How Islamic Has the “Islamic State” Been?

Two principal views have emerged on the nature and operations of the so-called Islamic State or khilafat. One contends that IS had nothing to do with Islam in both its ideological disposition and practical operations. The other view claims that IS was the embodiment of a Salafist?Wahhabi version of Islam, and therefore it was Islamic. Whereas the first view recognizes the fact that Islam like any divine faith is open to a range of interpretations and applications, the second perspective has treated Islam as a monolithically adaptable doctrine, ignoring the diversity within the Muslim world. The question is: Was IS Islamic or not, or did it exude a form of political Salafism and Islamism of our time?     

Devout Muslims or tough highlanders? Exploring attitudes toward ethnic nationalism and racism in Europe’s ethnic-Chechen Salafi communities

This is the first article that systematically deconstructs the idealised, widely shared view and formal self-representation of Salafis as a de-culturalised group of Muslim believers who are solely devoted to the idea of a uniform Muslim identity and are indifferent to the notions of ethnic nationalism and racism. Drawing on unique interviews with EU-based ethnic-Chechen émigré Salafis, the article illuminates the ways they draw boundaries and consequently construe their ethnic and racial identities as superior and opposed to Muslims stemming from the Middle East and Central Asia. Below the surface of coherent ideologically shaped self-representations, the diaspora Salafis’ identities reflect the idea of Chechnya’s mountainous topography being conducive to a superior ‘national mentality’, racial purity, and cultural uniqueness. Intriguingly, the diaspora-Chechen Salafis’ attitudes toward Middle Easterners and Central Asians employ a rhetoric which entails similarities with the notion of imagined geographies and to some extent resembles Western Orientalist discourse. In stark contrast to leading Salafi scholars’ statements emphasising a united Muslim identity, which are routinely echoed by outsiders, this article points out the maintenance of strong ethnic-nationalist and racist resentments amongst individual members of this religious community.     

What They Really Want Is a Caliphate! British Salafi Reactions to the Arab Spring

This contribution discusses the lack of references to the success of Salafi parties in the Middle East after the Arab Spring, in Egypt especially, by groups who self-identify as Salafi outside the Middle East. In their interpretation of the uprisings known as the Arab Spring, British Salafis have emphasised that Arab Muslim populations in the Middle East want an Islamic Caliphate despite cries for liberal rights and democracy. The aim of this contribution is to provide a theoretical frame for analysing a type of European Salafism on the rise preoccupied with establishing “Sharia Zones” and controlling fellow Muslims’ observance of Islamic principles in British cities but with little interest in political developments in Muslim majority countries. Rather than working for political influence, the British so-called Salafis in al-Muhajiroun are preoccupied with defining a place of their own in their European context. Thus, the argument is that in order to understand current Salafi-inspired movements in the Middle East and Europe, it is necessary to analyse practice, rhetorical expressions and political context rather than how various groups self-identify.     

Muslims in Fiji: a brief survey

Chaitwat Satha‐Anand

Islam and Violence: A Case Study of Violent Events in the Four Southern Province, Thailand, 1976–1981.

Monographs in Religion and Public Policy. No. 2., Department of Religious Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, 1986, pp.54 (bibliography).

Malise Ruthven

Islam in the World

London: Oxford University Press, 1984, Price $10.95

Mumtaz Ahmad (Ed.)

State Politics and Islam

Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1986.160 pp. n.p.

Akbar S. Ahmed

Discovering Islam: Making Sense of Muslim History and Society

London, Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1988, pp.253.

David Gilmartin

Empire and Islam — Punjab and the Making of Pakistan

Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1988, pp. xii+258.

Kail C. Ellis, ed.

The Vatican, Islam, and the Middle East

Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1987, pp 344.     

The Muslim Continuum: An Analytical Model of Religiosity and Socio-Political Diversity in Muslim Minority Environments

This paper examines the challenges facing Muslim societies in the early part of the twenty-first century. The paper examines tensions between “liberal” interpretations of Islam and extreme views within a globalisation paradigm and how these are changing. Specifically, the work investigates how the spotlight on Islam and its adherents in a post-9/11 world has manifest among Muslim individuals, groups and societies and how these may change to accommodate or react to the shifting global frame of mind towards Islam and the Muslims. Analysis is provided within the context of Muslim minority dwellers, with focus on Muslims living in Britain. The paper further proposes a fundamentalism continuum based on Dekmejian’s¹ model and analyses its impact on the Muslim Diaspora.     

