Ethnic Origins and Religious Transformations in the Afro-Colombian Muslim Community of Buenaventura

The aim of this article is to analyse the origins and transformations of a Muslim community in western Colombia. The history of this small religious group of Afro-Colombians is presented over a period divided into four phases. This division is based on four dominant interpretations of Islamic doctrines adopted by the majority of the group over a period of time. These changes were not only due to religious motivations but also due to changes in the social milieu and the need for taking advantage of emerging opportunities. The religious conversion of Afro-Colombians to Islam took place within the complex socio-political context of the Colombian conflict which began in mid-1960s and is still ongoing. The adoption of this new religious perspective did not evolve in an isolated manner, rather, it transformed the identity of the community by strengthening the value of ethnic differences in a place of segregation. In this context, this paper analyses the role of religion as an important element in the construction of ethnic identity. It is also important to recognize that this cultural negotiation happens at the margins of the dominant society, which views Afro-Colombian minorities negatively or simply ignores their presence.     

Islam in Argentina: Deconstructing the Biases

Islam in Argentina: a title that may startle or evoke wonder, as it is a subject we know very little about. This paper attempts to undertake a critical analysis of the concept and the process of identity construction within the Muslim community in Argentina. It will take into account factors, such as migration and politics, in order to help identify the possible boundaries created by the community in terms of sameness and otherness within the Argentine society. Argentina has been chosen for this study because, when it comes to the exploration of image, discrimination, stereotyping, and ethno-religious identity of a minority group in a Western migratory setting, Argentina—and Latin America as a continent—has been forgotten in the post-9/11 hysteria surrounding Muslims and Islam. The Muslim community in Argentina, along with the Diaspora across Latin America and worldwide, has been subject to the Western media’s biased and faulty inferences about Muslims. This article will help to deconstruct such biases by taking us on a journey through the history of Muslims’ arrival in Argentina.     

Non-Muslim Australians’ Knowledge of Islam: Identifying and Rectifying Knowledge Deficiencies

It is more than a decade since social geographer Kevin Dunn first described non-Muslim Australians’ ignorance about Islam and its adherents and outlined a series of recommendations about how Australian governments could address this as a pressing social policy issue. Recently researchers have re-assessed non-Muslim Australians’ perceptions of their knowledge of Islam and Muslims identifying while it has improved since 2003, 70% acknowledge they know little to nothing about either. Using data from Australia’s 2016 National Social Survey, this study examines the correlation between non-Muslim Australians’ perceptions of their knowledge of Islam and Muslims and their actual knowledge. We find that perception of knowledge is a reasonable indicator of actual knowledge. Further, we find that tertiary education is the single significant demographic factor impacting actual knowledge. By examining geographical patterns of knowledge, we also find that ignorance of Islam and Muslims is consistent across Australia.     

Creating transregional collective nostalgia: the organising role of Catholic parishes among Louisiana migrants in Great Migration-era Los Angeles

Scholarship on the African American Great Migration insufficiently examines the interactional, emotional, religious, ethno-regional, and generational diversity of migrant experiences. This study applies insights from the transnational migration literature to illuminate complexities of Black internal migration and incorporation during this era. Using data from 47 in-depth interviews with first- and second-generation Louisianans who arrived in Los Angeles between 1931 and 1973, the article elucidates the distinctive organising role that local Catholic religious institutions played in creating and reinforcing transregional collective nostalgia and a sense of ‘being from’ Louisiana during resettlement. First, within the Black migrant concentration in Los Angeles, Louisiana migrants created an enclave in which Catholic parishes were used to geographically organise the city. Second, parishes organised social life and reinforced the migrant community by stimulating co-migrant contact, Louisiana-centred interaction, and support for adaptation. Finally, migrants shaped how parishes functioned by incorporating elements of Louisiana-based practices into Los Angeles routines, thereby preserving continuity between two places in both practical and nostalgic terms.     

Changing Identities: A Case Study of Western Muslim Converts Whose Conversion Revised Their Relationship to Their National Identity

Few studies explore the impact conversion to Islam has on a Western individual’s social identity configuration. This article focuses on six Western Muslim converts—three from Montreal, two from Berlin, and one from Copenhagen—who experienced difficulties relating to their national identities prior to conversion, exploring how it developed afterwards. A qualitative interview guide was adapted in a semi-structured format to the demands of each individual, and interviews were analyzed applying thematic content analysis. The participants reveal how they revised their social identity configuration upon conversion, ultimately reversing their antagonistic relationship to their national identity. Their narratives relate how political realities are embedded in the perception and development of the Western Muslim identity, necessitating a revaluation of their national identity as a form of social critique. Our results demonstrate how socio-political experiences of discrimination and race are all significantly implicated in the process of conversion and Muslim identity development.     

