The Muslim Question in Australia: Islamophobia and Muslim Alienation

Islamophobia has become a significant problem across the Western world. Australia is no exception. The emergence of far right groups and a political environment that allows anti-Islamic discourse has created an increasingly unwelcome environment for Muslims, even though multiculturalism has long been a fundamental marker of Australian daily life. The rise of Islamophobia has been damaging to Australia. This paper explores the rise of anti-Islamic sentiments in Australia and the increasing marginalization of Muslim youth, showing that Islamophobia not only breaks the bond between Muslim youth and Australian society, it also polarizes relations within Australian Muslim communities.     

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.     

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.     

都市回族社会结构的范式问题探讨--以北京回族社区的结构变迁为例

回族是中国城市化程度最高的少数民族.关于都市回族的研究成果已经很多,但多数都是零散的个案描述和具体问题分析,缺乏理论范式的建构和探索.本文将以北京回族社区的结构变迁为个案,探讨具有更为普遍性的中国都市回族社会结构的范式问题,即传统都市回族社区是以怎样的社会结构得以存在和延续的?这种社会结构已经和正在发生怎样的变迁?     

Social identity in the modern United States Virgin Islands

The United States Virgin Islands (USVI) is a complex society with multiple diverse ethnic groups: Black Virgin Islanders, Eastern Caribbean islanders, Puerto Ricans, Spanish Dominicans, French Islanders, Americans (Continentals), Arabs and Asians. These ethnic differences as well as United States cultural imperialism have stymied any uniform Virgin Islands identity. Even though various ethnic groups share fundamental social characteristics, they nonetheless maintain their institutional and cultural differences. Continuous migration from the world over and out-migration of ‘native’ Virgin Islanders have led to ethnic particularism that undermines a contemporary common island identity. Nonetheless, social identity in the USVI can be conceptualized into the bi-level structural analysis of national and trans-Caribbean.     

Muslim Minority of New Zealand in Global Context: Demographic Perspective

This article focuses specifically on the population of Muslims in New Zealand, and highlights their demographic and socio-economic characteristics in a worldwide comparison. Globally, Islam is the fastest-growing religion and Muslims are the second largest religious group. In particular, the population of Muslim migrants in the multicultural and westerns societies is also remarkably growing fast. This also applies to the multicultural setting of New Zealand where have witnessed a substantially increasing growth of Muslim population during the recent decades. Holding a wide range of ethnic and religious groups from throughout the world as well as a variety of Muslims from different parts of the Islamic world, the multicultural field of this study serve as a unique human and cultural laboratory to approach properly the key research objectives of this analysis. The discussion is mainly based on the customized data of population census. This article specifically addresses the main demographic and socio-economic patterns and differentials associated with the population of Muslims in this multicultural context in a global comparison.     

中国都市穆斯林社区研究述评

本文对上世纪90年代中期以来有关中国都市穆斯林社区的研究成果进行了梳理与反思.在评述各类研究成果的同时,还通过列举一些研究个案来展现中国都市穆斯林社会研究的热点.     

Rohingya Ethnic Muslim Minority and the 1982 Citizenship Law in Burma

The Rohingyas have experienced difficulties in obtaining citizenship since the enactment of the 1982 Citizenship Law in Burma. From the beginning of Burmese independence, their separate identity was recognized by the then democratic government of Premier U Nu (1948–1962). Their situation worsened after the military takeover in 1962 leaving then subject to humiliating restrictions and harsh treatment by the State. However, the Burmese 1982 Citizenship Law institutionalized the Rohingyas statelessness.This paper argues that despite all evidence as indigenous people of Arakan, the ethnic Muslim minority Rohingya are arbitrarily deprived of their citizenship. The Burmese are adamant that the Rohingyas are Bengalis regardless of their residency history, and therefore belong in Bangladesh. Their Islamic religion and Indo-Aryan appearance do not conform with the “Burmese citizenship standard”. In this context, Burma/Myanmar citizenship law fails to meet the international standard. Rohingya ancestry related documents prove that the government enacted the new law simply to deny the Rohingya identity.     

Islamic Jurisprudence of Minorities (Fiqh al-Aqalliyyat): The Case of the Palestinian Muslim Minority in Israel

This article examines the doctrine of Jurisprudence of Muslim Minorities (Fiqh al-Aqalliyyat) in the context of the Palestinian Muslim community in Israel. The first part discusses the origins and goals of Fiqh al-Aqalliyyat. After outlining the particular historical and political context of the Palestinian minority in Israel, the article focuses on the ethno-religious political mobilization developed by the Muslim community vis-à-vis the state’s strategies of control and domination, and points out the difficulties involved in the application of Fiqh al-Aqalliyyat, as used in “Western” states, for the reality that Muslims face in Israel. The article suggests a vigilant approach toward the Jurisprudence of Minorities, as we argue that, when applying it in this context of the Muslim community in Israel, this doctrine has two substantial limitations. The first is theoretical and it concerns the doctrine’s current incapability to distinguish between different types of minorities, as well as failing to recognize a difference between various political regimes and societal lives that might be inherently less or more accommodating or even hostile to minorities, and Muslim minority communities in particular. The second limitation relates to the political dimension and the lack of consideration for the status of the Palestinian minority as an indigenous and national minority and not an immigrant minority. Their status as national minorities, at times also as indigenous peoples, who are perceived as entitled to group-based “self-government rights”, poses a serious challenge to this doctrine’s scope and viability.     

