Where tradition and ‘modern’ knowledge meet: exploring two Islamic schools in Singapore and Britain

Muslims live in a ‘modern’ world where subjects such as the English language, mathematics, sciences, and information and communication technology (ICT) are highly valued and enthusiastically transmitted in schools. How some Islamic schools attempt to equip their students with ‘modern knowledge’ while remaining faithful to their religious traditions is the focus of this exploratory study. Using two Islamic schools in Singapore and Britain as illustrative case studies, this paper examines their history, aims, curriculum and pedagogy in their aspiration to acquire ‘modern’ knowledge within their Islamic world views. It further explores some common challenges faced by students and teachers in both schools in their quest for a balanced curriculum. By highlighting the Islamic schools in two Muslim minority countries, this paper aims to contribute towards the international literature on how religious schools assert their cultural heritage and negotiate their learning in the modern age.     

Between Two Cultures? Muslim Children in a Western Liberal Society

SUMMARY: The experiences of Muslim children in Britain highlight some, of the complexities in the nation of cultural development. Their main problem is often described in terms of being trapped between the traditional Islamic values of their parents and the liberal and often secular values of the school. Multicultural education has not been able to resolve this problem fully, but as young Muslims themselves seek far creative ways of combining full British citizenship with their own distinctive religious commitments, there are signs that a new British Muslim cultural identity is gradually emerging.     

《古兰经》和圣训中的伊斯兰经济思想

伊斯兰经济思想是关于阿拉伯-伊斯兰社会经济问题理论和观点的统称。其渊源主要依据《古兰经》和圣训,以伊斯兰信仰和道德伦理为基本特点。伊斯兰积极入世的思想,对社会、经济、生活均有指导和干预作用,因此,其经济思想、理论、实践都受《古兰经》和圣训教诲的制约。无论是过去还是现在,以《古兰经》和圣训为核心的伊斯兰经济思想对阿拉伯-伊斯兰世界经济理论及其实践都有着直接的影响。     

Environmental conversions and muslim activists: constructing knowledge at the intersection of religion and politics

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the production of knowledge by Muslim environmental activists in the United States and Great Britain, applying Eyerman and Jamison’s theory of cognitive praxis to demonstrate how religious and political knowledge and practices are synthesised by the activists. The paper emerges from research conducted with Islamic environmental organizations in the United States and Great Britain in 2012–2013 and utilises data gathered from interviews conducted with Muslim environmental activists working in those organizations and from the publicly available newsletters, websites, and articles produced by the activists and organizations. I argue that through the integration of environmental and religious knowledge, Muslim environmentalists construct a ‘critical community’ within Islam that seeks to transform orthodox Islamic knowledge and practice. In the process, Muslim environmentalists demonstrate that religiously-grounded social movements may simultaneously pursue religious and political change.     

Islamic orientations in contemporary Indonesia: Islamism on the rise?

Indonesia has approximately 240 million people, and more than 85% of the population are Muslims. Whilst incidents of religious intolerance have frequently been reported in the mass media, political Islam in Indonesia, represented by Islamic political parties, seems to have failed to gain popular support. Against this conflicting standing of Islam and Islamic organizations in Indonesia, this study focuses on Muslim religiosity and perceptions of the role of Islam in contemporary Indonesia. Based on our survey of 1500 Muslims in Indonesia in 2010, and case studies in regional Indonesia, this paper shows that, due to sociocultural change in regional Indonesia, and the diffusion of religious authority through media use, Indonesian Muslims are becoming less political Islamists, and more sociocultural Islamists who are attempting to advocate Islamic morality. This trend is in line with scholarly observations of post-Islamism prevalent in other parts of the Muslim world.     

Muslim Women's Challenges to Islamic Law The Case of Malaysia

The reform of Islam by women and especially the lessons this activism might contain for feminist praxis is a highly topical and important issue. This article outlines some of the lessons to be drawn from studying this area with a specific focus on the activism of some groups of Malaysian Muslim women aimed at the reform of Islam. Two different strategies for reform are explained and traced in their attempts to reform religious interpretation and the Islamic legal system, the Syar'iah. The aim of the article is to provoke dialogue over the relationship of Islam to women's rights, while highlighting the agency of Muslim women within an Islamic framework. Another aim is to contribute to the debate over what constitutes feminism and the need to subject the debate continuously to cross-cultural and international perspectives.     

