Emerging and Challenging Voices in the House of Islam

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-85
Author(s):  
Muhammed Haron
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Tangible Evidence ◽  
The Face ◽  
Theoretical Frame ◽  
Muslim Communities

South African Islam has always been associated with the Cape Malay and Indian communities throughout the twentieth century. As a consequence, Islam as a religious tradition was seldom associated with other ethnic groups. Toward the end of apartheid and during the era of democracy there has been tangible evidence of its growth among African ethnic communities. This essay, which looks at this phenomenon from roughly 1961-2001, reflects upon South African Muslims’ demographics with special focus on the African Muslim communities and analyzes the position of African Muslims alongside their coreligionists by concentrating on randomly selected case studies. I seek to demonstrate how certain representatives from the selected communities, via internal developments and external influences, have had significant input in terms of changing the face of Islam in southern Africa. The essay is prefaced by a theoretical frame designed to assist in understanding the development of an African Muslim identity and the emergence of an African Muslim community.

Emerging and Challenging Voices in the House of Islam

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-85
Author(s):  
Muhammed Haron
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Tangible Evidence ◽  
The Face ◽  
Theoretical Frame ◽  
Muslim Communities

South African Islam has always been associated with the Cape Malay and Indian communities throughout the twentieth century. As a consequence, Islam as a religious tradition was seldom associated with other ethnic groups. Toward the end of apartheid and during the era of democracy there has been tangible evidence of its growth among African ethnic communities. This essay, which looks at this phenomenon from roughly 1961-2001, reflects upon South African Muslims’ demographics with special focus on the African Muslim communities and analyzes the position of African Muslims alongside their coreligionists by concentrating on randomly selected case studies. I seek to demonstrate how certain representatives from the selected communities, via internal developments and external influences, have had significant input in terms of changing the face of Islam in southern Africa. The essay is prefaced by a theoretical frame designed to assist in understanding the development of an African Muslim identity and the emergence of an African Muslim community.

scholarly journals KONTENPLASI MASYARAKAT MUSLIM MELAYU PALEMBANG DALAM TANTANGAN EKONOMI GLOBAL

2019 ◽  
pp. 143-156
Author(s):  
Raden Ayu Erika Septiana ◽  
Raden Ayu Ritawati
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Work Ethic ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Fast Flow ◽  
And Behavior

Along with the fast flow of change and the strong acculturation process of Palembang Malay Muslim community, Malay culture is like a ship that sails in the middle of a storm. This is based on the fact that our development places too much emphasis on material aspects that have given birth to an imbalance in the behavior patterns of the Palembang Malay Muslim community, which has increasingly been eroded by economic globalization. Excessive material competition has produced anomicous societies. The embodiment of the way the Palembang Malays behave is also reflected in their work ethic which can be roughly seen from the social structure and norms of the community. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which the global economy has the potential to obscure the Malay identity and the pure Muslim identity. The qualitative approach was chosen using the method of field research carried out in an effort to understand the symptoms in such a way as a phenomenon that is not external expressed through their views. The results of this study found the fact that enthusiasm and work ethic were actually not reflected in most Palembang Malay Muslim communities. Malay and Islamic relations actually obscure the role and competitiveness of the community in the practice of social relations and in earning a living. Religion is still considered as an element of local culture which is concentrated in the form of traditional customary behavior, not as a foothold, direction and way of life. Indeed religion serves to encourage humans to get involved in economic roles and behavior, because religion can reduce anxiety and fear not too found in this study. Where the aftereffect of this condition arises a generation that is deprived of values, a generation that is fragile from the spiritual aspect, easily influenced, not easily cared for and loses its cultural footing.

scholarly journals ‘They Make Us Feel Like We’re a Virus’: The Multiple Impacts of Islamophobic Hostility Towards Veiled Muslim Women

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Zempi ◽  
Neil Chakraborti
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Multiple Impacts ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The Individual