中世纪阿拉伯哲学集大成者——伊本·路西德

伊本·路西德是中世纪阿拉伯著名思想家、哲学家,他在继承古希腊哲学家及穆斯林哲学家如伊本·西那等人的思想和学说基础上,对各类哲学问题都提出了自己的看法和理论,成为阿拉伯哲学的集大成者。他的学说和理论,如关于哲学和宗教的“双重真理”,被欧洲的基督教哲学家接受,成为摆脱教皇束缚和精神枷锁的思想武器。可以说,路西德的学说和思想在世界人类思想和哲学发展进程中,起到了承上启下的作用。     

Overcoming the Fear of the “Other”: Building Trust Between British Muslims and the Wider Community

Initiatives that seek to build community trust are timely given the increasing focus on terror-related attacks and the rise in associated hate crimes as well as scrutiny of the way Muslim leadership is responding to such incidents. This paper details a novel and proactive model that aims to improve and build trust between Muslims and the wider community. The Trust Building Project was found to accomplish its two objectives. Not only was there an improvement in participant knowledge of Islam scores but there was also evidence suggesting trust had improved through engagement, understanding and through getting to know one another. Listening and learning sought to dispel myths and highlight shared morals and values. We propose that through these interactions the basis to building a more trusting society can be formed. It is unclear to what extent this could reduce incidents of hate crime and discrimination, however social change has been shown to occur where there are grass roots initiatives and suggestions are made to examine how this work can be rolled out nationally in order to address the trust deficit seen within our society today.     

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?     

马启西思想及西道堂社会实践的启示

中国伊斯兰教西道堂,是清末民初由马启西创建于甘肃省临潭县旧城一个宗教社团。它的宗旨是“以本国文化发扬清真教学理,务使本国同胞了解清真教义”。由于社会变革,西道堂经历了不同的发展阶段,西道堂的历史发展可以看成是伊斯兰教中国化、地方化的历史缩影。本文对马启西宗教思想及西道堂百年社会实践活动进行分析归纳,浅论了伊斯兰教与中国社会相适应的问题,对现阶段引导宗教与社会主义相适应提供历史借鉴。     

The Power of Ethnic Nationalism: Foucault's Bio-power and the Development of Ethnic Nationalism in Eastern Europe

Although the ‘civic’ and ‘ethnic’ brands of nationalism are frequently contrasted, the origins of the civic/ethnic dichotomy remain under-theorised. By building upon Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality, Volume 1, this article argues that, during the eighteenth century, the articulation of power shifted across the board from a pre-modern control over the ending of life, to a modern expression of power as control over the production of life (dubbed ‘bio-power’ by Foucault). Given the Foucauldian claim that power is built upwards from ‘its most infinitesimal mechanisms’, it is suggested that expressions of bio-power were first enacted in that social structure most amenable to biological manipulation—the family—and then expanded upwards towards the widest understanding of a kin collective—the ethnic group. As the shift to bio-power took hold, so too did visions of the political nation-state begin to take shape in Eastern Europe. A fusion of doctrines of self-determinism with the expression of power as ‘control over the production of life’, then saw the ethnic nation-state gain credence as a social and political construct in Central and Eastern Europe. This article takes Romania as a case study through which the mechanisms of this exploratory argument can be illustrated.     

文明对话与族际和谐

我国的国情与西欧单一民族国家不同,我国是一个统一的多民族的有着多元文化的国家,各民族既认同于中华民族和中华文化,又保留着各自的民族特色和民族文化,形成了在认同中容多样、在多样中求认同的格局。这就要求在新形势下必须加强各民族之间的文化交流与沟通,以实现各民族之间的和谐,增强中华民族的凝聚力。而穆斯林文化独具特色,个性鲜明,更需要与各民族文化特别是华夏文化交流与沟通,从而达到"各美其美,美人之美,美美与共"的境界,为实现建立现代化强国的共同目标创造良好的社会环境。     

伊斯兰教苏菲派研究及其相关问题

本文在回溯苏菲派基本发展史的同时,一是对苏菲、苏菲派和苏菲主义等作了简单考释,二是就西方学界对苏菲派研究的代表性成果进行了梳理和介绍,三是认为进一步加强对苏菲派研究不仅有助于伊斯兰思想史、伊斯兰哲学史、中国穆斯林文化的研究,而且对文明间的对话与交流、宗教间的了解与互信都有重要的现实意义。     

