A Pilot Assessment of How Muslim Scientists Perceive Inclusion in the Scientific Workplace

Much of the social science literature on how religious and scientific communities relate to one another is focused on the relationship Christian communities have to science in the US and to a lesser extent the UK. Our pilot research begins to address this gap by studying Muslim scientists, a key group of actors who are important to understanding the social implications of global discussions about religion and science. We ask: How do Muslim scientists in non-Muslim majority national contexts perceive the relationship between religion and science and the connection between their faith and their work? In this pilot study, we analyze 13 in-depth interviews with Muslim scientists from three non-Muslim majority national contexts—France, India, and the United Kingdom. We find that Muslim scientists in our sample generally view their faith as compatible with their identities as scientists. Despite this connection, Muslim scientists do not consider the scientific workplace to be a supportive environment for their faith expression and believe the visibility of Muslim identity creates the potential for religious discrimination in science. Initial findings contribute to our understanding of how national context shapes religious experiences and highlights potential challenges to facilitating more religiously plural workplace environments.

Kemalism and Populism

This article examines the trajectory of populism/halkçilik, one of the least studied principles of Kemalism, from its origins in the ideas of Enlightenment to its practices in modern Turkey. Unlike its commonly perceived negative connotation that is often associated with irrational political objectives, populism is a manifestation of equality premise of Enlightenment. Populism gained popularity among the nineteenth-century American and Russian farmers as well as fin de siècle French intellectuals and politicians. Neither the Russian Narodnik movement nor the American Populist Party were as influential as the French solidarists who were backed by Vatican to carve a middle path between unrefined Capitalism and revolutionary Marxism. Inspired by its earlier counterparts in France and Russia, Kemalist principle of Populism aimed to end inherited socio-economic inequalities that had existed in the former Ottoman Empire. While modern Turkey curbed some inequalities, it has stumbled upon the same core obstacle, unequal distribution of resources. The never-ending human fight for equality will carry on whether it carries the banner of Kemalism or any other ideology.

The Halalisation of Islam

This article charts the history of the invention of halal and of its extension to an increasingly diverse range of goods, services and even modes of behaviour. Following the works of Bergeaud-Blackler, it argues that halal is not the industrialization of traditional practices but rather that it is ‘born industrial’ as the result of the encounter between neoliberal economic globalization and the spread of consumerism across the Muslim world. It argues that the wild development of halal and its extension well beyond the edible is part of a wider reconfiguration of Islam within a Global-Market frame, away from Nation-State bound forms. From its inception within industrial processes of meat production, halal has been extended to qualify vacation packages, refrigerators and proper sexual morality.

Turkey and Indonesia: A Relationship of Muslim-Majority Middle Powers

Turkey and Indonesia are both members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a group of 57 Muslim-populated countries, and the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, a group of Muslim-majority states, but their respective Constitutions do not give preference to the Islamic faith. While developing relations as part of the Muslim world, Turkey and Indonesia are also members of the G20, an organization of countries with some of the most important economies as well as mikta, a less formal group of middle powers in the G20 to deal with matters of common interest designed to enhance their soft power vis-à-vis the political dominance of major world and other regional powers. In addition, the founding fathers of modern Indonesia in their struggle for independence against the colonial power of the Netherlands following the Second World War found inspiration in the actions of founding father of the Republic of Turkey following the First World War. Yet despite all these connections and the importance of these two countries in world affairs, the study of the bilateral relations of Turkey and Indonesia and their interactions as part of multilateral organizations has been either neglected or extremely limited in coverage. This article attempts to ameliorate that situation.

A Pilot Assessment of How Muslim Scientists Perceive Inclusion in the Scientific Workplace

Much of the social science literature on how religious and scientific communities relate to one another is focused on the relationship Christian communities have to science in the US and to a lesser extent the UK. Our pilot research begins to address this gap by studying Muslim scientists, a key group of actors who are important to understanding the social implications of global discussions about religion and science. We ask: How do Muslim scientists in non-Muslim majority national contexts perceive the relationship between religion and science and the connection between their faith and their work? In this pilot study, we analyze 13 in-depth interviews with Muslim scientists from three non-Muslim majority national contexts—France, India, and the United Kingdom. We find that Muslim scientists in our sample generally view their faith as compatible with their identities as scientists. Despite this connection, Muslim scientists do not consider the scientific workplace to be a supportive environment for their faith expression and believe the visibility of Muslim identity creates the potential for religious discrimination in science. Initial findings contribute to our understanding of how national context shapes religious experiences and highlights potential challenges to facilitating more religiously plural workplace environments.

On ‘Nostalgia for the Empire: The Politics of Neo-Ottomanism’ by M. Hakan Yavuz

Summary Four international scholars have individually reflected critically on M. Hakan Yavuz’s new book Nostalgia for the Empire: The Politics of Neo-Ottomanism. The book recognizes nostalgia as a major variable in articulating and analyzing the current spectrum of Turkish politics by exploring neo-Ottomanism which has, in many respects, become an instrumental frontal display for Islam and Islamism.