies in the lastquarter of the twentieth century has pointed to a distinct Islamic order and thereawakening of Muslim identity. Moten cites, among others, Iran and Pakistanas examples of such a renaissance (p. 30). However, he fails to examine the divisiveeffects of lslamization programs in Pakistan (under Zia al-Haqq) and othercountries such as Sudan.The comparison between Western and Islamic methods of political inquiry isthe subject of close scrutiny in chapter 3. Moten maintains that the Islamic conceptionof polity is based on profound religious-cultural grounds and that religionand polity form an organic unity (p. 37). Likewise, ethics and politics are ...
Islamization of Education
Authors: Saqeb Ghulam Nabi
Published: December 2020

The Sixth International Conference on Islamic Education heldA.D. September 20-25, 1996/6-11 jamad al-Awwal, 141 7A.H. at lslamia College, Gatesville, Cape Town, South AfricaAfter World War 11, most colonized Muslim countries achieved independence.During their days of struggle for independence, all majorpolitical parties in Muslim lands had committed themselves to liquidatetheir inherited, ill-conceived, divisive, and un-Islamic systems of educationand to replace them with truly Islamic ones. But after independence,while politicians in power (constrained for whatever reasons) remainedreluctant to bring about the promised changes, academics were, by andlarge, not clear as to how to Islamize education. The most that they couldpropose was installation of lame-duck departments of Islamic studieswithin the inherited systems, established parallel to the predominantlysecular departments, thereby perpetuating a discredited, dualistic form ofeducation that was generating split personalities among the Muslim youth.This remained the shape of education in the Islamic world duringdecades after independence in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It was inthese circumstances that King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah/Makkah,under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Muhammad Abduh Yamani and Dr.Abdullah Omar Nasseef obtained approval from the then king, Khalidbin Abdulaziz, to hold the First World Conference on Islamic Educationin Makkah. For two years, its organizing committee under the chairmanshipof Shaykh Ahmad Salah Jamjoom and comprising Professor SyedAli Ashraf, Dr. Abdullah Muhammad Zaid, and Dr. Ghulam Nabi Saqeb,worked day and night, along with renowned colleagues such as ProfessorMuhammed Qutb, Professor Muhammad Al-Mubarak (now deceased),Professor Hussain Hamed Hassan, and others to examine all issues relatedto the task. The Conference held in Makkah al-Mukarramah in 1977was a tremendous event. Attended by some 350 Muslim scholars from ...
Toward an Islamic Aesthetic Theory
Authors: Nasim Omar
Published: December 2020

IntroductionScience has become a very narrow and qualified study of the universe.Its descriptions of reality are restricted to objective, publicly extendedand impersonal notions. This characterization of reality is, in theGoethean sense, an utterly oppressive impasse to the subjective humancondition. Thus did Nietzsche exclaim, “the nihilistic consequences ofour natural sciences from its pursuits . . . there follows ultimately a selfdecomposition,a turning against itself.” One sees a disunited system ofthought, where objective designs are studied using objective methodsand tools, thereby leaving out many of the subjective and private characteristicsof reality. How then can science claim to be a study of realityand the universe, when it does not have the tools to study even the mostfundamental component of reality, the self? The gap between the subjectand object was partly created by the Empiricist tradition and by Kantwith his discussions on the “noumena” and “phenomena.” This dualismwithin the western world-view has culminated in a very disunited andincoherent description of reality. In physics, efforts are being made tocreate a “theory of everything” (TOE), but it has been quite a task,because of the inherent dualism and lack of connection between ideas,both in the natural sciences and the social sciences.As far as western art, it claims to be of an “absolute” and “universal”nature, so general as to include the whole universe, and beyond, within asingle preview. Art relates to the subjective and inner feelings of anindividual or a society at a particular time. As posited by the GermanIdealists, it actually submerges the object and the subject into Butthis bridge between the objective and the subjective is only an illusionwhose disastrous effects can be seen in the modem conception of aestheticautonomy. The negative production of an autonomous art form isa direct and implicit result of Kantian dualisms$ which pervades the ...
The Enigma of Hallaj
Authors: Irfani Suroosh
Published: December 2020

