The Making of Entrepreneurial Islam and the Islamic Spirit of Capitalism 1

This essay examines the relationship between Islam and economy through a case study of Islamic entrepreneurs in Turkey. It analyzes the cultural politics of Islamic entrepreneurs and examines the Islamization of capitalism and the construction of entrepreneurial Islam by probing the interpretative activities of Islamic actors who deconstruct and reconstruct the relationship between Islam, economy and entrepreneurship. The construction of Islam as incompatible with and antagonistic to capitalism has a long history. Vestiges of such thinking still continue to be reflected in contemporary accounts that depict the encounter between Islamic societies and forces of global capital as a hostile battle, each trying to outdo the other. It can be argued that this confrontational scenario is not limited to Islamic world, but also displayed in other accounts that study the meeting of forces of capital with those of local cultures at a global scale. This essay attempts to challenge such dualist accounts that oppose “global capital” and “local culture”, and shows how such dualisms fail to see how capitalism and culture interpenetrate and transform each other. The essay attempts to show that a new synthesis between religion and capitalism is unfolding where culture has not been outdone but is creatively transformed and integrated to capitalism, while capitalism is made a part of “one’s culture”.     

从伊斯兰早期的《古兰经》注释学校看清真寺的学术功能

作为伊斯兰教的重要外化象征之一，清真寺具有的诸多功能在推动伊斯兰社会与文化的历史进程中，发挥着不可或缺的作用。它在相当长时期内所承载的学术研究功能，又使其成为伊斯兰文化形成、发展继而体系化的核心场所之一。其中，伊斯兰教黎明时期（公元610-750年）的再传弟子在麦加、麦地那、伊拉克创建的《古兰经》注释学校及其培养的杰出注释学家，就是清真寺学术功能的具体显现。     

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.     

中东民族主义与伊斯兰教关系评析

中东现代化进程中,现代与传统间产生矛盾的重要原因在于民族主义和伊斯兰教两种意识形态的复杂关系。鉴于此,本文主要从中东民族主义对伊斯兰教的冲击、伊斯兰原教旨主义对民族主义挑战的回应、民族主义与伊斯兰教的矛盾对中东政治发展的影响及其前景等三个方面分析了二者间的复杂关系。     

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.     

Reconciling Islam and feminism

This paper objects to the popular view that Islam supports a segregated social system where women are marginalized, and argues that certain Islamic texts are supportive of women's rights. The article proposes that Islam reconcile with feminism by returning to the Qur'an. The Qur'an provides rights which address the common complaints of women such as lack of freedom to make decisions for themselves and the inability to earn an income. One example is a verse in the Qur'an (4:34) that is frequently interpreted as giving women complete control over their own income and property. This article also explains how Islam has been used as a method of controlling women, particularly in the practices of veiling and purdah (seclusion). The article points out the need to engage in Islam from a position of knowing, and to ensure that Muslim women have access to this knowledge. It is only through this knowledge that women can assert their rights and challenge patriarchal interpretations of Islam.     

Teaching Islam to educate multiethnic and multicultural literacy: seeking alternative discourse and global pedagogies in the Chinese context

In the post-9/11 era, growing scholarly literature and social concern have focused on Islamic education in Muslim-majority countries and for Muslim minorities in the West. However, public attention and academic research concerning the teaching of Islam as a world religion and a commonly shared human civilization, are barely understood in secular contexts and in public education. This issue requires more attention, especially in Asia. For the sake of future dialogue and further discussion, this paper is a tentative attempt at initiating this understudied issue of teaching Islam as multicultural literacy. It inquires about the pedagogy of teaching Islam in an East Asian context by first briefly reflecting on the dilemmas of introducing Islam to the West and its implications for the university curriculum. Departing from the experience in North America and European societies, this article then attempts to explore alternative pedagogical discourse in teaching Islam to Chinese students in the East Asian context by considering its specific geographical position in global politics and the recent development of Hong Kong. This article finally foresees the developing pedagogy of Islamic teaching that challenges students to break away from the media cliché and apathy towards human suffering, leading them to understand that they themselves are the potential peacemakers of a future global multiethnic and multicultural society.     

Islam as Drama: Wedding Rites and the Theatricality of Islam in South Sulawesi

This article discusses the prominence of wedding rituals in South Sulawesi to illuminate Islamic development in post-Suharto Indonesia and theatrical expressions of Islam through dramaturgical and social drama analysis. Theatre metaphors help explain the theatricality of Islam and the centrality of wedding rites in social and religious life in South Sulawesi, two social facts not easily understood by people outside this region. Through the performance of wedding rites, Muslims know themselves as Muslims, display social status and transform local politics. Analysis of wedding rites illustrates not only the importance of theatricality in the expression of Islam for the Bugis Makassar Muslims, but also how massive social and religious transformation is structured around a particular life-cycle ritual, namely weddings. Giving emphasis to theatricality, this article nuances recent studies about contemporary Islam, which largely focus upon the importance of discourses in the life of contemporary Muslims.     