Within the prevailing post-9/11 climate, veiled Muslim women are commonly portrayed as oppressed, ‘culturally dangerous’ and ‘threatening’ to the western way of life and to notions of public safety and security by virtue of being fully covered in the public sphere. It is in such a context that manifestations of Islamophobia often emerge as a means of responding to these ‘threats’. Drawing from qualitative data elicited through a UK-based study, this article reflects upon the lived experiences of veiled Muslim women as actual and potential victims of Islamophobia and examines the impacts of Islamophobic attacks upon victims, their families and wider Muslim communities. Among the central themes we explore are impacts upon their sense of vulnerability, the visibility of their Muslim identity, and the management of their safety in public. The individual and collective harms associated with this form of victimisation are considered through notions of a worldwide, transnational Muslim community, the ummah, which connects Muslims from all over world. We conclude by noting that the effects of this victimisation are not exclusively restricted to the global ummah; rather, the harm extends to society as a whole by exacerbating the polarisation which already exists between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

scholarly journals VISIT THE TOMB OF KI MAROGAN: PRESERVATION OF RELIGIOUS TRADITION IN MUSLIM MALAY COMMUNITY

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-88
Author(s):  
Anita Trisiah ◽  
Weni Puspita ◽  
Reni Septiyanti
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Good Habit ◽  
The City ◽  
Depth Interviews

The custom of some Palembang Malay Muslim communities to visit the tomb of Ki Marogan is a religious tradition that has lasted for years. This study wants to see what are the motives behind the Palembang Muslim community to maintain this tradition and how their perceptions of these pilgrimage habits. By using the method of observation and in-depth interviews found the fact that there are various motives behind the pilgrimage tradition to the Ki Merogan tomb, ranging from forms of respect for the figure of Ki Merogan Ulama, known as a charismatic figure of Ulama and its important role in the development of Islam in the city of Palembang, to with the motive of smelling khurafat in the form of a desire to pay a vow because their request was granted after praying at the grave of Ki Marogan. Meanwhile pilgrims consider that the tradition of pilgrimage to the grave of Ki Merogan is a good habit and does not violate Islamic teachings. Some even believe that the pilgrimage to the tomb of Ki Merogan is a must because it is a form of respect for the great ulemas of Palembang who have high karomah.

The Easter Sunday Bombings and the Crisis Facing Sri Lanka’s Muslims

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.R.M. Imtiyaz
Keyword(s):  
Peace Building ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Religious Revival ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Post War ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Islamic Faith

This paper primarily examines the Easter Sunday bombing plotted and executed by a group of Sri Lankan Muslims and post-war Sri Lankan conditions among Sri Lankan Muslims, also known as Moors. The article will attempt to argue that (a) the post-war violence and organized Islamophobia among non-Muslim communities in general and the Sinhalese in particular increased fears and distrust among Sri Lankan Muslims in general; and (b) state concessions to Muslim political leaders, who supported successive Sri Lankan ruling classes from independence through the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, have meant an isolation of the community from the other two main ethnic communities. The concessions that the Muslim community has won actively helped the Muslim community to be proactive in its religious practices and thus paved the way for exclusive social and political choices. The rise of Islamic movements and mosques in the post-1977 period galvanized Muslims. In time this isolation has been reinforced by socio-religious revival among Muslims whose ethnic identity has been constructed along the lines of the Islamic faith by Muslim elites. Despite this revival it has been clear that the Muslim community has been reluctant to use Islamic traditions and principles for peace building, which could have helped to ease tensions, brought about by the 30-year-old ethnic conflict. Finally, some pragmatic ways to ease tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in the greater discipline of conflict resolution are explored using traditions within Islam.