One of the most forbidding images in the history of Islamic spiritualityis the public execution of the great Muslim mystic Husayn bin MansurHallaj in 922. The punishment followed a long and well-publicized trialin which Hallaj was accused of sorcery and of attempting to overthrowthe Islamic Shari‘ah. The sentence against Hallaj was singularly harsh.He was publicly flogged five hundred lashes, stoned by believers in thecity square, and then raised on a cross where he was left bleeding for thenight, his hands and feet having been amputated. The following morninghe was beheaded, his trunk doused with fuel and set on fire and his ashesscattered in the Tigris River. His head was displayed in towns and districtsas a warning to opponents of the State. Such shocking measuresensured that the execution and the circumstances that precipitated itwould remain etched in human memory over the centuries throughaccounts of biographers, mystics, and historians. Herbert Mason’s Al-Hulluj is the latest addition to this vibrant trajectory.A professor of history and religion at Boston University, Mason hasbeen conducting research on Hallaj for the past thirty years, a devotionhe might have inherited from his former teacher Louis Massignon, theFrench scholar who started work on Hallaj’s thoughts and ideas in 1907,culminating in four volumes posthumously published in 1975 as Lapssiond’ul-Hulluj. Mason translated this monumental work from Frenchinto English. His new book, a slim volume on perhaps the most celebratedand reviled mystic of all times, brims with power and insightperhapsas much for the author’s empathy for the “martyr of Love” as anattempt for mediating on the event’s inner meaning.The story of Hallaj, Mason notes, “is one of unhinging humanself-assurance and spiritual selflessness. It remains an awesome mysteryand guide across the ages for those who would pursue the truth of our ...
Ibn Khaldun’s Theory of Social Change
Authors: Mohammad Fida
Published: December 2020

In this article I shall compare and contrast Ibn Khaldun’s ideas aboutsociohistorical change with those of Hegel, Marx, and Durkheim. I willdiscuss and elaborate Ibn Khaldun’s major ideas about historical andsocial change and compare them with three important figures of modemWestern sociology and philosophy.On reading Ibn Khaldun one should remember that he was living in thefourteenth century and did not have the privilege of witnessing the socialdislocation created by the industrial revolution. It is also very difficult tocategorize Ibn Khaldun within a single philosophical tradition. He is arationalist as well as an empiricist, a historicist as well as a believer inhuman agency in the historical process. One can see many “modem”themes in his thinking, although he lived a hundred years beforeMachiavelli.Lauer, who considers Ibn Khaldun the pioneer of modem sociologicalthought, has summarized the main points of his philosophy.’ In his interpretationof Ibn Khaldun, he notes that historical processes follow a regularpattern. However, whereas this pattern shows sufficient regularity, itis not as rigid as it is in the natural world. In this regard the position ofIbn Khaldun is radically different from those philosophies of history thatposit an immutable course of history determined by the will of divineprovidence or other forces. Ibn Khaldun believes that the individual isneither a completely passive recipient nor a full agent of the historicalprocess. Social laws can be discovered through observation and datagathering, and this empirical grounding of social knowledge represents adeparture from traditional rational and metaphysical thinking ...
Freedom, Modernity, and Islam
Authors: Sabet Amr G. E.
Published: December 2020

The ambivalent relationship between Islam and modernity is a complex and fascinatingsubject into which Khoury delves with a seemingly good measure of sophistication.In this book of philosophical discourse, which he presents as a work of thought andonly secondarily as an historical, scholarly, or descriptive effort, Khoury seeks to articulate a new and creative synthesis between both historical forces that ultimately would serve to recapture the illusive spirit of freedom in the Arab Muslim world.Khoury attributes the undermining of freedom in the Arab world to several reasons:the victory of orthodoxy and its ensuing ossification, with the result that no alternative tomodernity, or even a synthesis, could be provided by Arab Muslim thinkers; the generalshallowness of those who wage war against a trivialized modernity-a shallow Islambeing the logical counterpart to a shallow modernism; habitual passivity in the face ofdespotism; and the continued insistence that Islam become intertwined with the modemstate, which by its very nature and structure can only harm the implementation of Islam,at least as a project undertaken by the state (pp. xxiv-xxv, 3) ...
The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia
Authors: Kubba Laith
Published: December 2020