An islamic perspective for strengths-based social work with muslim clients

This paper examines the Islamic concept of fi?ra or ‘original purity’ in relation to the strengths perspective in social work as a basis to guide religious and culturally appropriate services to Muslim clients. Both fi?ra and the strengths perspective presuppose a positive view of humankind; people are viewed as resilient and capable of growth and development, albeit in respective Islamic and secular systems, these outcomes are towards different ends. In Islam, growth and development links to the self but, ultimately, also to one's relationship with God. In secular social work systems, individual effort and the ability to overcome adversity and become whole are key and need not necessarily be linked to a God. This paper assesses the concept of fi?ra in relation to the strengths perspective to determine a religious and culturally appropriate equivalent for working with Muslim clients within the broader context of multicultural practice.     

Between universalism and particularism: the historical bases of Muslim communal,national, and global identities

In recent decades there has been an extraordinary flourishing of transnational and global Islamic movements. Most of these are religious reform and missionary movements; some are political networks working to form Islamic states. Yet on closer examination we find that universalistic Islamic movements are almost always embedded in national state and parochial settings. Muslim, and national, ethnic, tribal and local identities blend together. This blending of universalistic and particularistic affiliations has deep‐rooted precedents in Islamic history. The original Muslim community of Medina represented a monotheistic vision encadred in a community of clans. The universal empire of the Caliphate gave rise to schools, brotherhoods, and sectarian communities. Sufi reform teachings of the late seventeenth to the twentieth century defined Islamo‐tribal movements. In the twentieth century universalistic Islamic reformism inspired nationalism and anti‐colonialism. The paper concludes with some comments on the mechanisms by which historical and cultural precedents are carried into modern times.     

Muslim women between secular state and religion

The main thesis of this paper assumes that, while we are not arguing for a full-fledged personal law system in Italy (which provides Muslims with different legal systems), we assume that diversity-conscious respect for difference and its legal recognition is a better strategy for achieving justice than a blindfolded Eurocentric vision, based on uniformising secular methods. This paper suggests the adoption of a model of legal intervention for integrating Muslims into Italian liberal democracy. I will call this model a ‘pluralistic institutional approach to integration’, based on a ‘a joint governance approach’. It requires a conceptual break with absolute, unlimited and undivided sovereignty and jurisdiction. Such a pluralistic institutional approach to integration encourages the accommodation of some of the most pressing minority demands in some limited areas. In family law – as we will see – there can be different possible solutions available to conduct their private relationship compatible with their understanding of Islam. However, any policy of accommodation needs to pay special attention to the fact that traditional religious Muslim norms contain practices that may cause harm to vulnerable subjects. Therefore the advocacy and introduction of a plural legal order must be based on respect for key liberal values. In this paper I will not use the generic term sharia (Islamic law) but the term Muslim norms, because I would like to underline the fact that some Muslims are calling for accommodation of norms that derive from their understanding of their religion, including not only standards based on or derived from sharia or fiqh (jurisprudence) but also general ethical principles derived from Islamic religious culture (see Nasir 2002). The focus on religious norms or values makes it clear that the main motivation for the accommodation of Muslim norms would be to maximise individual autonomy and minority protection. In this sense, the accommodation of Muslim norms is subject to the ultimate regulation of the Italian constitutional and legal system. The paper is structured in the following way. Section I of the paper deals with the ‘myth of legal centralism’ and presents a general overview of the empirical situation created by the troublesome Muslim integration in Italy. We will provide some quantitative data on Muslim immigration in Italy. Since ‘Muslim’ is a broad category, it needs to be given as much specificity as possible in order to avoid producing images of a monolithic and undifferentiated religious community. Section II sets out the model of what I have labelled ‘a pluralistic institutional approach to integration’. The substantive claim is that this pluralistic institutional approach to integration provides promising options for the incorporation of cultural and religious minorities, challenging the assumption that it is impossible to grant consideration to religious diversity and gender equality at the same time. Of special interest here are those situations in which claims for so-called ‘Muslim Sharia Arbitration Councils’, religious-based arbitration tribunals, interact with public concerns about power disparities between men and women in the resolution of family law disputes. We will demonstrate the possibility of implementing such a vision by reference to a recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, Bruker v. Marcovitz (2007), which breaks new ground.     

Narrowing the gap: the educational achievements of the Malay community in Singapore

This paper discusses the educational gap between the Malay community and other ethnic communities in Singapore. Using official statistics from 1980 to 2004, the paper compares the educational achievements of the Malay community with other ethnic communities in Singapore. The paper points out that, while the Malay students have made significant improvements in their educational achievements over the years, they are still lagging behind the other ethnic communities in Singapore. Three key educational challenges faced by the Malay community and the responses to these challenges are discussed in this paper. The paper recommends that a framework should be introduced to the Malay students in Singapore to integrate secular and religious subjects within an Islamic conception of knowledge.     