对苏联穆斯林民族的再认识——兼论戈尔巴乔夫的民族政策

苏联解体与民族宗教问题密切相关。在苏联改革时期,戈尔巴乔夫重视东正教,忽视伊斯兰教,厚此薄彼的做法激活了穆斯林民族对于伊斯兰宗教与文化的向往,导致宗教和民族热情高涨,民族间流血冲突不断,东正教徒和穆斯林矛盾加剧。苏联穆斯林的行为表明,伊斯兰教是穆斯林社会生活不可分割的组成部分,他们希望国家保护信仰伊斯兰教的权利,并非要反对国家政权和谋求分离。因此,重新认识苏维埃国家和穆斯林民族的互动关系,对于多民族国家处理好穆斯林民族问题具有借鉴意义。     

The Individual and the Ummah: The Use of Social Media by Muslim Minority Communities in Australia and the United States

How are perceptions of self and ummah (community) reflected in social media use by members of Muslim minorities in two Western countries, Australia and the United States? This paper explores the use of social media by members of minority communities for the purposes of self-representation and community-building, and perceptions of social media use among members of Muslim minority communities, as a means for them to challenge the narrative of Islam found in mainstream media associated with homogeneity, violence and militancy. The paper is based on analysis of responses of a targeted sample of members of representative Muslim student organizations at two tertiary institutions in Australia and the United States. Asian countries of origin are strongly represented in the migrant and international student communities of these two countries. The survey respondents were asked about their use of social media in relation to how they engage in public discourse about Islam, and how it is used in the negotiation of their religious and secular identities.     

Discursive strategies in the construction of national identity: A critical discourse analysis of the Gibraltar issue in the printed media

Gibraltar is a community in which political conflicts are common, but has quite frequently been ignored in the academic world, despite its great interest and uniqueness. The present research offers a new perspective into the study of the Gibraltarian identity as it adheres to the theoretical paradigm known as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which analyses language in relation to the social context in which it appears, aiming at providing social criticism based on linguistic evidence. This article focuses on the representation of the Gibraltar issue in a crucial moment for this community – namely the 2002 referendum. The textual corpus consists of editorial articles drawn from Gibraltarian newspapers examining how the Gibraltarian community was perceived and represented. Hence, the present CDA of editorial articles in relation to the referendum held in Gibraltar sheds light on a controversial situation: the Gibraltarian community and its distinctive identity.     

人类学视野下的伊斯兰教研究

长期以来,国内学术界对西方人类学界研究伊斯兰教的学者及作品缺乏深入了解。曾有文章介绍过欧美和日本学术界对中国穆斯林社会的研究,但就宗教人类学对整个伊斯兰世界的研究介绍很少。本文是一篇总结最新欧美人类学界研究伊斯兰教的文章,作者梳理了学术史,分析了研究现状,提出了可供讨论的问题及研究空白点。人类学研究宗教具有深厚的传统,对伊斯兰教的研究也具有独特的视角,西方人类学学者从历史、社会、理论、知识、权利、性别、仪式等角度关注过这一宗教及信仰群体,包括埃文斯·普里查德、格尔兹、萨义德、艾克尔曼、费舍尔、安敦等著名学者。通过本文的介绍,国内学者不仅从中可以领略到他们对各种问题的研究范式,同时,这些理论和视角也能够给我国研究者提供新的视野,具有很高的参考借鉴价值。     

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.     

论八旗意识及产生条件

八旗是与八旗制度相伴而生的由多民族组成的社会群体,有着300多年的发展历史。在这漫长的过程中,八旗独特的管理方式,以及他们在交融过程中形成的政治、经济利益的一致和社会生活的相近与相同,使八旗成为与"民人"有显著差别的社会群体。这种差别不仅使八旗能够独立存在于现实社会中,而且能够产生不同于"民人"的思想意识,即"八旗意识"。这个超越民族范畴而存在的社会集团,蕴涵着重要的历史信息,对我们今天的社会也许不无启示。     

当前中国伊斯兰教与社会主义相适应问题探析

本文认为伊斯兰教具有通过改革不断适应各种社会形态的内在特质,中国伊斯兰教就是伊斯兰教与中国社会相适应的结果;在现阶段,发挥中国伊斯兰教促进经济文化发展的作用,依法加强对伊斯兰事务的管理,加强伊斯兰教研究,是引导中国伊斯兰教与社会主义相适应的重要途径;只有建立中国伊斯兰教与社会主义相适应的运行机制,才能有效保障和充分发挥中国伊斯兰教在推动社会主义事业中的积极作用.     

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?