Searching for the ‘Homeland’ of Islam

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-131
Author(s):  
Sarah Albrecht

Recent studies on Muslims in the West have frequently characterised them as living in a state of ‘diaspora’. As the question of whether Muslims regard themselves or their co-religionists residing in Western countries as forming a ‘diaspora’ has, however, remained widely understudied, this article provides insights into Muslim perspectives on the notion of ‘Muslim diaspora’ as a self-designation. It explores how far prominent scholars and intellectuals—among them al-Qaradawi, al-Alwani, Ramadan and Nayed—conceptualise Muslims in the West as belonging to a ‘diasporic community’ or whether and for what reasons they reject this classification. Arguing that current controversies surrounding this question are intrinsically linked with the discussion of the traditional Islamic view that the world is divided into a ‘territory of Islam’ and a ‘territory of war’, the article challenges the widespread assumption that the notion of ‘Muslim diaspora’ is, unlike other examples of diaspora, devoid of a distinct territorial component.

Author(s):  
M. Klupt

Will immigrant minorities change the Western world? Two decades ago this question seemed irrelevant as it was expected that the West will change the world in its image. Today, the same question is perceived as rhetorical. The answer is obvious, and the dispute is merely over directions, extent and possible consequences of future changes. The center of this dispute is the multiculturalism – the concept, policy and praxis praising diversity of cultures and denying any of them a vested right to dominate not only in the world at large, but even in a particular country. The assessment of its perspectives presupposes a variety of research approaches in view of its complexity. In the present article only one of them is be used for the analysis focused on the employment of immigrant minorities from the world's South. The viability of such approach is based on two circumstances. Firstly, the employment indexes considered in ethnical context belong to the most important characteristics of ethno-social structure of a society. Secondly, the availability of broad statistical information about employment allows for resting upon empirical data, possibly avoiding a needless bias toward purely theoretical constructions.


Fahm-i-Islam ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70
Author(s):  
Dr Aurangzeb

Over the past several years, despite the constant evolution of the legislation the problem of gender equality in the West has been steadily increasing. What is the reason why there is no significant progress in solving gender equality issues in the West yet? Several reports and researches have pointed out to this problem. On the contrary, Islam provides a viable solution to this ever increasing problem; for Islam has a comprehensive yet simple view of gender equality. But the West, instead of understanding Islamic principles objectively, raises objections without a thorough study. However, the Western principle of gender equality has completely failed. In this article a critical analysis of the western gender equality and Islamic principles has been carried out. It also highlights Islamic view point of gender equality. The study argues that the contemporary gender equality problems and issues that have engulfed the world particularly the Western countries can be mitigated by employing the Islamic principles of gender equality


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 205316801875762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torkel Brekke

Financial inclusion is high on the agenda for governments as well as for organizations such as the World Bank. Research has pointed out that Muslims worldwide are less included in the formal financial system than non-Muslims, but there is no knowledge about the extent to which religious norms (most importantly the ban on interest on money) lead to financial exclusion among Muslims in the West. In this article I approach the issue of financial exclusion and inclusion through three interrelated questions that will be answered with data collected in Norway 2015 and 2016. The questions are: (a) To what extent do Muslims see conventional banking as a problem in their own lives? (b) Do level of education, age, national background or level of religiosity predict demand for Islamic banking? (c) Is demand for Islamic banking changing? This article is a first step in what should be a broader research program to find out whether and how religious norms cause financial exclusion of Muslims in the West.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Rashad Mohammed Moqbel Al Areqi

Terrorism is the talk of the world. It also occupies a larger part in the media and Islam receives relatively high attention compared to other religions. Islam, Muslims, particularly Arabs, in the eyes of the West, become the source of terrorism that gives the West an opportunity to launch a war against the countries which are accused of terrorism. It is, in fact, a war against radical Islam as they claimed. How do the western politicians, reporters, journalists and writers address terrorism in their official speech or literary works that reflect their vision and understanding of terror/terrorism? The present article addresses Amy Waldman’s The Submission, 2011, John Updike’s Terrorist, 2006, Joel Rosenberg’s The Last Jihad, 2002, and their vision of terrorism, its reasons and the people behind. The article concluded that the western narratives written during the controversial period of the post 9/11. 2001 came deeply influenced by the western media reports and the official statements about 9/11. Such narratives also created, but enrooted Islamophobia and anti- Muslim attitudes in the hearts of the westerners while the western narratives written lately showed more sympathy and rationality towards Muslim characters because the hidden facts of terrorism become exposed. The narratives showed that the western countries exaggerate in their reactions against terrorists/terrorism and the present research concluded that the West has taken precautionary steps to protect its interests and its allies in such countries accused of terrorism. The westerners make use of their domination upon the media to create negative and aggressive attitudes towards Islam/Muslims to blackmail the Islamic countries in the name of war on terrorism, and to secularize/westernize the different aspects of life in such Islamic countries. The narratives showed that war on terrorism is a war on Islam, particularly, radical Islam as claimed. 


