Arab Telephone

Author(s):  
Arthur Asseraf

The telegraph was introduced to connect Algeria to France. Yet the effects of the telegraph cables were double: they brought European Algerians closer to France at the same time as they brought Algerian Muslims closer to other Muslims around the world. Through the example of an incident in the town of Rébeval in Kabylia during the Greek–Ottoman War in 1897, we see how telegraphic news inserted itself into existing networks and allowed people in Algeria to connect their local problems with the rest of the Muslim world. As colonized Algerians were increasingly defined by French law as ‘Muslims’, they used this category to situate themselves within global events, leading to a ‘pan-Islamism’ from below. While French authorities remained convinced that this pan-Islamism was coming from outside, intermediaries employed by the French state were at the centre of this shift in the meaning of ‘Muslim’.

Author(s):  
Anwar Ibrahim

This study deals with Universal Values and Muslim Democracy. This essay draws upon speeches that he gave at the New York Democ- racy Forum in December 2005 and the Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in Istanbul in April 2006. The emergence of Muslim democracies is something significant and worthy of our attention. Yet with the clear exceptions of Indonesia and Turkey, the Muslim world today is a place where autocracies and dictatorships of various shades and degrees continue their parasitic hold on the people, gnawing away at their newfound freedoms. It concludes that the human desire to be free and to lead a dignified life is universal. So is the abhorrence of despotism and oppression. These are passions that motivate not only Muslims but people from all civilizations.


1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99
Author(s):  
Assad N. Busool

Reform movements are important religious phenomena which haveoccurred throughout Islamic history. Medieval times saw theappearance of religious reformers, such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Taimiyah,Ibn Qayim al-Jawziyah and others; however, these reform activitiesdiffered significantly from the modern reform movement. The medievalreformers worked within Muslim society; it was not necessary to dealwith the external challenge presented by Europe as it was for themodern Muslim reformers after the world of Islam lost its independenceand fell under European rule. The powers of Europe believed that Islamwas the only force that impeded them in their quest for world dominanceand, relying on the strength of their physical presence in Muslimcountries, tried to convince the Muslim peoples tgat Islam was ahindrance to their progress and development.Another problem, no less serious than the first, faced by the modernMuslim reformers was the shocking ignorance of the Muslim peoples oftheir religion and their history. For more than four centuries,scholarship in all areas had been in an unabated state of decline. Thosereligious studies which were produced veered far from the spirit ofIslam, and they were so blurred and burdened with myths and legends,that they served only to confuse the masses.The ‘Ulama were worst of all: strictly rejecting change, they still hadthe mentality of their medieval forebearers against whom al-Ghazali,Ibn Taimiyah and others had fought. Hundreds of years behind thetimes, their central concern was tuqlid (the imitation of that which hadpreceeded them through the ages). For centuries, no one had dared toquestion this heritage or point out the religious innovations it impaired.In conjunction with their questioning of the tuqlid, the modernreformers strove to revive the concept of ijtihad (indmendentjudgement) in religious matters, an idea which had been disallowedsince the tenth century. The first to raiseanew the banner of $tihad inthe Arab Muslim world was Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani; after himSheikh Muhammad ‘Abduh in Egypt, and after him, his friend and ...


Author(s):  
Daniel Philpott

Is Islam hospitable to religious freedom? The question is at the heart of a public controversy over Islam that has raged in the West over the past decade-and-a-half. Religious freedom is important because it promotes democracy and peace and reduces ills like civil war, terrorism, and violence. Religious freedom also is simply a matter of justice—not an exclusively Western principle but rather a universal human right rooted in human nature. The heart of the book confronts the question of Islam and religious freedom through an empirical examination of Muslim-majority countries. From a satellite view, looking at these countries in the aggregate, the book finds that the Muslim world is far less free than the rest of the world. Zooming in more closely on Muslim-majority countries, though, the picture looks more diverse. Some one-fourth of Muslim-majority countries are in fact religiously free. Among the unfree, 40% are repressive because they are governed by a hostile secularism imported from the West, and the other 60% are Islamist. The emergent picture is both honest and hopeful. Amplifying hope are two chapters that identify “seeds of freedom” in the Islamic tradition and that present the Catholic Church’s long road to religious freedom as a promising model for Islam. Another chapter looks at the Arab Uprisings of 2011, arguing that religious freedom explains much about both their broad failure and their isolated success. The book closes with lessons for expanding religious freedom in the Muslim world and the world at large.