Youth participation in ‘post‐secular’ times: young Muslim and Buddhist practitioners as religious citizens

Recently there has been renewed interest in the role of religion in the public sphere in the context of a ‘post‐secular’ age characterized by the resurgence of religious identities and communities in increasingly diverse, multi‐faith societies. Young people's active political and civic engagement has also emerged as a core challenge for robust democracies. While an interesting body of current research suggests that religious commitment may cultivate participation amongst youth by acting as an incubator of civic and political engagement, such literature often positions religiosity as outside of, and consequently at odds with participation in a secular public sphere. We suggest that while religiosity may indeed act as an incubator for civic and political engagement, we propose greater attention to an emergence of alternative, entwined conceptualizations of religious citizenship evident in the practices, performances and dispositions of young Muslim and Buddhist religious practitioners in Australia, whereby processes of individuation contribute to greater fluidity within and across the domains of the religious and the civic.     

Exploring the role of faith in resettlement among Muslim Syrian refugees

ABSTRACT

Over 95% of the refugees from Syria who have resettled in the United States are Muslim. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the role of the Islamic faith in contributing to resiliency among recently resettled refugees from Syria. Ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Syrian adults who had arrived in the United States between 3 months and 2 years prior to the study. Findings emphasized the primary role of the Islamic faith in the lives of participants. For participants in this study, identifying as Muslim was an essential part of their identity and served as a source of comfort, strength, pride, and humility. Parents in the study expressed fears that their children would lose their connection to their culture and would grow up to devalue the Islamic faith and traditional religious practices due to their exposure to American values which they viewed less strict regarding dress, alcohol consumption, and faith practices. Understanding the important role that the Islamic faith can have in providing a source of comfort, strength, and empowerment for Syrian refugees, and working to build infrastructure to support and sustain these faith traditions is an essential component of refugee resettlement in the United States.     

Culture and the law in Islam

Rather than living in a homogeneous world, Muslim women participate in vastly different cultures. The Women Living Under Muslim Law (WLUML) Network was set up to unite women in Muslim countries across the world and to stimulate them to analyze and reconceptualize the nature of their situation in order to formulate strategies for change. In Muslim countries, the law provides a web of rules which shape every aspect of women's lives. Because these laws have been presented as "Islamic," traditional human rights groups have been loathe to criticize them for fear of trampling religious rights. The WLUML started the "Women and the Law" project, therefore, to chart and conduct action-oriented research in law in 26 countries. This project is based on the conviction that the key to women gaining the power to control their destinies will lie in their ability to master the law that shapes their lives. This project should lay the foundation for the vindication of the human rights of Muslim women.     

Looking beyond ethnicity: the negotiation of Chinese Muslim identity in Penang,Malaysia

The conflation of ethnic and religious identities, particularly that of Malay and Muslim, has long historical and political roots in Malaysia. Being one of the most safeguarded identity marks in Malaysia, Islam has become part of the core of Malay ethnicity and plays a prominent role in ethnic politics. Muslim converts from ethnic minorities, such as the Chinese and Indians, are therefore faced with social expectation and pressure to ‘become Malay’. This paper discusses the difficulty and improbability of Chinese Muslim identity in the previous literature and the recent development that enables the decoupling of religious and ethnic identities. By looking beyond ethnicity, the most salient social divider in Malaysia, and looking into other possibilities, such as religious identity, this paper aims to paint a picture of social relations and identification that is more complex yet flexible amongst the Chinese Muslim converts in Penang.     

Integrating Religious and Sexual Identities: The Case of Religious Homosexual Men in Singapore

Abstract

The sexual and religious ecosystem in Singapore represents an intricate interplay of factors that religious homosexuals navigate to attain a well-adjusted personal identity. A qualitative research project was conducted to understand how Christian and Muslim homosexual men in Singapore integrate their religious and sexual identities. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine religious homosexuals to elicit responses on their dual-identity experience, and coping strategies. Narrative analysis revealed three themes (and a number of subthemes): (1) Intrapersonal factors (a personal journey, knowledge seeking, reinterpreting belief system, redemption by good deeds, and love prevails over sin), (2) Interpersonal factors (segregating social circles, involvement in the gay community, role models, and social support), and (3) Sociopolitical factors (state and societal tolerance of homosexuals, and homosexual events). Interestingly, the participants assigned positive attributes to being both religious and homosexual, and reported that embodying both identities was enriching than if they had possessed just one of the two identities. This suggests that integrating positive psychological frameworks (e.g., stress-related growth) to existing ones may provide a more holistic account of identity integration among religious homosexuals.     

