Confessional cousins and the rest: the structure of Islamic toleration

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Benthall
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Religious Intolerance ◽  
People Today

Adducing some insights from cultural anthropology, this Chapter compares and contrasts the histories of the Christian and the Islamic traditions of religious toleration, considering in particular the blurring of the distinction between “People of the Book” and “pagans” or “polytheists”. It argues that each tradition has strengths and weaknesses if we consider them as contributions to a humanism acceptable to people today who subscribe to various religious beliefs or to none. Christendom was guilty historically of worse religious intolerance than Islam, yet it also engendered a humanistic respect for “primitive” belief systems. Islam institutionalized the concept of People of the Book, which gave a qualified recognition to its “confessional cousins”, but it excluded “pagan” cultures unless they agreed to convert. Yet Islam was also capable of flexibility when a small Muslim court in India ruled over a vast non-Muslim population. An extended prefatory note reviews the progress of scholarship since the first publication of this text in Anthropology Today in 2005, and asks whether it is necessary to modify the suggestion that Muslim social scientists are inhibited from choosing to study non-monotheistic cultures. The conclusion reached ten years later is that there are at least some major exceptions.

ISLAMIC SOCIAL SCIENCES

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Abul Fadl
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Foundations ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Human Value ◽  
The Social ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Culture Brokers

The need for a relevant and instrumental body of knowledge that can secure the taskof historical reconstruction in Muslim societies originally inspired the da’wa for the Islamizationof knowledge. The immediate targets for this da’wa were the social sciences for obvious reasons.Their field directly impinges on the organization of human societies and as such carries intothe area of human value and belief systems. The fact that such a body of knowledge alreadyexisted and that the norms for its disciplined pursuit were assumed in the dominant practiceconfronted Muslim scholars with the context for addressing the issues at stake. How relevantwas current social science to Muslim needs and aspirations? Could it, in its present formand emphasis, provide Muslims with the framework for operationalizing their values in theirhistorical present? How instrumental is it in shaping the social foundations vital for the Muslimfuture? Is instrumentality the only criteria for such evaluations? In seeking to answer thesequestions the seeds are sown for a new orientation in the social sciences. This orientationrepresents the legitimate claims and aspirations of a long silent/silenced world culture.In locating the activities of Muslim social scientists today it is important to distinguishbetween two currents. The first is in its formative stages as it sets out to rediscover the worldfrom the perspective of a recovered sense of identity and in terms of its renewed culturalaffinities. Its preoccupations are those of the Muslim revival. The other current is constitutedof the remnants of an earlier generation of modernizers who still retain a faith in the universalityof Western values. Demoralized by the revival, as much as by their own cultural alientation,they seek to deploy their reserves of scholarship and logistics to recover lost ground. Bymodifying their strategy and revalorizing the legacy they hope that, as culture-brokers, theymight be more effective where others have failed. They seek to pre-empt the cultural revivalby appropriating its symbols and reinterpreting the Islamic legacy to make it more tractableto modernity. They blame Orientalism for its inherent fixations and strive to redress its selfimposedlimitations. Their efforts may frequently intersect with those of the Islamizing current,but should clearly not be confused with them. For all the tireless ingenuity, these effortsare more conspicuous for their industry than for their originality. Between the new breadof renovationists and the old guard of ‘modernizers’, the future of an Islamic Social Scienceclearly lies with the efforts of the former.Within the Islamizing current it is possible to distinguish three principal trends. The firstopts for a radical perspective and takes its stand on epistemological grounds. It questionsthe compatibility of the current social sciences on account of their rootedness in the paradigmof the European Enlightenment and its attendant naturalistic and positivist biases. Consistencedemands a concerted e€fort to generate alternative paradigms for a new social science fromIslamic epistemologies. In contrast, the second trend opts for a more pragmatic approachwhich assumes that it is possible to interact within the existing framework of the disciplinesafter adapting them to Islamic values. The problem with modern sciene is ethical, notepistemological, and by recasting it accordingly, it is possible to benefit from its strengthsand curtail its derogatory consequences. The third trend focuses on the Muslim scholar, rather ...

Growing religion and growing religious restrictions: A global overview

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J. Grim
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Multidimensional Data ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes ◽  
People Today ◽  
Cross National ◽  
Religiously Unaffiliated

Major cross-national social scientific studies by the Pew Research Center reveal that the overwhelming majority people today self-identify as being affiliated with one religion or another, and even among people who are religiously unaffiliated, many have some religious beliefs or engage in some religious practices. The prospects for continued growth of religious populations appear strong as they are younger on average than the world’s religiously unaffiliated population. In recent years, however, despite—or perhaps related to—the global prevalence of religion, government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion have been rising in most regions of the world. While causes of the increase are numerous and multidimensional, data reveal a clear and strong association between government restrictions and social hostilities, a pattern particularly pronounced in the Middle East during the Arab Spring. Studies also show that many people, especially in non-Western countries, have somewhat conservative and strong religious beliefs and attitudes. Such beliefs and attitudes also have a connection to the level of religious restrictions and hostilities around the world.