1919 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 110-115
Author(s):  
D. S. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
The City ◽  

In the discussion of Greek dramatic origins, a curious passage of Apuleius has never, so far as I know, been mentioned.In the second book of the Metamorphoses the hero Lucius describes a feast given at Hypata in Thessaly by his rich relative Byrrhena. After the feast Byrrhena informs him that an annual festival, coeval with the city, will be celebrated next day—a joyous ceremony, unique in the world, in honour of the god Laughter. She wishes that he could invent some humorous freak for the occasion. Lucius promises to do his best. Being very drunk, he then bids Byrrhena good-night, and departs with his slave for the house of Milo, his miserly old host. A gust blows out their torch, and they get home with difficulty, arm in arm. There they find three large and lusty persone violently battering the door. Lucius has been warned by his mistress, Milo's slave Fotis, against certain young Mohawks of the town—‘uesana factio nobilissimorum iuuenum’—who think nothing of murdering rich strangers. He at once draws his sword, and one by one stabs all three. Fotis, roused by the noise, lets him in and he quickly falls asleep.


2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiril Feferman

This article explores the policies of Nazi Germany towards the Karaites, a group of Jewish ancestry which emerged during the seventh to the ninth centuries CE, when its followers rejected the mainstream Jewish interpretation of Tanakh. Karaite communities flourished in Persia, Turkey, Egypt, Crimea, and Lithuania. From 1938 to 1944, the Nazi bureaucracy and scholarship examined the question of whether the Karaites were of Jewish origin, practiced Judaism and had to be treated as Jews. Because of its proximity to Judenpolitik and later to the Muslim factor, the subject got drawn into the world of Nazi grand policy and became the instrument of internecine power struggles between various agencies in Berlin. The Muslim factor in this context is construed as German cultivation of a special relationship with the Muslim world with an eye to political dividends in the Middle East and elsewhere. Nazi views of the Karaites’ racial origin and religion played a major role in their policy towards the group. However, as the tides of the war turned against the Germans, various Nazi agencies demonstrated growing flexibility either to re-tailor the Karaites’ racial credentials or to entirely gloss over them in the name of “national interests,” i.e. a euphemism used to disguise Nazi Germany's overtures to the Muslim world.


Author(s):  
Sadik Haci

The study follows the life and scientific trajectories of the turkologist Hasan Eren from the town of Vidin, lecturer at the University of Ankara, editor and author of various dictionaries, including the first etymological dictionary of the Turkish language. It traces the preparation and growth of the world-famous Turkish linguist and lexicologist, who left Bulgaria to study and after his exceptional training among Hungarian orientalists such as Gyula Németh he grew up as one of the most famous Turkish scholars in the field of llinguistics. This study presents the conditions and possibilities for Turkish intelligentsia in Bulgaria in the twentieth century.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gubara Hassan

The Western originators of the multi-disciplinary social sciences and their successors, including most major Western social intellectuals, excluded religion as an explanation for the world and its affairs. They held that religion had no role to play in modern society or in rational elucidations for the way world politics or/and relations work. Expectedly, they also focused most of their studies on the West, where religion’s effect was least apparent and argued that its influence in the non-West was a primitive residue that would vanish with its modernization, the Muslim world in particular. Paradoxically, modernity has caused a resurgence or a revival of religion, including Islam. As an alternative approach to this Western-centric stance and while focusing on Islam, the paper argues that religion is not a thing of the past and that Islam has its visions of international relations between Muslim and non-Muslim states or abodes: peace, war, truce or treaty, and preaching (da’wah).