从伊斯兰史上的著名清真寺看清真寺功能的多样性

清真寺作为伊斯兰教的重要宗教活动场所,是穆斯林社区的核心。凡是有穆斯林的地方,几乎都有清真寺。特别在中东阿拉伯国家,清真寺更是随处可见。在伊斯兰史上,清真寺在促进穆斯林社会的政治、经济、文化发展方面一直发挥着重要作用,具有诸多社会功能。本文以伊斯兰历史上著名清真寺为例,着重分析清真寺功能的多样性及其在当代的演变情况。     

伊斯兰文明中的“共处”思想:基于世界主义光谱的分析

伊斯兰文明中“共处”思想关注的核心是如何解决承认伊斯兰教普遍性/唯一性与各种以伊斯兰教为标尺而划定的“他性”存在的合理性之间的矛盾。使用世界主义光谱来对伊斯兰文明中不同“共处”思想进行排列,从最偏向宗教普遍主义一侧到最偏向宗教社群主义的“共处”思想分别是:不同伊斯兰教派间的“共处”思想、伊斯兰国家内部不同宗教群体间的“共处”思想、古代伊斯兰国家与非伊斯兰国家之间的“共处”思想、近代以来伊斯兰国家与非伊斯兰国家之间的“共处”思想、非伊斯兰国家中穆斯林与非穆斯林群体之间的“共处”思想、不同宗教之间的“共处”思想等六种类型。通过有针对性地挖掘“共处”思想来纾解当今伊斯兰世界所面临的诸种挑战,具有重要的现实意义。     

Theorizing equal opportunity in Muslim majority countries

This article offers an interdisciplinary and transnational review of feminist, management and Islamic literatures to develop an understanding of philosophical theorization and institutional framing of equal opportunity in employment in Muslim majority countries (MMCs). The review suggests that ‘the mainstream’ western literature on gender and equal opportunity, along with its secular orientation, may not capture the complexity of gender and equal opportunity in MMCs. Through integrating Islamic writings and gender scholarship, the article examines how equal opportunity theorizing may be advanced by Islamic philosophies and interpretations. In particular, it presents two concurrent principles of gender relations in Islam, for instance, equality and difference of women and men. While Islamic scholars generally agree that women and men are equal because both are created by one God, there are two competing interpretations with respect to the principle of difference between women and men. The first is an egalitarian interpretation which advocates affirmative action in women's favour, and the second is a patriarchal interpretation which supports women's subordination to men. We present this discussion and use it to develop our understanding of equal opportunity or lack thereof in MMCs.     

Islam,national identity and politics in contemporary Kazakhstan

This article argues that, unlike other Central Asian states, the official response in Kazakhstan to its Islamic revival is distinctively ambivalent and even contradictory. The Nazarbayev government has rhetorically embraced the Kazakh qoja-centred Sufi heritage and the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam as the ‘traditional’ forms of Islam among Kazakh nomads and perceived them as constituent elements of the nation-building process. However, the representatives of the political elite have in reality unknowingly absorbed much of ‘untraditional’ Salafi Islam and ignored, marginalised or even suppressed the revival of Kazakh Sufism. This is in part because of their limited knowledge of the indigenous Kazakh Islamic tradition and in part due to the younger generation’s greater exposure to a range of Salafi-dominated influences emanating from abroad. The article begins with a brief historical perspective on the relationship between qoja-centred Sufism and ‘Kazakh-ness’ which is essential for establishing an analysis of the fissures in the current religious and political ideology pertaining to Kazakh nation-building.     

State Building as a Source of Islamic Political Organization1

Previous research on political Islam in the Middle East and North Africa has been limited in providing a generalizable theory of its origins and systematically account for the cross‐national variation in the prevalence of Islamic movements. Following a state‐centered approach, this study argues that state‐building activities are a primary origin of Islamic movements. Regimes adopt religious symbolism and functions that legitimate the role of Islam in the public sphere. State incorporation of religion thus creates Islam as a frame for political action, with increased access to mobilizing resources and better able to withstand repression and political exclusion. To provide an explicit and systematic test of cross‐national variation, data on 170 political and militant organizations across the region are analyzed. Results indicate that state incorporation of religion is a crucial factor in the religiosity of movement organizations. Mixed effects of political exclusion and repression are found. No support is found for theories of economic grievances or foreign influence as causes of Islamic mobilization. In sum, analysis suggests that a state‐centered perspective is the most fitting account of political Islam.     