Conversion and the Idea of the Secret

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-186
Author(s):  
Gauri Viswanathan
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
African History ◽  
African Slave ◽  
Dynamic View ◽  
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ◽  
The Individual

Gauri Viswanathan, “Conversion and the Idea of the Secret” (pp. 161–186) Obsessed with the notion of the secret in his writings on religion, Jacques Derrida uncannily evokes a predecessor with whom he has rarely, if at all, been compared—the Russian occultist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. This essay argues that Blavatsky’s occult writings set the stage for the kinds of speculations on crypto-conversion, conscience, and responsibility that subsequently engaged Derrida. Like Blavatsky, Derrida saw conversion not as change but as retaining whatever it displaces in the form of a secret, persisting as an enduring reminder of supplanted religious beliefs. While Derrida was more interested in conversion as a form of repression that mutually constitutes the old and the new, Blavatsky held a broader and more dynamic view of conversion-as-repression: in describing Christianity’s battle against the heterogeneous belief-systems it eventually supplanted, she sought to illuminate conversion as a larger process well beyond the individual and involving religious expansion and consolidation. The essay culminates in a close reading of an occult text, W. B. Yeats’s “The Manuscript of ‘Leo Africanus,’” that exemplifies the problematics of crypto-conversion as delineated by Blavatsky and Derrida in their respective ways. “Leo Africanus” stages Yeats’s encounter with a dead spirit alternatively grasped as his anti-self and historical conscience. A breakthrough in understanding allows Yeats to acknowledge an occluded history—his as much as that of his deceased interlocutor—that can only be told in the terms of crypto-conversion, in this instance of a sixteenth-century African slave forcibly converted to Christianity and turned into a native informant of African history and geography.

scholarly journals WHOLE BODY BEQUEATHMENT: PERCEPTION OF HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA. Legado del cuerpo entero: Percepción de los trabajadores de la salud en Nigeria del sureste

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-69
Author(s):  
Sunday O. Popoola ◽  
Abidemi E. Omonisi ◽  
Owolabi D. Ojo ◽  
Williams O. Odesami
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Tertiary Institution ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Southwestern Nigeria ◽  
Cultural Traditions

Journey of anatomy as a discipline began from crude ancient civilizations with credit to cadavers at the centre up to this modern computerized creativity with reference to magnanimity of cadavers and donors. The study investigated various limitations in acquiring cadavers amongst healthcare givers in southwestern Nigeria: awareness of bequest program, religious beliefs, socio-cultural heritage and family influences. Questionnaire-based proforma was adopted with three sections: facility, socio-demographics and donation characteristics containing 20-item self-administered Likert-style: ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘not sure’. Facilities visited and formal permission sought to engage the middle-aged healthcare workers for one-month’s period. Data subjected to statistical package for social scientists with statistical-significance taking as p<0.05. One-hundred-and-thirty-six middle-aged healthcare workers and above participated. Highest participants recorded in: tertiary institution; age group 50-54years; gender male; Ekiti indigenes; tertiary educational degrees; married workers; Christianity; and doctors by profession. Cronbach’s alpha reliability value of 0.801 established the study to be second to excellence. Issues on bequest program, sources of cadaver and affection independently explained poor awareness and alienation to bequeathment affairs. Influential factors on bequeathment synonymously judged unquestionable religious beliefs, veritable socio-cultural traditions and family dominancy as militating factors. Typically, awareness on bequeathment was still pitiful as the criteria were only known in papers rather than the hearts of healthcare workers who were meant to propagate the crusade of bequeathment. The need to establish a global policy for bequeathment affairs including social, moral, political and financial needs for broadcast was conclusively accented, most especially, in Nigeria and the likes. El  camino de la Anatomía como disciplina comenzó en las civilizaciones antiguas con un crédito central en los cadáveres hasta  la aparición de la creatividad computarizada moderna en relación a la magnanimidad de cadáveres y donantes. Este estudio investigó varias limitaciones en la adquisición de cadáveres entre donantes del sistema de salud en el sudoeste de Nigeria: conocimiento del programa de legado, creencias religiosas, herencia socio-cultural e influencia familiar. El cuestionario adoptado estaba basado en una proforma con tres secciones: Facilidad, características de la donación y características socio-demográficas, que contienen 20 items autoadministrados al estilo de la escala de Likert: `Sí', `No' y `no estoy seguro'. Las instalaciones visitadas y el permiso formal requeridos para incluir a los trabajadores de mediana edad del Sistema de salud por el período de un mes. Los datos fueron sometidos al paquete estadístico para científicos sociales (SPSS) tomando como significación estadística valores de p<0.05. Participaron ciento treinta y seis trabajadores del Sistema de Salud de mediana edad y mayores. Los participantes mayores registrados en: institución terciaria; grupos de edadde 50-54años; del género masculino; Indìgenas Ekiti; grado educativo terciario; trabajadores casados; Cristianismo; y doctores de profesión. El valor de la confiabilidad alfa de Cronbach de 0.801 estableció al estudio en segundo lugar a la excelencia. Algunas cuestiones en el programa del legado, la procedencia del cadáver y el afecto explican el pobre conocimiento y la enajenación en los asuntos del legado. Los factores influyentes en el legado que se juzgaron como indiscutibles fueron: la creencia religiosa, las verdaderas tradiciones socio-culturales y la dominancia de la familia como factores limitantes. Típicamente, el conocimiento del legado seguía siendo lamentable pues los criterios seran solo conocidos en los papeles más que en los corazones de los trabajadores del Sistema de Salud que fueron elegidos para propagar la cruzada del legado. La necesidad de establecer una política global para los asuntos del legado incluyendo las necesidades sociales, morales, políticas y financieras de la difusión fue concluyentemente acentuada, especialmente, en Nigeria y similares.