The Islamic fnlellectual Tradition in Persia is an edited collection of essays by SeyyedHossein Nasr, the Iranian metaphysician and ontolgist, on Muslim philosophers and theintimate relationship between Persian culture and its philosophical schools. The 24 essayswere written over a period of four decades and scattered among numerous journals and collections.The book is divided into six parts: Islamic thought and Persian culture; earlyIslamic philosophy; the works of al Suhrawardj; philosophers, poets, and scientists; laterIslamic philosophy; and Islamic thought in modem Iran. The essays highlight Nasr's prolificand learned scholarship on the development of Islamic philosophy and illuminatemany aspects of the rich philosophical traditions in Islamic Persia and its history.Throughout this unique collection of articles, Nasr covers the lives and works ofmore than fifteen prominent thinkers and scientists who made significant contributions tothe evolution of the Islamic intellectual traditions in the Muslim world in general and inIslamic Persia in particular. Among those covered are al Farabi, lbn Sina, al BirOni, N????irKhusraw, Fakhr al Din al Razi, al Suhrawardi, Quib al Din Shirazi, $adr al Din Shiriizi,and Mullii HadT Sabzawari. Nasr presents their ideas through their actual works andinforms readers of their conditions and life stories in an easy and enjoyable sty le, whichallows the reader to learn about their ideas and conditions through the lives of these greatphilosophers. Their lives and works cover a wide spectrum of the Muslim mind and beara noticeable interplay of ideas from different fields, ideas that can neither be separatedfrom their conditions nor confined to one field.The book touches on many subjects of pure academic interest and provides an insightinto Persian culture. Although the essays are useful in researching the intellectual historyof Muslim philosophers in the largest sense, no one essay researches the development ofspecific ideas or aspects of the Persian philosophers. Nasr 's essays describe al Fara bi asthe "second teacher" in philosophy and elaborates on lbn Sina's contributions to logic andlanguage, metaphysics and cosmology, medicine pharmacology, and psychology. Someof their works cover classical debates on being and existence, what is learned and what isrealized, discursive knowledge and the insights of illumination, and concepts of unity and ...
First Contemporary Muslim Philosophers Conference
Authors: Hussain Ahmad Iftheqar
Published: December 2020

Early Saturday morning on 16 May 1998, fifty people made their wayinto the conference room of Georgetown University’s SalaamIntercultural Center for the first annual conference of the Association ofContemporary Muslim Philosophers. Looking into their eyes, one couldsee a glimmer of hope and the fire of enthusiasm. Clearly, this was notgoing to be a run of the mill encounter of Muslim minds. Some of thegreatest intellects of the Muslim world were present, among themProfessor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Dr. T a B JBbir a1 ‘AlwBni, and Dr. KamalHassan. Young students with fresh countenances and effervescent commentswaited to deliberate upon such issues as the difference betweenpublic and private philosophy, the role of postmodernism in the Muslimworld, and why and in what condition does the Muslim intellectual traditionfind itself.Ironically, this occurred in view of an immense Jesuit Crucifix heraldedby the Greek letters alpha and omega, which symbolize Christ.While for some this signified the contradiction and turmoil presentwithin current Muslim philosophical discourse, for others it embodieda promising message. For those who saw it as a positive symbol,including myself, the cross served to illustrate the universe, markingthe four cardinal directions of space, and the surrounding alpha andomega symbolized the all-encompassing nature of the Qur’an. On aterrestrial level, it verified the resilient nature of the Muslim intellectfor, quite obviously, we were a group of Mhims meeting in a Jesuitinstitution to talk about reviving Islamic philosophy. Nevertheless, theuniversal significance of that symbol was realized by the spirit of thegathering and in the profound discussions afforded by all those present.The conference started with a moment of reflection upon the versesof the Qur’an found in Siirat a1 ‘Alaq: ...
Training of Psychosocial and Medical Practitioners in Fighting Substance Addiction in Muslim and Arab Cultures
Authors: Badri Malik B.
Published: December 2020