重视研究西部大开发中的伊斯兰教现实问题

实施西部大开发战略 ,必须正确处理大开发与伊斯兰教的关系 ,从而动员和团结广大穆斯林群众积极投身于西部大开发的伟大进程 ,组织和推动伊斯兰教界在实施西部大开发中作出应有的贡献 ,积极引导伊斯兰教与社会主义社会相适应。本文作者根据工作实践 ,提出一些与西部大开发有关的伊斯兰教现实问题 ,并认为应切实加以研究探讨 ,如维护祖国统一 ,反对民族分裂主义和宗教极端主义 ;关注中国穆斯林与西部地区城市化的关系 ;加紧培养造就新世纪伊斯兰教事业接班人 ,其中包括伊斯兰教高层人士或领袖人物 ,也包括一批高素质、爱国爱教的年轻阿洪或毛拉 ;在广大穆斯林中进一步加强民族宗教政策和法制教育 ;研究和掌握利用网络技术传递伊斯兰教信息等问题     

Do Muslims See Australia as Their Homeland? The Notion of watan al-asli and watan al-sukna in Islam

Abstract

The concept of “country” or homeland in Islam was defined by Muslim jurists in the eighth century in the light of the sacred text. They set three categories: watan al-asli, the country of birth, the country of one's spouse or the place of permanent residence; watan al-sukna, the country of temporary residence and employment; and watan al-safari, the country that is traveled to. Accordingly, for Muslims immigrating to Australia, their new country falls into one of these categories. Muslim contact with Australia stretches back centuries. However, although early Muslims arrived on Australian shores before Europeans, they did not settle. It was not until the late 1960s, when Muslims came in mass immigration, that permanent communities were established. Since then, particularly over the last two decades, Muslims have become gradually more visible. This increase in prominence has raised anxiety from some segments of the Australian community. There are groups who view Islam as an obstacle for integration. The loyalty of Muslims to Australia is being debated, discussed and questioned by some intellectuals, politicians, media and other Australians with little or no knowledge of the Islamic theological perspective of the “notion of country”. In this article, I will argue that the “notion of country”, a concept of which even the majority of Muslims are not aware, supports integration. This article will also explore the concept of “homeland” in Islamic theology and jurisprudence and discuss the findings of a survey on Muslims’ views about Australia as home.     

Marketing an imagined Muslim woman: Muslim Girl magazine and the politics of race,gender and representation

This article examines the magazine Muslim Girl (started publication 2007) and explores how the representations on the magazine's pages construct a particular type of identity for Muslim women: an ‘idealized’ Muslim woman who is both North American/Western and Muslim. Such a woman is portrayed as liberal, educated, fashionable, a ‘can-do’ woman, who is also committed to her faith. This ‘ideal’ woman is situated squarely as a neo-liberal subject in an increasingly consumerist world: she is ‘marketable’ (and marketed) as the ‘good Muslim’ (Mamdani, 2004) and is positioned as the ‘familiar stranger’ (Ahmed, 2000) in North America. This so-called ‘modern’ Muslim (read: ‘good Muslim’) is juxtaposed both against the ‘fundamentalist’ Muslim (read: ‘bad Muslim’) and the ‘normalized’ white North American subject. Against the discourse of post 9/11 nationalism and within the context of (gendered) Orientalism, this article argues that such idealized representations present easily recognizable tropes, which serve important political, ideological and cultural purposes within North American society. An analysis of these representations – and the purposes which they serve – provides an important window into the nuances of the structured discourses that seek to control and discipline the gendered Muslim body. On the one hand, the representations in Muslim Girl focus on the so-called ‘integrated North American Muslim’ – a ‘modern’ or ‘good’ Muslim – within the context of the multicultural, neo-liberal and post 9/11 nation-state. On the other hand, these representations also highlight examples of Muslim women, who seemingly remain committed to their faith and community. Such representations of hybridized North American Muslims speak powerfully to the forces – ideological, cultural, political and social – that are at play in the post 9/11 world. In analyzing the representations found in Muslim Girl, this paper provides an insight into some of these forces and their implications.     