回族语言与波斯语的关系探析

本文对回族语言和波斯语的关系进行了研究。回族是中国56个民族之一,回族目前普遍使用汉语,但是在日常生活中还使用一些波斯语词汇。我们从研究回族先民语言到现代回族汉语代演变历程,来探讨回族语言和波斯语的关系。     

西北民族社会的阶层分化与治理创新——社会分层及其社会效应的微观实证研究

现代化促使西北民族地区的社会结构发生转型,推动了经济繁荣和社会进步,而与此同时,社会剧变也诱发了与民族有关的诸多社会矛盾,致使民族地区社会的稳定发展出现了新情况、新问题。基于上述背景,本文使用大规模调查的数据,对西北民族地区社会分层结构的历史演化及其社会效应进行了透视和分析。在此基础上,论文探讨了西北民族地区社会治理创新的现实着力点。     

Racial Formation in Theory and Practice: The Case of Mexicans in the United States

Mechanisms of social stratification require the categorical definition of an out-group to that can be excluded and exploited. Historically, in the United States, African Americans have been the subject of a systematic process of racial formation to define socially in this fashion. Beginning in the 1970s, however, and accelerating in the 1980s and 1990s, Mexicans were increasingly subject to processes of racialization that have rendered them more exploitable and excludable than ever before. Over the past decade, Mexican Americans moved steadily away from their middle position in the socioeconomic hierarchy and gravitated toward the bottom. This paper describes the basic mechanisms of stratification in the United States and how Mexicans have steadily been racialized to label them socially as a dehumanized and vulnerable out-group.     

城市界面下的回族传统文化与现代化

本文以兰州、银川、西宁和西安的回族社区为个案,运用都市人类学和城市社会学的理论和方法,在城市的宏观生态背景下分析了西北城市回族社区的不同层面的变迁,提出面对城市的挑战,以文化自觉的方式实现自身传统的现代化是城市回族穆斯林发展的必由之路。     

美国“肯定性行动”的历史沿革——从法律性文件的角度进行回顾与分析

本文通过对美国联邦最高法院有关"反向歧视"系列案件的判决等法律性文件的分析,将联邦政府的种族政策"肯定性行动"的历史沿革划分为"维权时期"、"优待时期"以及"平等时期",提出了"优待时期"只是临时过渡阶段,而"平等"才是最终的追求目标的观点.     

爱尔兰移民在美国社会的崛起与融合

在创造美利坚文明的多源移民群体中 ,爱尔兰人可谓独树一帜。同最早来到北美大陆创建殖民地的英格兰清教徒一样 ,爱尔兰人也来自与美国一洋之隔的西欧。爱尔兰移民大多因经济困窘而远渡重洋 ,他们文化落后 ,身无长技 ,且信奉天主教 ,在很长时间里为以盎格鲁 -撒克逊文化占主流地位的美国社会所不齿 ,深受歧视和排斥。但是 ,爱尔兰人并没有因此而沉沦或一蹶不振 ,而是以其特有的民族凝聚力和超凡意志 ,顽强地挣扎于美国社会底层 ,不懈地投身各项经济活动 ,积极参与市政建设 ,坚守并捍卫天主教信仰 ,从而使自己既崛起于美国社会又为美国社会发…     

美国等西方国家社会裂变中的“认同群体”与ethnic group

ethnic group这一术语在美国等西方国家的广泛应用,是20世纪60年代以后的事情。该术语的流行与当时美国等西方国家社会裂变的历史背景直接相关。同时,该术语也是多元文化主义的产物,反映了西方社会“后现代主义”思潮中“认同政治”的“族类政治化”特征。本文就这一术语在美国和其他西方国家流行的国情特点和社会背景进行一些分析,以期为全面认识和理解这一术语在西方国家的应用实践提供一种思路。文章认为,在理解和借鉴西方学术界有关ethnic group的概念及其理论时,如果简单地做出民族(nation)是政治概念、族群(ethnic group)是文化概念这一泾渭分明的判断,而忽视西方国家在应用这一术语时的社会、政治背景和指称对象,就会因脱离国情实际而导致对这一概念及其理论的误读和应用于本土研究中的误导。     

Uncertain aspirations: Latino students and dropout in the United States

ABSTRACT

Latinos are one of the fastest growing and most racially diverse students in American schools. Driven by immigration, they account for more than 24% of the kindergarten to high school population. Despite their numbers, the achievement gap between Latinos and their non-Latino peers remains wide since they have the highest rate of dropout. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, we find that Latino students who attend more than one school during their academic career are more likely to dropout than those who do not. We also find lower rates of dropout among children of parents who stated that they did not have difficulties interacting with school administrators due to language barriers. With regards to migration, we do not find immigrant status to be significant in dropout – a noteworthy effect given the increases in raids and deportation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.     

边疆民族地区党的执政生态分析

运用政治生态学和系统论的方法分析边疆民族地区执政环境条件的特殊性和政治系统与环境之间的互动机理,能够为优化党的执政行为提供路径选择,从而使党的执政生态系统处于一个开放、和谐、平衡的状态.