Gender boundaries and sexual categories in the Arab world

This essay considers the construction of gender and sexual images in the Arab world and how Western responses to Islam have affected the way Islam is perceived and interpreted. After a brief introduction, the essay discusses the problems of using Islam as a standard methodological yardstick in the face of the diversity of Muslim lifestyles and interpretations. The next section describes gender boundaries and social barriers in Islam that involve rigid segregation of the sexes. While Islam is shown not to favor full gender equality, the dynamic interaction between a Middle Eastern culture and the Islamic religion, each of which promote the ostensible inferiority of women, makes it difficult to determine whether culture or religion has had more influence on gender relations. The essay continues with a look at controversies about homosexuality, the condition that defined the difference between Christianity and Islam. Characteristics of present-day sexism and sexuality among the Arabs are highlighted in a look at the persistence of male dominance, the restriction of women from the public sphere, theories about the toleration of homosexuality, and the taboo extended towards lesbians and others practicing free sex. It is concluded that the study of gender and sexuality in the Middle East remains incomplete and preliminary, although gender studies have progressed in the past two decades. Social and sexual tensions have been exacerbated by the rise of fundamentalism, and homosexuality remains a forbidden topic for Muslim scholars.     

全球化下伊斯兰文明与西方文明的冲突

全球化进程中伊斯兰世界的政治、经济和文化都不同程度的受到西方的挑战和侵蚀。20世纪70年代,伊斯兰复兴运动迅速发展,中东反美、反西方的情绪高涨。海湾战争后,伊斯兰与美国的冲突有所加剧,一些极端势力乘机迅速膨胀,恐怖活动不断升级,直至发生9 11事件。尽管这一事件本身不能算作 “文明的冲突”,但以美国为首的西方与伊斯兰世界对此的后续反应有可能导致西方与伊斯兰的对抗,引发文明间的冲突。     

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.     

伊斯兰信用经济思想探析

基于公正与平等理念的伊斯兰信用思想作为伊斯兰教经济思想的重要内涵,彰显了丰富的伦理内涵,但在全球化、金融一体化的浪潮中亦呈现出其阻滞伊斯兰社会金融发展、滞缓其全球化进程的因子,凸显了宗教伦理与经济发展的二元张力。伊斯兰教在留存其信用经济思想丰富伦理内涵的同时,也应依据创制精神对其加以阐释,以更好地应对全球化金融浪潮。     

超越律法主义:拉希德·加努希政治思想探析

如何处理伊斯兰教与民主政治的关系,是近几十年来穆斯林思想家和政治精英面临的最棘手问题之一。不同于阿亚图拉霍梅尼以教法为根、教法学家的权威为本的“教法学家治国”理念,或毛杜迪以真主主权为宗的“伊斯兰政府”理论,突尼斯“复兴运动”创始人拉希德·加努希提供了一种律法主义之外的新视角。作为当代最著名的穆斯林思想家之一,加努希援引中世纪穆斯林思想家艾布·伊斯哈格·沙缇毕对伊斯兰教法之根本宗旨的解读,从伊斯兰教倡导的正义原则出发,强调穆斯林应积极参与非伊斯兰政府,在实现权力分享的基础上构建一个多元的现代民主国家。加努希在理论层面对伊斯兰与民主问题的论述及其在现实层面的实践,对处理伊斯兰教与民主以及现代性问题具有重要的指导意义。     

Recalling the ‘Islam of the parents’ liberal and secular Muslims redefining the contours of religious authenticity

Scholarship on Islam in Europe has largely invested in examining the generational dynamics in the lived religious experiences of Muslims. Within this perspective, the idea of a generation gap, which revolves around a distinction between ‘tradition’ and ‘religion’, has figured as an important account in assessing some of these religious transformations. Drawing on fieldwork with Belgian Muslims of Moroccan origin, this paper seeks to nuance this perspective by exploring accounts wherein this ‘traditional’ Islam of the parents is actively reclaimed. This was especially the case for respondents who were quite critical of Islamic revivalist trends. In many of these stories, the parents’ Islam was understood as tolerant and open, in a way that was consonant with ‘tradition’. By focusing on these narratives, a first aim of the paper is to understand how genealogy and ancestry figure as distinct criteria in determining the ‘real Islam’. A second aim is to complicate the understanding of the liberal and modern self, and its relationship to the past.     

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.