The Islamization of Knowledge and Its Efforts to Neutralize The Idea of Liberal Islām: A Descriptive Study

This study deals with the conflict between the Islamization of knowledge and the liberalism of Islam. The necessity of the project of Islamization of knowledge is to be purifying from Western influences and elements in thought and human sciences because they do not suitable the Islamic world view. The phenomenon of liberal Islam became one of the challenges of Islamization of knowledge to reach its goals. The study aims to present the efforts that have been made to neutralize the idea of liberal Islam. The study was based on the descriptive approach by studying the concept of Islamization of knowledge and liberal Islam and tracing the history of them in Indonesia and Malaysia. From the results of the study: The researchers concluded that the Islamization of knowledge project has exerted its efforts in various activities to implement the neutralization of the elements that are affected by the Western world view in science and thought generally. Most of the activities revolved around editorial and publishing activities, discussions, lectures and scientific debates, and the establishment of social and scientific institutions or organizations.

NIGERIA: RELIGIOUS CONFLICT AND THE BOKO HARAM

"Religious conflicts have increased interfaith suspicion between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria with each group being determined to outshine the other in the propagation of its religious beliefs. In fact, even Islamic sect Boko Haram was formed on the belief in the superiority of Islam as a monotheistic religion and with a divine mandate to purge Islam of Western influences. This paper examines the complex issues surrounding the advent of the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria. It argues that religious conflict in Nigeria results from the propagation of radicalized exegeses and the use of religious sentiments for gain political advantage. Government’s failure to act decisively also accounts for religious conflict in Nigeria and the Boko Haram in particular. Keywords: Boko Haram, conflict, religion, ideology, violence, Islam."

Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life

The works of Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo) played a critical role in introducing his adopted Japan to a worldwide audience. In Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life, he writes, “The papers composing this volume treat of the inner rather than of the outer life of Japan, — for which reason they have been grouped under the title Kokoro (heart). This word signifies also mind, in the emotional sense; spirit; courage; resolve; sentiment; affection; and inner meaning, — just as we say in English, ‘the heart of things.’” After centuries of isolation Meiji-era Japan was forced to adjust its customs and beliefs to Western influences, and Hearn reflects on the value of these traditions of the “heart” as seen in Japanese popular justice, arts, economy, patriotism, and religion. Chapters include: At a Railway Station • The Genius of Japanese Civilization • A Street Singer • From a Traveling Diary • The Nun of the Temple of Amida • After the War • Haru • A Glimpse of Tendencies • By Force of Karma • A Conservative • In the Twilight of the Gods • The Idea of Preëxistence • In Cholera-Time • Some Thoughts About Ancestor-Worship • Kimiko • Three Popular Ballads: The Ballad of Shūntoku-maru • The Ballad of Oguri-Hangwan • The Ballad of O-Shichi, the Daughter of the Yaoya.

Andrzej Walicki and Fr. George Florovsky (Meetings). A. Valitsky’s Letters to Fr. G. Florovsky

The article examines the personal and scholarly relationship between two promi­nent twentieth-century thinkers: Russian theologian and the founder of Neopa­tristic synthesis, George Florovsky and Polish scholar Andrzej Walicki. On the basis of Walicki’s memoirs and the epistolary heritage of both philosophers, it has been established that they first met in 1960 at Harvard. Florovsky had a sig­nificant influence on the young Polish scholar’s interpretation of Slavophilism. At the same time, Walicki interpreted Russian philosophy as a part of European philosophy, while Fr. George, although criticized Western influences in Russian thought, sought to indicate its originality appealing to the Fathers of the Church and the development of a Neopatristic synthesis. Other aspects of both thinkers are noted in the article: their studies in historiosophy and their emphasis on inde­terminism in history, and the fact that both Florovsky and Walicki were apolo­gists for Russian culture in the Western academic world. This article is an intro­duction to the publication of two letters from Walicki to Florovsky stored at the archives of Princeton University: they were sent in 1965 and deal with the exchange of ideas and books between the two scholars.