This article argues that the Western approach to dealing with drugaddicts is a failure for several reasons. It treats drug addiction from anamoral perspective, seeking external solutions to the problem, whichhave failed in the West as well as in the Muslim World where they wereimported without adjustment for local culture and values. The paperasserts that, Islam embodies values which can not only empower thedrug addict to permanently eschew use of drugs, but can also create anenvironment where there will be no temptation to use them in the firstplace. While recommending treatment, the paper underscores thevirtues of prevention. The paper advances strategies that would enableparents, teachers, the mass media, and practitioners to use the Muslimfaith in eliminating drug usage.
Human Nature from a Comparative Psychological Perspective
Authors: Achoui Mustapha
Published: December 2020

This paper seeks to advance an understanding of Human Naturethrough Islamic Sources. The paper also seeks to adopt a self-consciouslycomparative approach to psychology, comparing Islamic perspectivewith Western views. The author explores Islamic views on thethree dimensions of psychology - the spiritual, the physiological andthe behavioral. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for atheoretical basis to define the psychological vision of human nature andto identify the subject matter of psychology within Islamic framework.Psychology cannot be separated from religious, philosophical andmoral issues, the paper insists, therefore it is important that they be integratedin the efforts to articulate Islamic psychology.
Islamization of the Curriculum
Authors: Hashim Rosnani
Published: December 2020

This paper makes two important arguments. It demonstrates how thecurriculum design is important for the mod and social well-being ofindividuals as well as societies. Having asserted that, the paper arguesthat curriculum design depends fundamentally on a well-defined philosophyof education. Without a philosophy of education that can givemoral purpose to both individuals as well as societies, it will be difficultto identify a core element that can anchor the curriculum design.The paper then proceeds to identify the fundamental elements of anIslamic education philosophy and from it elicits the core concerns of anIslamic education curriculum. The paper also discusses several strategiesto integrate revealed knowledge and acquired sciences for Muslimuniversities and schools.
War Industry and Unjust Distribution as a Global Problem
Authors: Koylu Mustafa
Published: December 2020

The article identifies the global growth of the war industry and weapons trade along with inequitable distribution of wealth and unjust econom­ic systems as major reasons for the tack of peace and prosperity every­where in the world. The article discusses the political economy of war and its implications on the socioeconomic elements of society. The paper illustrates through an economic evaluation of the Gulf War and the Iran-Iraq War the enormous damage that modem weapons and modem wars can burden a nation and its civilian population. The arti­cle does not offer any specific strategies to deal with either the ravages of the war industry during war as well as during peace, or with the inherent inequity in the economic system. But the author hopes that the awareness of these problems and their incredibly devastating conse­quences will exhort everyone into address them.
God of Battles
Authors: Boase Roger
Published: December 2020