Equally Devout, but Do They Speak the Same Language? Comparing the Religious Beliefs and Practices of Social Workers and the General Public

2002 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 573-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Hodge
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
General Public ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Difference

While the profession is witnessing growing interest in addressing consumers' spiritual and religious strengths, no studies have explicitly sought to compare the religious values of social workers with those of the general public. This study uses a nationally representative data set, the General Social Survey, to compare the beliefs and practices of graduate-level (n = 53) and bachelor-level (n = 92) social workers with those of the lower, working, and middle classes. The results suggest that the contents of belief systems differ, particularly between graduate workers and the lower and working classes, with social workers being more likely to endorse liberal religious beliefs. Yet, while the belief systems differed, there was little variation in expression, as social workers were roughly as likely to attend services and consider themselves strong adherents of their faith as members of the lower, working, and middle classes. The paper concludes by discussing some of the implications of the difference in belief systems.

scholarly journals Syncretic Heritage of Bawakng Tradition for Salako Dayak (Bawakng as a Supreme Shrine)

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-49
Author(s):  
Albertus
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Belief System ◽  
West Kalimantan ◽  
Nation States

Salako is the ethnonym denominating the ethnic group which straddles the border of two nation-states, Sarawak, Malaysia and West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The belief system of this community including to Bawakng traditions have been syncretized through inter-mingling with Hindu’s beliefs during the Indianization of Southeast Asia. Bawakng is a mountain which is mythologized as the homeland of supreme dieties of Dayak Salako. Meanwhile, in Hindu’s belief, Himalaya is a mountain as a supreme shrine. Both of these belief systems highly considered the big highest mountains as the homeland of supreme dieties. This syncretism can be seen in Salako religious beliefs, livelihood, customs and traditions. Local community believes that Bawakng Mountain is the shrine of the supreme deities. It also represents how Salakos construe themselves based on their Bawakng cosmogony. Salako and Hinduism have a belief in multiple deities, which are assembled into a pantheon, Bawakng for Salako and Himalaya for Hindu.

The Interpretation of Qur'anic Text to Promote or Negate the Death Penalty for Apostates and Blasphemers

2001 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Declan O'Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Sacred Text ◽  
Mutual Respect ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Islamic Jurisprudence ◽  
The Right

Sharīca rulings are based on the Qur'an and aḥādīth. It is very interesting to assess how these sources have been interpreted in reference to both defining the crime and establishing the legal sentences of those found guilty of either blasphemy (i.e. sabb Allah, sabb al-rasūl/al-nabī) and/or apostasy (ridda/irtidād) from Islam. This article will attempt to determine whether the death penalty for the act of apostasy can be identified with the Qur'anic text and tafsīr. It will also show how inteipretations both for and against the death penalty have been emphasised through various ahādīth. Analysis of the Qur'an, Qur'anic tafsīr, and ahādīth will lead to an understanding of the development of the different opinions in Islamic jurisprudence regarding the penalty for blasphemy and apostasy. Examples offered include Q.2:217; Q.5:54; Q.9:12; Q.4:89; Q.16:106; Q.3:85 and Q.4:137. Other āyāt dealing with freedom of religious beliefs include Q.22:17; Q.2:256; Q. 109:1–6; Q.88:22–4; Q.10:99 and Q.18:29. It can be argued that a clearer understanding of certain translations and interpretations of the sacred text underlying the sharīca can show that the established legal sentencing owes much to strong political undercurrents, as opposed to a single message revealed in only one, unequivocal interpretation of the Qur'an. The conclusion highlights Islam's tolerance towards ‘Others’ or ‘infidels’, who, while holding the wrong belief systems, nevertheless have the right to peaceful coexistence and mutual respect.

Religio

Rhetorik ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anselm Haverkamp
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Binding Forces ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractSince Cicero (or, presumably, Varro) and, more recently, Benveniste and Agamben, the etymology of religio gave rise to speculations on the genealogy of theologies. The alternative of belief systems vs. binding forces offers insight into latent ambiguities barely managed in theological uses of rhetoric and misunderstood by secularization theories. The rhetorical format of religio in liturgy and cult - not to be confused with the rhetoric of religion - presupposes and maintains a precarious historicity of religions: of histories included or occluded, embedded or erased in religious beliefs.

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