民族宗教学视野下伊斯兰教的民族性与回族的宗教性

通过伊斯兰教了解回族群体的生存状态、历史发展,考察回族文化的变迁与特色;反之,从回族的角度考察伊斯兰教,以便从回族群体的精神层面角度把握伊斯兰教,了解回族的深层心理和情感依托;通过对民族认同和宗教认同的比较解析两者的涵摄关系。借鉴民族宗教学理论探讨伊斯兰教和回族之间的关系,探讨伊斯兰教的民族性和回族的宗教性。     

Muslim Faith and Work Ethic in the United States Virgin Islands

The objective of the following article is to examine why a small number of Muslims from the Middle East chose to settle in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). Further, the article is interested in how this Muslim community has retained its work ethic and religious identity in a predominantly Christianized USVI. The article also explores the relationship between this Muslim community and the USVI particularly since the events of 11 September 2001 (9/11). The findings are startling. Unlike some Muslim minority communities that have been unable to make significant strides forward, Muslims in the USVI have achieved impressive levels of economic achievement. Muslims have effectively dominated the retail business in the USVI while largely retaining the religious ways of their homeland, despite some assimilation. Local structural issues such as the inefficient entrepreneurial skills and unstable family ties among Virgin Islanders, as well as an upsurge in investment in tourism and industry, have paved the way for Muslims’ success in the USVI. Other Muslim minority societies trying to achieve growth and development in a foreign land might look at the manner in which Muslims in the USVI have achieved success and financial security.     

太原伊斯兰教研究

本文首先介绍了太原地名的历史沿革,接着概括了太原伊斯兰教的地位,探讨了伊斯兰教传入太原的时间。然后将太原与附近有关城市放在一起作为一个特殊的传播地带来探讨伊斯兰教在这里的普传。紧接着又扼要介绍了明、清、民国三代外地穆斯林向太原的逐步移居、10个主要穆斯林姓氏的职业情况及清末的一些穆斯林商号。随后重点介绍了太原清真古寺的建筑成就,列举了其中的众多碑刻牌匾;重点介绍了明清之际傅山与梁、文、李等姓穆斯林的友谊及他们之间的回儒或回汉文化交流。最后探讨了太原伊斯兰教的近代转型及其特点。     

‘I grew a beard and my dad flipped out!’ Co-option of British Muslim parents in countering ‘extremism’ within their families in Bradford and Leeds

Research on the effects of counter-terrorism has argued that Muslims are constructed as a ‘suspect community’. However, there remains a paucity of research exploring divisive effects membership to a ‘suspect community’ has on relations within Muslim families. Drawing from interviews conducted in 2010–2011 with British Muslims living in Bradford or Leeds, I address this gap by examining how co-option of Muslim parents to counter extremism fractures relations within Muslim families. I show that internalising fears of their children being radicalised or indeed radicalising others, means parents judge young Muslims’ religious practices through a restrictive moderate/extremist binary. I advance the category of ‘internal suspect body’ which is materialised through two intersecting conditions: the suspected Muslim extremist to lookout for and young Muslims at risk of radicalisation. I delineate the reproductive effects of terrors of counter-terrorism on Muslims’ experiences as they traverse state, intra-group and individual levels.     

正教与正学--从《正教真诠》看王岱舆的教道观

王岱舆所谓"正教",即伊斯兰教.所谓"正学",就是以伊斯兰教经训为内容和对象的学问.也就是说,有关伊斯兰教的宗教知识就是所谓"正学".明清之际的穆斯林学者从伊斯兰教立场出发,以弘扬伊斯兰教义为宗旨,在探讨"正教"与"正学"时,有时涉及对于儒释道各家思想学说的批评和议论,为我们提供了伊斯兰教关于该问题的一种学术思考.     

Islam,Moderation, Radicalism,and Justly Balanced Communities

If media outlets and political rhetoric are to be believed, then the way to counter “radical” Islam is through “moderate” Islam. Seemingly, “moderate” Islam is that which “radical” Islam is not. In appointing “moderate” Islam as an antidote to “radical” Islam, the implication is that, conceptually at least, the two terms are contradistinctive. Yet, while much is, perceivably, known about “radical” Islam, with its associated ills of an unequivocal Islamic worldview, very little attention has been afforded to this signifier, “moderate”. Inasmuch as this term is bandied around, even scholars of Islam will acknowledge that, within Islamic education, understandings of and debates on conceptions of moderation, and moderate Muslim communities, have been somewhat overlooked. What, therefore, is a “moderate” Islam? What is a “moderate” Muslim community and how would it act? What are the implications for a “moderate” community in relation to pluralist societies? And, can such a “moderate” community offer a practical response not only to “radical” Islam, but, perhaps, more importantly, to increasingly antagonistic, liberal contexts?     