1964 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willard A. Beling

The World Federation of Trade Unions (W.F.T.U.) was one of the most hopeful ventures of all the Communist front organisations. Unlike some of the other fronts the Russians did not create it. They captured the W.F.T.U. after it was established, and had a good start. Once captured, however, the W.F.T.U. represented merely an extension of the pattern of the earlier Red International which had been created by the Comintern following World War I as a vehicle to reach the working masses of the world and rally them to Moscow. But like its predecessor—dissolved in 1937—the W.F.T.U. has also failed to make significant inroads among the workers in western countries and win control over them. While it has affiliates in the west, the French Confédération Générale du Travail (C.G.T.) and the Italian Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (C.G.I.L.) being the most outstanding examples, the W.F.T.U. does not at all dominate these movements. Rather, control for the most part is exercised through the local Communist parties, some of which, while still very much an integral part of an international apparatus, have won some measure of autonomy from Moscow.1


Author(s):  
Li Ouyang ◽  

Recently, due to the influence of COVID-19 and the gradual deepening of cultural exchanges between China and the West, more and more audiences in the world choose to watch classic films and TV series at home. Chinese costume films and TV series are becoming more and more popular in western countries, while the subtitle translation plays a huge role in the spread of films and TV series. American Empresses in the Palace is a large-scale costume TV series widely praised by western audiences. Many of its subtitle translations adopt domestication strategies, making the subtitle more close to western audiences. Under the guidance of Skopos Theory, this paper takes the subtitle translation of American Empresses in the Palace as an example to discuss the practical application of domestication strategies in C-E subtitle translation, so as to further understand domestication strategies and provide more references for subtitle translation of other costume dramas.


2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Larsson ◽  
Åke Sander

This short discussion article addresses both the problem/s of defining Islamophobia and the ways in which our definitions impact on how we see the world and by what method/s the social problem of Islamophobia is measured. Because of growing internal tensions among Muslims in the world and because of the politicised nature of Islam and Muslims in the West, we argue that there is a growing need to consider how Islamophobia should be defined.


Author(s):  
Mahmoda Khaton Siddika

The well-known myth of binary- England and India creates a conflict for the contrastive attitude in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India and Nirad C Chaudhuri’s travelogue A Passage to England. The binary opposition of Anglo-Indian as colonizers and Indians as colonized leads to another set of binary, white-colored, and civilized-primitive in A Passage to India. This binary contradicts each other to form them in another set of binary, controller-controlled during the British imperial rule in India. The contrastive structure is in the form of conflict reflected in their outlook, behavior, and lifestyle in this novel. On the other hand, by an eight-week-journey in western countries, Chaudhuri, as an Indian in England, exposes what he observes in the west together with the reality of India in the travelogue. He recognizes the social binaries upholded by Jacques Derrida in A Passage to England. Chaudhuri in his book has executed this binary sense as England-India, British-Indians possessing two independent entities of the world. The two writers, through Hegel’s dialectic process, place the binary opposition implanting Derrida’s view. The article focuses on the nature of the conflict and tries to explore reconciliation of the conflicts based on the comparative analysis of two books.


Crisis ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudath Samaraweera ◽  
Athula Sumathipala ◽  
Sisira Siribaddana ◽  
S. Sivayogan ◽  
Dinesh Bhugra

Background: Suicidal ideation can often lead to suicide attempts and completed suicide. Studies have shown that Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world but so far no studies have looked at prevalence of suicidal ideation in a general population in Sri Lanka. Aims: We wanted to determine the prevalence of suicidal ideation by randomly selecting six Divisional Secretariats (Dss) out of 17 in one district. This district is known to have higher than national average rates of suicide. Methods: 808 participants were interviewed using Sinhala versions of GHQ-30 and Beck’s Scale for Suicidal Ideation. Of these, 387 (48%) were males, and 421 (52%) were female. Results: On Beck’s Scale for Suicidal Ideation, 29 individuals (4%) had active suicidal ideation and 23 (3%) had passive suicidal ideation. The active suicidal ideators were young, physically ill and had higher levels of helplessness and hopelessness. Conclusions: The prevalence of suicidal ideation in Sri Lanka is lower than reported from the West and yet suicide rates are higher. Further work must explore cultural and religious factors.


1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fouad A-L.H. Abou-Hatab

This paper presents the case of psychology from a perspective not widely recognized by the West, namely, the Egyptian, Arab, and Islamic perspective. It discusses the introduction and development of psychology in this part of the world. Whenever such efforts are evaluated, six problems become apparent: (1) the one-way interaction with Western psychology; (2) the intellectual dependency; (3) the remote relationship with national heritage; (4) its irrelevance to cultural and social realities; (5) the inhibition of creativity; and (6) the loss of professional identity. Nevertheless, some major achievements are emphasized, and a four-facet look into the 21st century is proposed.


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