FAITH–BASED COMMUNITIES AND POLITICS IN DULLSTROOM-EMNOTWENI: LOCAL STORIES OF IDENTITY

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Landman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
Cultural Conflicts ◽  
Local Identities ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Local Municipality ◽  
The Face

A majority of the black community of Dullstroom-Emnotweni in the Mpumalanga highveld in the east of South Africa trace their descent back to the southern Ndebele of the so-called ‘Mapoch Gronden’, who lost their land in the 1880s to become farm workers on their own land. A hundred years later, in 1980, descendants of the ‘Mapoggers’ settled in the newly built ‘township’ of Dullstroom, called Sakhelwe, finding jobs on the railways or as domestic workers. Oral interviews with the inhabitants of Sakhelwe – a name eventually abandoned in favour of Dullstroom- Emnotweni – testify to histories of transition from landowner to farmworker to unskilled labourer. The stories also highlight cultural conflicts between people of Ndebele, Pedi and Swazi descent and the influence of decades of subordination on local identities. Research projects conducted in this and the wider area of the eMakhazeni Local Municipality reveal the struggle to maintain religious, gender and youth identities in the face of competing political interests. Service delivery, higher education, space for women and the role of faith-based organisations in particular seem to be sites of contestation. Churches and their role in development and transformation, where they compete with political parties and state institutions, are the special focus of this study. They attempt to remain free from party politics, but are nevertheless co-opted into contra-culturing the lack of service delivery, poor standards of higher education and inadequate space for women, which are outside their traditional role of sustaining an oppressed community.

Accountability and the Media

2014 ◽  
Vol 652 (1) ◽  
pp. 206-221
Author(s):  
Anton Harber
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Access ◽  
Political Interference ◽  
The Face ◽  
Public Broadcaster ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Poor Management

Two decades of contestation over the nature and extent of transformation in the South African news media have left a sector different in substantive ways from the apartheid inheritance but still patchy in its capacity to fill the democratic ideal. Change came fast to a newly open broadcasting sector, but has faltered in recent years, particularly in a public broadcaster troubled by political interference and poor management. The potential of online media to provide much greater media access has been hindered by the cost of bandwidth. Community media has grown but struggled to survive financially. Print media has been aggressive in investigative exposé, but financial cutbacks have damaged routine daily coverage. In the face of this, the government has turned its attention to the print sector, demanding greater—but vaguely defined—transformation and threatened legislation. This has met strong resistance.

British Raj to China's Hong Kong: The rise of madrasas for ethnic Muslim youth

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
WAI-YIP HO
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Day School ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Religious Knowledge ◽  
British Raj ◽  
Muslim Youth ◽  
British Colonial

AbstractThe madrasa, the Islamic institution of learning, has for centuries occupied a central role in the transmission of religious knowledge and the shaping of the identity of the global Muslim community (umma). This paper explores the sharp rise in the number of madrasas in contemporary Hong Kong. It examines, in particular, how South Asian Muslim youth, after receiving a modern education in a conventional day school, remain faithful to their religious tradition by spending their evenings at a madrasa studying and memorizing the Qur'an. Engaging with the stereotypical bias of Islamophobia and national security concerns regarding the ties of madrasas to Islamic terrorist movements over the last decade, this paper argues that the burgeoning South Asian madrasa networks have to be understood in the context of Hong Kong's tripartite Islamic traditions—South Asian Muslim, Chinese Hui Muslims, and Indonesian Muslims—and within each Muslim community's unique expression of Islamic piety. Furthermore, the paper also identifies factors contributing to the increase in madrasas in Hong Kong after the transition from British colonial rule to China's resumption of sovereign power in 1997.

scholarly journals Problems, Challenges and Prospects of Indonesian Muslim Community in Sydney for Promoting Tolerance

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
Ahmad Muttaqin ◽  
Achmad Zainal Arifin ◽  
Firdaus Wajdi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Indonesian Government ◽  
Australian Community ◽  
Political Idea ◽  
The Government ◽  
Muslim Communities