This is a study of warfare fought in the name of God by Jews, Christians, andMuslims from biblical until modem times. The book is impressive in its scopeand in the wide range of authorities consulted; the author has gone out of hisway to be neutral and impartial. In his introduction, for example, Partner recognizesthat "less than half a century ago, unconscious of their own arroganceand inaccuracy. Westerners used to write confidently about something theycalled the Arab mind" (p. xix). The book's critical apparatus is nearly perfect:there is a glossary, a chronological table, and an index; and, in addition to ashort bibliography with the notes to each chapter, there is a brief reading list ondifferent topics. This means that students will find the book easy to use.Having said this, readers should be warned that, like most academicresearch, the general tone is dogmatically secular and cynical about spiritualmotives. Although the author criticizes the prejudices of earlier historians, hehimself speaks of Islam as "a program of conquest" and states that "Muslimsset themselves almost from the outset the task of Islamizing the whole worldby force of arms" (p. 38). Despite his remarks on the greater jihad, referring tothe inner spiritual struggle against evil, there is little recognition of Islam as aspiritual message; he says that Muhammad ''came to warn, perhaps also to conquer"(p. 42). Indeed, the striving denoted by the verb jahada is primarily spiritualor moral as in the admonition to the Prophet: "Strive hard against thedeniers of the truth and the hypocrites" (9:73). Other passages indicate that theQur'an itself is the instrument with which believers must strive against unbelievers(25:52; 66:9). As Seyyed Hossein Nasr says, concerning the concept ofjihad, "Its translation into 'holy war,' combined with the erroneous notion ofIslam prevalent in the West as the 'religion of the sword,' has helped to eclipseits inner and spiritual significance."1 All external forms of struggle, such asfighting ignorance and injustice, are incomplete without the inner struggle, andthe result of that struggle will be peace and love: "Repel evil with that whichis better. Then he between whom and thee there was enmity will become asthough he had always been a bosom friend" (41:34) ...
The Evolution of Islamic Law of Nations and the Modern International Order
Authors: Baderin Mashood A.
Published: December 2020

As traditionally understood, the Islamic State and the Shari’ah havebeen seen inimical to contemporary international law, membership inthe United Nations Organization, and the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights. Hardline advocates of the Shari’ah argue that the institutionof nation-state and modem internationalism are hostile to theIslamic polity. The position taken here, however, argues quite the opposite.Through looking at the theory and practice of Islamic Law, it isclaimed that the Islamic Law of Nations is evolutionary in character.The participation of Muslim nations in the modem international orderis not antagonistic to the principles of Shari’ah. Islamic law can accommodatethe modern international order on the basis of cooperation andpeaceful coexistence.
The Challenge of Islam in the 21st Century
Authors: Ahmed Akhar
Published: December 2020

It is a great honor for me to be invited to give the key note address to thisvery distinguished body. I would like to express my gratitude to theAssociation of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) and in particular to its distinguishedpresident, my friend Mumtaz Ahmad. The convention is of specialsignificance this year since we are honoring the memory of the greatscholar and original thinker, Isma'il al-Faruqi. Twenty years ago he persuadedme to write a small book for his Islamization of knowledge seriescalled Towards Islamic Anthropology published by the InternationalInstitute of Islamic Thought (IIlT) shortly before his tragic death. On hearingof his death in Pakistan, I wrote the following lines which appeared inthe daily national newspaper Dawn and in my book Discovering Islam:Making Sense of Muslim History and SocietyOn the death of Ismail Faruqithere are many waysto kill an Arabyou can shoot them downin public placesor torturethem to insanityin closed roomsand call them terroristsyou can surround their villages-

making sure their women and childrenare inside- ...
God, Life and Cosmos
Authors: Kalin Ibrahim
Published: December 2020