Veiled Submission: Gender,Power, and Identity Among Evangelical and Muslim Women in the United States

The past decade has witnessed a proliferation of studies that illuminate devout women's affiliation with conservative religious communities. Despite the increasingly multicultural character of contemporary social and religious life, few studies to date have compared the experiences of conservative religious women across faith traditions. Guided by insights from cultural theory, this study begins by comparing elite gender discourses within evangelical Protestantism and Islam. Elite evangelical gender debates hinge on biblical references to women's submission. Similarly, Muslims dispute the meaning of the veil to Islamic womanhood. After outlining the contours of these debates, we draw on in-depth interview data with evangelical and Muslim women to demonstrate how these two groups of respondents negotiate gender in light of their distinctive religious commitments. In the end, we reveal that the unique cultural repertoires within these two religious communities enable women to affirm traditional religious values while refashioning such convictions to fit their post-traditional lifestyles.     

Challenges of implementing restorative justice for intimate partner violence: An Islamic perspective

ABSTRACT

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is currently recognized as a critical public health concern and a human rights issue. Not surprisingly, Muslims – a religiously and socio-culturally diverse faith-based populace – are not an exception. To address this complex area of criminal justice and social policy, some scholars advocate implementing restorative justice (RJ) approaches. While RJ approaches have been traditionally used in Islamic cultures for conflict resolutions, to date, few studies have investigated how RJ operates in dealing with IPV in Muslim countries and communities. This article explores how RJ approaches towards IPV operate in some Muslim countries/communities, and offers insights into developing culturally and religiously appropriate ways of implementing RJ in IPV situations among Muslims. Given the prevalence of IPV among Muslims, the question is particularly important and timely. Taking exclusively limited examples of RJ approaches that have been used to mediate IPV cases in Muslim countries and communities, this paper found one significant challenge in the RJ approaches among Muslims: community acceptance of IPV. To reduce IPV in Muslim society, it is necessary to develop treatment models and techniques that meet cultural and religious needs. This paper found that since RJ is not alien to Islamic teachings, RJ approaches can be implemented effectively in dealing with IPV among Muslims by ensuring justice and equity of the abused woman. The findings of this paper will assist policymakers, practitioners, and service providers in providing religiously and culturally appropriate care when addressing IPV issues among Muslims.     

Social Studies as Social Reconstruction

Research indicates that most American citizens know little about Islam and, specifically, the major differences between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims and why this matters to the United States. Although the two major Islamic factions share many common core beliefs and practices, there are some significant religious and political differences dating back to the disagreement over the succession of leadership in the Muslim community after the Prophet Muhammad died in 632. Indeed, sectarianism has played a pivotal role in the turbulent geopolitics of the Middle East for centuries. Islam must be studied for its contributions and role in world history. Therefore, it is crucial that social studies educators teach not only the core beliefs, rituals, and history of Islam but the differences between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. This knowledge is vital if Americans are to make prudent decisions regarding support for specific foreign policy positions and decisions regarding Islam and Muslim countries. This article describes and explains the differences between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and discusses the implications for the United States and social studies education. Finally, the article shows how Islam can be implemented in the NCSS C3 Framework.     

From cosmopolitan convergences to situated religious cosmopolitanism: The early spread of the Bahá’í Faith in Singapore and Malaya (1950–1975)

This paper contributes to the debate on cosmopolitanism by examining the spread of the Bahá’í Faith in Singapore and Malaya (1950–1975). The Bahá’í Faith is a significant case as its followers came to span the globe in 150 years. This paper probes into the relationship between the faith's transnational spread and its religious cosmopolitanism in three parts. First, I outline the inseparability of ‘world citizenship’ from Bahá’í teachings. Second, I trace its spread in Singapore and Malaya – a process that initially relied on serendipitous encounters between travellers and migrants, one that I call ‘cosmopolitan convergences’. Third, I explore the expansion of the Bahá’í Faith among Malaya's Semai tribe. Here, Bahá’í world citizenship became grounded in collective cultural practices, facilitating what I call ‘situated religious cosmopolitanism’. The connection between the contrasting populations discussed in this paper demonstrates the potential of grounding religious networks within normative cosmopolitan ideals and practices.     

What’s the matter with being Indonesian? A social representation approach to unravelling Indonesian national identity / ¿Qué significa ser indonesio? Una perspectiva de la representación social para desentrañar la identidad nacional indonesia

Due to its diverse nature, being an Indonesian is sometimes confusing as it entails overlapping national, ethnic and religious identity. By using a social representation approach, online survey research involving 114 Indonesians was carried out to explore these questions: How do Indonesians negotiate their ethnic, religious and national identity? What identity markers should one possess to claim being an Indonesian? And lastly, who is the nationalist? Research findings suggest that national and ethnic identity as well as ethnic and religious identity were consensual, while the relation between religious and national identity was emancipated. It is also found that being a Muslim and possessing a stronger sense of ethnic identity would increase the likelihood of being a prouder Indonesian, while being a female, living abroad for 5–10 years, being a nationalist Muslim and embracing transnational Islamic movements reduced the probability of having a stronger sense of national identity.