Non-Muslims in the Qanun Jinayat and the Choice of Law in Sharia Courts in Aceh

The Aceh Jinayat Qanun, which is often considered violating Human Rights, has become the choice of the non-Muslim minorities as their rational choice. This study aims to analyze non-Muslims’ choice of The Aceh Jinayat Qanun implemented by the Sharia Court in Aceh and its underlying motives. This study relies on field research involving observations, in-depth interviews with Sharia Court judges, Head of the Islamic Sharia Service, Acehnese clerical figures, and Non-Muslims involved in criminal cases handled by the Sharia Courts. This study also analyzes Sharia Court decisions on criminal cases involving non-Muslims and various related documents issued by the Sharia Courts, police, and prosecutors. The study was undertaken between July 2017 and March 2020. The study shows that the Acehnese non-Muslims do not select The Aceh Jinayat Qanun because of its religious values but based on practicality, efficiency, and socio-cultural consideration. The Sharia-based sentences, which have often been conceived as inhuman and violate fundamental human rights, are chosen and become the rational choice for non-Muslims in solving their legal issues. This paper concludes that the implementation of the Sharia on non-Muslim has not always been negative. This paper demonstrates non-Muslims’ interest to choose Sharia-based criminal justice or The Aceh Jinayat Qanun over the Criminal Code. This can be seen as their rational choice over a more efficient, low-cost, effective, and fast legal process offered by The Aceh Jinayat Qanun sentencing system.

Bridging or breaking: An ethic of communication for missional engagement

Global workers must work toward an appropriate ethic of communication both corporately and personally to effectively engage all recipients of the gospel. Further, an ethic of communication for missional engagement must be biblically faithful and culturally appropriate in order to create ‘bridging encounters’ with potential recipients of the gospel (Kraft and Gilliland, 2005: 53). ‘Bridging encounters’ consist of communicative pathways that build common ground for engagement regardless of the level of agreement; they demonstrate cultural consideration, engagement, and respect of participants’ ideas, which works well in a postmodern age that values conversation. Since the 1920s, missiological characterization has provided a rhetoric of the ‘unsaved’, ‘unincorporated’, and ‘unreached’1 when describing people groups. This rhetoric of ‘un-’ may unintentionally cause breaking encounters instead of bridging encounters. Designating people groups as ‘in’ or ‘out’ can create a sense of ‘othering’ between global workers and recipients of the gospel. The consequent psychological friction proves detrimental to creating personal bridging encounters where individuals communicate the gospel in a more fluid manner (Bhargava and Manoli, 2015).

Planning for future care provision for children living with disabilities: A cross-cultural consideration

Cultural context has a significant influence on family support and parenting for children living with disabilities and has been powerful in shaping treatment and service provision. For parents, a pervasive concern lies with planning for future care provision for their child, and here culture plays a role. This qualitative research explores how cultural context shapes the future care provision plans for Korean parents by examining similarities and differences of future care provision-planning between Korean migrant families in New Zealand and those living in Korea. Specifically, the article examines the influence of familism on planning for future care among Koreans.

Practical Theologies in Chinese Speaking Societies—A Cross-Cultural Consideration

While having a history of several decades, the practical theology movement still finds itself rather rootless in Chinese speaking societies. This paper addresses three tasks: 1. It attempts a general sketch of the history and the state of the art of practical theology in Chinese societies; 2. It seeks to explain the ostensibly late development of Chinese practical theology by referring to the unique conception of practice embedded in the Chinese cultural traditions. By doing so, it argues that the development should not be understood as “late.” Rather, it should be understood cross-culturally. 3. With this cross-cultural sensitivity, it shows that there is a lot for both the Chinese and the international practical theology movements to learn from each other.

A Data Analysis Investigation of Smart Phone and Social Media Use by Syrian Refugees

A descriptive statistics approach is applied to analyse a newly collected dataset from Young Syrian Refugees in Lebanon. The aim of the paper is to empirically document the uses and gratifications of YSRs smartphone and social media use. Results indicated that the majority of YSRs use Facebook and WhatsApp for communications and entertainment purposes. Frequency analysis was used to determine the rate at which YSRs own and utilise smartphones and Social Networking Sites. Findings indicate that males head of households purchased smartphones for wives, younger sisters and mothers. Cross tabulation analysis of the role of gender on uses and gratifications of smartphones yielded an exclusion effect due to cultural consideration. This paper opens up new horizons in the use of information technology for improving the living conditions of refugee populations.

The Event as a Value Factor in the Development of Art-Market

The article explores the problems of the art market through the prism of philosophical and cultural consideration of the phenomenon of the event. The attending of art fairs and biennials has become an important part of the cultural life of modern people, so cultural study of these events make it possible to identify them as a factor in the development of contemporary art and a tool to expand the understanding of current art trends in the 21st century by visitors. The author of the article investigates the phenomenon of the events in the context of the art market as a value-semantic factor of the development of contemporary culture. Justifying and developing the thesis on the meaningful aspect of the art market event, the event is considered as a unit of cultural experience and the factor of cultural development. The art has long been instrumental in imparting the meaning and the value to the group meetings of people, so the cultural study of the event as a value and semantic factor in the development of the art market will help to understand visitors’ values and meanings. The conceptualization of the events is possible thanks to cultural anthropology, which is the source of knowledge about the culture, including holidays, customs and rituals. The analysis of the biennials and the art fairs as the events will help to understand the essence of the art market, its gravitas for the development of modern society.

Inmigrantes latinoamericanas en Salamanca: estudio de experiencias y casos

Este trabajo propone analizar desde la perspectiva sociocultural el proceso migratorio de un grupo de mujeres latinoamericanas que han emigrado a Salamanca (España). A través de entrevistas cualitativas en profundidad y el estudio de casos se investigan desde una perspectiva de género sus procesos migratorios y de adaptación en el lugar de destino: cuáles han sido las razones que las han impulsado a emigrar, sus expectativas previas y las dificultades que se han encontrado en el proceso, además de identificar los espacios materiales, de poder, participación y comunicación que ocupan en la sociedad. Los resultados obtenidos indican una percepción positiva de su tránsito en busca de la mejora de su bienestar personal y familiar a pesar de los numerosos cambios que han debido afrontar y de las dificultades encontradas.This paper analyses the migration process of a group of Latin American women to Salamanca (Spain) from the socio-cultural consideration. Through qualitative interviewing and case study, the research team explored from a gender perspective their migration and adaptation processes: motivations for emigration, the previous expectations, difficulties in the process, as well as the recollection of the diversity of places they occupied in society, regarding to physical spaces, power, participation or communication. The results achieved show a positive perception of their transit, looking for personal and family well-being, despite of the numerous changes they had faced and the difficulties encountered.