The international Islamabad conference titled God, Life and Cosmos:Theistic Perspectives was held in Islamabad, November 6-9, 2000.Sponsored and organized by the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences(CTNS), Berkeley, United States, Islamic Research Institute (IRI),Islamabad, Pakistan, and International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT),Islamabad, Pakistan, the conference drew over fifty scholars from the fieldsof natural sciences and religious studies. A number of interesting paperswere presented on various aspects of the relation between religion and science,and each paper was critically evaluated and responded to by a respondent.The conference commenced with the introductory remarks of MuzaffarIqbal (National Library, Alberta, Canada) and then the keynote speechwhich was delivered by William Chittick, the renowned scholar of Islamicintellectual history and Ibn Arabi. Chittick’s keynote address titled“Modem Science and the Eclipse of Tawhid” focused on the sharp contrastbetween the Islamic concept of tuwhid (Divine unity) and the secularworldview of modem science. Drawing on the traditional distinctionbetween the transmitted (naqli) and intellectual (uqli) sciences, Chittickemphasized the importance of intellectual sciences in confronting the challengesof the modem world. As respondent to Chittick‘s keynote paper,Hasan al-Shafi’i (President of the International Islamic University,Islamabad, Pakistan) further elaborated on the points raised by the keynotespeaker. The f i t day of the conference closed with a wonderful presentationabout Pakistan and its history by the son and daughter of MuzaffarIqbal, the indefitagiable convener of the conference.The papers presented at the conference touched upon nearly all of themajor aspects of the religion-science relationship: the rise of modem physicalsciences and the responses of the Islamic as well as Christian worlds,philosophy of science, modem cosmology, theory of evolution and itsmeaning for the religious worldview, history of Islamic sciences and its ...
Towards an Islamic Tradition of Human Rights
Authors: Safi Louay
Published: December 2020

The notion of human rights represents a set of abstract values whoseconcretization is considered essential for ensuring a life of dignity. Theprocess through which the abstract rights are given a concrete expressionis far from being simple or straight forward. At issue is the impact of thehistorical and moral specificities of a particular culture on the way throughwhich human rights are perceived and interpreted. This article considersthe possibility of developing a tradition of human rights rooted in anIslamic worldview, and explores the impact of Islamic beliefs and values onthe interpretation and implementation of human rights.
Relativism vs. Universalism
Authors: Siddiqui Omer
Published: December 2020

This paper addresses the issue of "universality" in the human rightsdiscourse by engaging in two basic tasks: linking the UNDHR to aspecific political evolution and juxtaposing this evolution with a difFerentdistinct Islamic tradition. The paper argues that, while the liberal traditionmaintains "rights" as a construct that has evolved to be consideredinalienable by virtue of an individual's humanity, the Islamictradition asserts its own values and guidelines on human behavior as anoutgrowth of an individual's duty to God and community. Yet, despitebasic differences, the Issue is not one of achieving u n i v h in thediscourse of rights, but rather in realizing that despite conceptual andideological differences, the social and political destinations that eachtradition arrives at are so consistent. that the conceptual differences are notin and of themselves sources of divisiveness or compromise in the quest toachieve universal standards.
Environmental Politics
Authors: Ahmad Ali
Published: December 2020

The problem that confronts scholars who intend to engage in organizing issuesassociated with the environment in a manner that is logical and coherent is thatmany of those issues are conceptually overlapping, territorially interrelated, andacademically multidisciplinary. Added to this are the submerged and not so submergedtensions between environmentalism on the one hand, which restrains thefrontier exercise of human power and control over natural resources, and neoliberali.smon the other, which ordinarily considers such limitations oddities. Manyof the scholars who have been successful in this endeavor have tried to focus onrelated environmental mediums, issues, or regions.Despite its wider scope, Environmental Politics: Domestic and Global Dimensions,which is in its third edition, weaves through the maze of topics it covers using aprocess perspective. The book focuses on formal and informal institutions andprocesses in trying to develop an understanding about how global environmentalpolicies are developed in the United States. It is essential to note from the outsetthat the domestic and global dimensions of the book basically focus on the UnitedStates' responses to those challenges and, accordingly, a foreign reader may readinto the title: The US. Environmental Politicr: Domestic and Global Dimensions.The author, Dr. Jacqueline V. Switzer, does not waste any time in letting thereader know that the approach to the book is through the process model, a processwhereby the Congress, the president and his executive branch, and the judiciaryjostle for influence in formulating, implementing or redirecting environmentalpolicies (p. viii). An associate professor of political science at Northern ArizonaUniversity, the author deploys her understanding of the history, process, and conflictinginterests that have shaped the United States' environmental policies bothat home and at the international plane, to organize the complex issues covered inthe book. The third edition is remarkable for carefully updating a book that isreputed to be an information powerhouse regarding environmental policy, actors,disputes, and processes, up through the final years of the Clinton administration.It also incorporates, in each chapter, a global dimension of the main topic of thechapter, and it revises the "Another View, Another Voice" boxes of each chapter ...
New Landscapes of Religion in the West
Authors: Ahmad Fauzia
Published: December 2020