This paper elucidates a map of Indonesian Muslim communities around Sydney in order to observe the possibility to promote a moderate and tolerance of Indonesian Islam worldwide. Indonesian Muslims who live in Australia are relatively small if we consider that we are the closer neighbor of Australia and have the biggest Muslim populations in the world. Most Indonesian Muslim communities in Sydney are in a form of kelompok pengajian (Islamic study group), which is commonly based on ethnicity, regionalism (province and regency), and religious affiliation with Indonesian Islamic groups. The main problems of Indonesian Muslim communities in Sydney are an ambiguous identity, laziness integration, and dream to home country. Most Indonesian Muslim diaspora in Sydney only consider Australia as the land for making money. Therefore, their inclusion to Australian community is just being Indonesian Muslim in Australia and it seems hard for them to be Australian Muslim, especially in the case of those who already changed to be Australian citizens. This kind of diaspora attitude differs from Muslims Diasporas from the Middle East and South Asia countries who are mostly ready to be fully Australian Muslim.Naturally, most Indonesian Muslim communities put their emphasis to develop their community based on social needs and try to avoid political idea of Islamism. In this case, the Indonesian government, through the Indonesian Consulate in Sydney, has great resources to promote moderate and tolerant views of Indonesian Islam to other Muslim communities, as well as to Western media. In optimizing resources of Indonesian Muslim communities in Sydney to envoy Indonesian cultures and policies, it is necessary for Indonesian government to have a person with integrated knowledge on Islamic Studies who are working officially under the Indonesian consulate in Sydney. It is based on the fact that most Indonesian Muslim communities needs a patron from the government to manage and soften some differences among them, especially related to problems of identities, as well as to link them with the wider Australian communities.

scholarly journals NILAI-NILAI SUFISME DALAM JAMAAH SHALAWAT WAHIDIYYAH DI KEDIRI DAN MALANG

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Fatkhul Wahab ◽  
Ahmad Bukhori ◽  
Athiyah
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Data Reduction ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The Right ◽  
Depth Interviews

Among Muslim communities, love of the Prophet Muhammad embodied in a religious tradition known as shalawāh tradition. Shalawāh is an expression of deep gratitude for the guidance to Muslims on the right path. Sufism that emphasizes reading Shalawāh of the Prophet Muhammad as dhikr primarily is Shalawāh Wāhidiyah. The main purpose of Shalawāh Wāhidiyah is to alleviate people from the shirk and return to the straight and true that by pleasing Allah. The focuses of this study are: (1) how do the precepts and values of Sufism in the Jamaat Shalawāh Wāhidiyah? (2)  How do the precepts and values are promoted and practiced by Jamaat Shalawāh Wāhidiyah? (3)  How does the experience of spirituality Jamaat Shalawāh Wāhidiyah? This study is a qualitative study by using a naturalistic paradigm and phenomenology approach. The data were collected by in-depth interviews, participant observation, and documentary in the form of journals, magazines and so on. While the data analysis techniques include data reduction, presentation of data, the validity of the data and drawing conclusions. The results of this study indicate that: (1) Shalawāh Wāhidiyah precepts include: a. li Allāh, bi Allāh; b. li al-RasÅ«l, bi al-RasÅ«l; c. li al-ghauts bi al-ghauts; d. yu'thÄ« kull dzÄ« ḥaqq; e. taqdÄ«m al-hamm tsumm al-hamm, fa al-fa’ tsumm al-fa'. The values contained in Shalawāh Wāhidiyah Sufism, among others: taubah, ikhlāsh, syukr, mahabbah. (2) Socialization Shalawāh Wāhidiyah precepts are done by 1. individual, 2. packaged in a formal form as mujāhadah nishf al-sanah and mujāhadah kubrā, 3. through dreams, 4. implemented in the form of books, magazines, newsletters, and CDs. While this practice Shalawāh Wāhidiyah carried out in different ways mujāhadah usbÅ«'iyyah, mujāhadah syahriyyah, mujāhadah rub’ al-sanah, mujāhadah nishf al-sanah, and so forth. Keywords: The values of Sufism, Shalawāh Wāhidiyah

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