Author(s):  
Choirul Fuad Yusuf

The religious tolerance and harmony is something necessary to develop due to the need of global security and peace today. For this purpose, all religions have to be fairly “tolerant” to others. Islam as a revealed religion, whatever its motive, is often perceived and accused as the religion of intolerance and violence. Some political and ideological questions, for example raised to this context: "Can Islamic faith tolerate other faiths, religions or groups?”, What’s actually the Islamic teachings on tolerance and peace or harmony?” and the likes. This article attempts to unpack and elaborate of how far at Qur’an –as the first and primary source of Islam– has a teaching on tolerance and peace. Using a hermeneutical approach the writer understands and analyses what is actually taught by al Qur'an on the concepts and practices of the tolerance. Based on the analysis, he highlights any conclusions of which al-Qur’an (Islam) teaches the followers to respect and implement the doctrine of tolerance and peace. The Muslim world is imperatively to tolerate others, or respect the differences for strengthening the world security and peaceful life amongst nationwide.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 520-538
Author(s):  
Fayzul Huq ◽  
Arshad Islam ◽  
Kazi Afifa Khatun

The Muslims of Bangladesh are separated into diverse religious, political, and social groups. Several scholars tried to unite Muslims. One of the most significant Islamic intellectuals of Bangladesh, Sheikh Azizur Rahman Nesarabadi, proposed a paradigm of religious harmony to unite the Bangladeshi people and global nations. According to him, religious harmony with the doctrine of Ittihad Ma’al al-Ikhtelaf (Unity in Diversity) is the only key answer to the current disunity at the national, international, and global levels. This study examines his concept and his role in the society and politics of Bangladesh by textual analysis of primary and secondary data. After analyzing religious harmony itself, we deliver a brief biography of Sheikh Azizur Rahman, presenting his contribution to both Sharia and Sufi education, and their effects on his vision. The study then emphasizes his thoughts on four steps of religious harmony and analyses in light of current social realities in Bangladesh and the Muslim world. This paper concludes that Sheikh Nesarabadi’s thought and theory on religious harmony depend upon three foundations: common good interest, moderation, mutual respect, and the Tawhidic model. These contain the structure for religious harmony of Muslim unity whose implementation by Muslims can achieve the command of Allah to empower the Ummah to continue a leading role in the world as a Khalifah of Allah SWT almighty.


Author(s):  
Ibrahim Faruk Gaya ◽  
Mu’azu Audu Zanuwa ◽  
Kamaludeen Adamu Muhammad ◽  
Mashkurah Ahmed Usman ◽  
Shehu Muhammad

Urban growth concept has dragged the attention of several scholars of different fields of study for decades. Urban growth refers to expansion of urban centres in size due population growth, which hiked the number of buildings in urban centres around the world. The finding of the paper indicate that Gombe Metropolis expanded by (85 hectares) each year from 2000 to 2010 and the expansion of Gombe Metropolis occur in all direction. The rate at which Gombe Metropolis expand grown to (203 hectares) each year from 2010 up to date. Therefore, the rate at which Gombe metropolis expanded increases by 138% from 2010 to date and how number of markets increases to 16 currently from 12 in the year 2010. This paper study the Impact of urban growth on market in Gombe Metropolis. Coordinate of markets of existing markets was collected. For second set of data used in this paper i.e. secondary data which include map of Gombe metropolis, related journals, text books, published and unpublished document, and Newspaper were consulted. The data generated from questionnaire administration were analysed using tables, graphs and charts. Satellite images showing how urban growth is taken place in Gombe Metropolis were also analysed. The study examines the impact of urban growth on Gombe Metropolis markets activities over the period of study. The findings of the study indicate emergence of new markets in the study area over the years of study as a result of urban expansion that occur in Gombe Metropolis. It also indicated that the new established markets were located in areas where urban growth take place in study area and these new markets are patronized by people within the environment or vicinity of the markets. Most of the newly emerged markets are located at the periphery of the town where urban expansions occur rapidly.


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