Set within the grand and lush surroundings of Mansfield College, OxfordUniversity, and hosted by the Department of Geography, this conference,held between September 27-29,20o0, attracted some of Europe’s key academicsfrom such varied disciplines as human geography, social anthropology,theology, and sociology. They met to discuss the creation andassertion, by minorities, of religious spaces in the West. About thirty tothirty-five participants discussed both empirical data and theoreticaldebates within the contexts of multiculturalism, identity, and minorityrights. Out of twenty-one papers, eight specifically dwelt on Muslim communitiesand spaces, nine were of a more general nature, focusing either onhistorical or general overviews or theoretical issues, while four concentmtedon Hindu and Sikh movements in the West. Much of the work presentedwas derived from projects conducted as part of the ESRC’s ResearchProgram on Transnational Communities, which is directed by SteveVertovec who is in the Faculty of Anthropology and Geography at theUniversity of Oxford. Vertovec, who is editor of Muslim European Youth(1998), and Ceri Peach were joint editors of Islam in Europe (1997).The conference began with a keynote address from Diana Eck of HarvardUniversity describing The Pluralism Project of which she was director. Theproject had three main aims: first, to document the increasing religiousdiversity and changing religious landscape and demography of Americancities; second, to study how religious communities are changing; and third,to assess how American society is adapting to a multireligious reality. Shedescribed how the conversion of old buildings to the development of purpose-built centers such as mosques, temples, and gurdwaras marked anarchitectural reality that served to acknowledge the United States as a pluralistsociety. Muslim communities in the US, she noted, numberedbetween five to seven million-almost as numerous as the Jewish population,and more than some Christian sects. She stressed the dynamism ofcommunity adaptations and the existence of some ‘ethnic enclaving.’ The ...
A Critique of Theories and Theorizing in Social Sciences
Authors: Muhammad Garba Bala
Published: December 2020

This paper seeks to present a critique of and an alternative to theoriesand theorizing employed by social scientists to explain the relationshipbetween religion and politics in general and Islamic PoliticalExperience in particular. Within the context of the paper we argued thatpolitcal theory can be conveniently understood in terms of theco-existence of two distinct and rival styles of though Positivism andhistoricism. For the lack of better terms we take positivism andhistoricism to be conventional and radical paradigms respectively. Theparadigms are found wanting in that they do not have the capacity toprovide a satisfactory framework of ideas and common vocabularlywith which to conduct discourse on Islamic Political Experience. In anycase, for a paradigm to do that, it must become fully subsumed in anIslamic worldview. A paradigm presented as a critique and alternativeto these paradigms is based on conceptual analysis, with pure Qur’anicand Shariah concepts providing both the framework and methdologicaltools of analysis. It is an axiomatic approach as it involves systematicanalysis of a number of axioms, the starting point of which is the ideaof the totality of Islam as an ideal which Muslims endeaovur toconcretize.
Redirection of the Sacred
Authors: Yusof Danial
Published: December 2020

In the simulacra generating age of postmodemity, the hyper-realityof contemporary society and an “anarchic” sociality warrants aninvestigation into rampant consumerism, the decline of rationalistfundamentalism as the ideology of modernity and the plethora ofresurgent-cum-resistant movements. With this scenario, the articleattempts to ascertain the value of postmodemism to Islamic scholarshipin resolving the dialectic of metanmtives and relativism, Muslimscholars must be vigilant of postmodemism as a western construct andredefine its experience through Islamic phenomenology by exploringthe complexities of heterogeneity and principles of humanity asopposed to a radical postmodemism that negates humanity asa meta-narrative and the celebration of egocentricity. Islam’s“occidentalism” is not a mental projection of moral superiority againstthe “Other” but a progressive discourse aiming to discover auniversally tolerant projection and manifestation of Islam’s ummaticbody and a representation of its tradition in a new age of possibilities.
Pluralism and Multiculturalism
Authors: Momin Abdur-Rahman
Published: December 2020