Melbourne's Islamic Museum of Australia: The “White-Washed ‘I’” as an Apollonian Celebration of Liberal Myths

Abstract

This paper examines how the Melbourne's Islamic Museum of Australia tells a story of an “Australian Islam” through its use of material and artistic objects; how it symbolizes and synthesizes the assumed binary of East and West, through spatial expressions that narrate a religious community's “growing up” in a changing urban and Australian context. Furthermore, it looks at how the curators, intentionally or otherwise, deal politically with the Muslim community's affective relationships that are shaped by their experiences as a minority that endures a persistent Islamophobia in the community. By examining the role the Museum's material artefacts play in intercultural relations within a multicultural Australia the paper draws from Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, to argue that the Museum reflects an Apollonian sense of art that attempts to regulate and control the wilder excesses of a Dionysian and communal spirit. The Apollonian view translates to an expressive and abstract celebration of liberal myths about progress and individuality that purposely relegates the more dangerous struggles of Muslim immigrants dealing with the conditions of a Dionysian post-colony to the shadows.     

Muslims in Europe: the lost tribe of Islam?

The Muslim presence in Europe has caused the Christian churches to focus their attention on a number of issues arising out of this presence and the following article is a review of three papers put out by church organizations. Starting chronologically from the earliest paper to the most recent, I have first summarized the contents of each paper before analysing and commenting on them collectively. The three Church Research Papers on Muslims in Europe are Witness to God in a Secular Europe, Conference of European Churches, Geneva 1985, The Image of Islam in German School Textbooks by Udo Tworuschka, Muslims in Europe. No. 32, 1986, and Islamic Law and its Significance for the Situation of Muslim Minorities in Europe, Report of a study project, Muslims in Europe, No. 35,1987.     

The Secular and the Religious in the Management of Islam in Singapore

This article examines the Singaporean model of “secularism” and its impact on the relations between the Singaporean government and the minority Muslim community in Singapore. While the Singaporean state defines itself as secular, its policies do not depict a strict dichotomy between religion and state. This paper argues that the obscure nature of secularism in Singapore has led to tensions on several issues between the government and Muslim community due to differing perceptions of what Singaporean secularism means. The first section of the paper deals with the concept of secularism as defined by the Singaporean state and examine the historical factors that led to the provision of special rights to Muslims in Singapore. The paper will then analyse the legal positions of institutions such as the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura, MUIS) and the Syariah court which are tasked with managing Islamic affairs in Singapore. Lastly, the paper will analyse how the unique definition of secularism in Singapore led to tensions between the government and the Muslim community. These cases included the headscarf controversy that erupted in 2002 and 2013, the madrasah controversy in 1999, foreign policy issues and terrorism. The paper concludes by drawing a trajectory of the future relations between the Singaporean government and the Muslim community.     

Book reviews

Michael Rywkin

Moscow's Muslim Challenge – Soviet Central Asia

Armonk (N.Y.): M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1982, pp. 200; $25.00

E. Allen Richardson

Islamic Cultures in North America: Patterns of Belief and Devotion of Muslims from Asian Countries in the United States and Canada, New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1981, 64 pp. $3.95.

Muhammad Imran

Position and Prospects of Islam in Latin American Lahore: Malik Sirajuddin & Sons, 1979, Price n. m.     

Bosnia and the Middle East: Current Political,Economic and Cultural Ties

This article will review and analyze Bosnia’s political, economic and cultural ties with the Middle East, most especially Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel, as well as the evolution of Muslim identity in that republic, especially since the late 1960s when there was an internal liberalization process in part influenced by Yugoslavia’s policy on non-alignment. Today, Bosnians of all ethnic and religious backgrounds must contend with internal divisions and tensions exacerbated by the 1992–1995 war while utilizing a very cumbersome political system that may have brought peace at the expense of unity. Bosnia’s geographical location draws that country toward the rest of Europe while history and the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, also draws Muslims toward the Middle East.     

霸权、话语、认同与伊斯兰——评《西方霸权语境中的阿拉伯-伊斯兰问题研究》

上海外国语大学中东研究所马丽蓉教授的新著《西方霸权语境中的阿拉伯—伊斯兰问题研究》,沿着从霸权到话语霸权再到认同的逻辑思路,辅以对西方"东方主义"心理状态的分析,对西方霸权语境之下的阿拉伯—伊斯兰问题进行了深刻的论述。对于以中东为核心的阿拉伯—伊斯兰世界的争夺和控制是西方霸权的重要体现,霸权必然发展为对话语权的争夺以获得话语霸权,从而形成以妖魔化伊斯兰为特征的"遮蔽的伊斯兰"。霸权与话语霸权的争夺是深层的认同政治的表现,如何在文明对话和文化自觉的基础上进行认同重构,则是当前包括阿拉伯—伊斯兰文明在内的各大文明体系面临的重大挑战。