This article attempts to reconceptualize the theories of pluralism,ethnicity and multiculturalism by analyzing the present predicament ofMuslims and their mode of organization. However, this cannot be donein isolation from the normative theory, which is grounded in the Islamicsources and worldview. It provides an analytical insight into the interfaceof unity and diversity and limitation of achieving a haixnoniousrelationship between them in the modem western societies. Ideals of thewestem social theory are critiqued through the Islamic ideals toconceptualize alternative way of socio-political organization.
of Prophets, Pagans and the Middle East
Authors: Mir Raza
Published: December 2020

The term “postmodernity” perhaps owes its very popularity to the fact thatit is notoriously difficult to define. It often means all things to all people,and by its very orientation, is critical of any attempts to offer blanketdefinitions. Nevertheless, we may discern three broad orientations thatdefine postmodernity:1. It involves an “incredulity toward metanarratives.”* In other words, itrepudiates the modernist view thd individual actions can be explainedthrough universal laws.2. It focuses on the crisis of repre~entation.I~n other words, it is critical ofthe power vested in any subjectivity to represent the reality of another.3. It problematizes the issue of subject and author? For example, it wouldquestion the claim made by this journal that it is a more ‘official’ interpreterof Islamic thought than some others: a claim this joumal may seek toadvance on the basis of its institutional power.This somewhat arbitrary set of attributes associated with postmodernitymay seem quite innocuous at first reading. But postmodernity (or its nowemerging normative arm, postmodernism) is evidently much more thanthat, as its adherents and critics have pointed out. It has been associatedwith a lot of other phenomena. For instance, in the economic realm, wehave the notion of post-Fordism, a situation where the precepts of massproduction are being overturned. Based on computer-aided manufacture, arapidly heterogenizing consumer demand, and the emergence ofnewer forms of commerce (such as Ecommerce over the internet), a newindustrial paradigm is emerging.5 At the same time, we have thephenomenon of post-nationalism, where the sovereignty of nations is beingthreatened by the emergence of supranational forms of governance suchas multinational corporations and the WT0.6 However, the issue that ...
Nigeria and the Arab States
Authors: Chidebe Chris
Published: December 2020

Nigeria is the most populous state in Africa south of the Sahara. Her geography and her history together make her an interesting socio­political and cultural experiment. It is a land with believers in both Islam and Christianity. A country whose northern parts were the prizes of jihadic victory of a highly Islamized Fulani elite, and whose southern portions are inhabited by peoples who were voluntarily or involuntarily brought under the control of the marching Christian soldiers determined to expand the domain of imperial Europe and committed to recruiting souls for Jesus. Nigeria is a meeting ground for two periods in African history. It is the place where Islam still rejoices over its past glories and successes; it is also a place where Euro-Western Christianity has made a major breakthrough. It is against this background, and with such facts in mind, that the subject of Nigerian-Arab relations is here explored. I divide this paper into four parts. The first part is a brief historical sketch of the impact of Arabs and Islam on the Nigerian society and the Nigerian mind. The second part addresses itself to the early post-colonial period in Nigerian­Arab relations; the third part discusses Nigerian-Arab relations under military rule in Nigeria; the fourth part discusses Nigeria's Third Republic and the Arab states. A. Islam, Arabs and NigeriaThe arrival of Islam in northern Nigeria dates back to the 11th century and constitutes a major development in the history of this region of Africa. It not only linked the Hausas, the Fulanis, and other Islamized ethnic groups with the wider world of Islam to the north, northeast, and west, but it also opened up the possibility of Muslim expansion southwards. Indeed, one of the effects of lslamization in Northern Nigeria was the emergence of a full-fledged Islamic culture and civilization in certain parts of what we now call Nigeria. The sphere of ...