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Entrapment As A Threat To Community Peace In The Global War On Terror: An Analysis Of Discourse In Local Press, Priya Kapoor Ph.D., Adam Testerman, Alex Brehm

Journal of International and Global Studies

Our study tries to understand the phenomenon of Entrapment, which is an outcome of (a) security discourses that prioritize pre-emptive community strategies; (b) the ongoing military initiative of the Global War of Terror (GWOT); and (c) and the increased budgetary convergence of state agencies of the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the military, impacting the legal and court processes that indict “homegrown” terrorists. We offer a critical discourse analysis of the events that led to the arrest and trial of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, covered in local newspapers The Oregonian and The Willamette Week, after …

Agonizing Transitions And Turning Away From God In Two Tunisian Movies, Imen Yacoubi

Journal of Religion & Film

In Golden Horseshoes by Farid Boughdir (1989) and Halfaouine (or Child of the Terraces) by Nouri Bouzid (1990), two protagonists, trapped in difficult passages and transitions, embark on quests toward self-realization. In Halfaouine, Noura, a young boy, undergoes the upheavals of puberty and probes the taboos associated with adulthood and coming of age. In Golden Horseshoes, Youssef, a previous political prisoner and leftist militant, bemoans the shattering of his dreams and struggles to cope with a society he feels distanced from.

My paper examines the struggle of the two protagonists against the boundaries imposed by political and …

Development And Dissemination: Deliberations On Spanish Renaissance Music, Lindsey E. Pfeifer

Musical Offerings

Every musical culture grows and developed under a specific set of influences, whether political, philosophical, or geographical. Varying sets of influences create likewise varying types of music. Spanish music, in particular, enjoyed an especially unique array of influences during the fifteenth century. My presentation explores these influences. How did the interaction of Spain’s three major religions—Christianity, Islam, and Judaism—affect musical development? How did the newly unified government, ruled by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, influence the musical culture? How did Spain’s discovery and conquest of the New World facilitate the spread of Spanish music beyond its …

Being Muslim, Being Cosmopolitan: Transgressing The Liberal Global, Chad Haines Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

The practices and concepts of Muslim cosmopolitanism are rooted in Islamic ideas, providing the foundations for informal “comings together” that foster new kinds of ethical communities. Muslim cosmopolitanism transgresses global normative aspirations of the liberal West that attempt to impose a singular way of being a global citizen. The informal, ethical communities that are inherent to a Muslim cosmopolitan vision also reject the absolutist visions of Islamists, such as those promoted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which, like Western liberal aspirations, attempt to impose a singular vision of the global. The article traces Muslim cosmopolitan ethics in …

The Power Of The Body: Analyzing The Corporeal Logic Of Law And Social Change In The Arab Spring, Zeina Jallad, Zeina Jallad

Zeina Jallad

The Power of the Body:

Analyzing the Logic of Law and Social Change in the Arab Spring

Abstract:

Under conditions of extreme social and political injustice - when human rights are under the most threat - rational arguments rooted in the language of human rights are often unlikely to spur reform or to ensure government adherence to citizens’ rights. When those entrusted with securing human dignity, rights, and freedoms fail to do so, and when other actors—such as human rights activists, international institutions, and social movements—fail to engage the levers of power to eliminate injustice, then oppressed and even quotidian …

Educating The Silenced: Threads Of Visual Culture In Domesticating The Wives In Malaysia, Esmaeil Zeiny

Esmaeil Zeiny

As a very controversial issue in Islam, polygamy allows Muslim men to marry up to four wives. It has been told that the Quran encourages polygamy; thus, it is a part of Islamic Sharia. Many Muslim men practice it at their whim and they contend that they do so to follow the Sunnah. Amongst Muslim countries, Malaysia is one of those countries where polygamy is rife. To make it as an acceptable Islamic practice and a more common phenomenon, polygamy is favoritized and advocated through the mass media such as TV shows and newspapers. Although suffering agonizing experiences of being …

Development And Dissemination: Deliberations On Spanish Renaissance Music, Lindsey E. Pfeifer

Music and Worship Student Presentations

Throughout history, every musical culture grew and developed under a specific set of influences, whether political, philosophical, or geographical. Varying sets of influences created likewise varying types of music. Spanish music, in particular, enjoyed an especially unique array of influences during the fifteenth century. My presentation explores these influences. How did the interaction of Spain’s three major religions—Christianity, Islam, and Judaism—affect musical development? How did the newly unified government, ruled by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, influence the musical culture? How did Spain’s discovery and conquest of the New World facilitate the spread of Spanish music …

Development And Dissemination: Deliberations On Spanish Renaissance Music, Lindsey E. Pfeifer

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

Throughout history, every musical culture grew and developed under a specific set of influences, whether political, philosophical, or geographical. Varying sets of influences created likewise varying types of music. Spanish music, in particular, enjoyed an especially unique array of influences during the fifteenth century. My presentation explores these influences. How did the interaction of Spain’s three major religions—Christianity, Islam, and Judaism—affect musical development? How did the newly unified government, ruled by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, influence the musical culture? How did Spain’s discovery and conquest of the New World facilitate the spread of Spanish music …

Undoing The Claim Of Objectivity: Contradictions At The Heart Of Bergtji Van Der Haak, Saudi Solutions (2005), Anisa Saeed Mohammed Nasser

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper is a study of Bergtji van der Haak, Saudi Solutions (2005). It attempts to question Bergtji van der Haak’s claim of “objective” depiction of Saudi women’s “reality,” as well as the claim of portraying Saudi women through their perspectives as stated in the opening scene. The premise is that the editing strives to undercut the very views of the women that the film is claiming to present, and in the process it duplicates some of the very mechanisms of oppression that the film is denouncing. The documentary’s attempt at ‘subalternizing’ and diminishing Saudi women discloses the subjectivity of …

Trans Terrains: Gendered Embodiments And Religious Landscapes In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, David B. Esch

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Transgendered Indonesians live in the fourth most populated nation in the world with more Muslims than any other country. This thesis summarizes an ethnography conducted on one religiously oriented male-to-female transgender community known in the city of Yogyakarta as the waria. This study analyzes the waria’s gender and religious identities from an emic and etic perspective, focusing on how individuals comport themselves inside the world’s first transgender mosque-like institution called a pesantren waria. The waria take their name from the Indonesian words wanita (woman) and pria (man). I will chart how this male-to-female population create spaces of spiritual …

U.S. Newspapers Provide Nuanced Picture Of Islam, Brian J. Bowe, Shahira Fahmy, Jörg Matthes

Brian J. Bowe

This study examines how Islam is covered in 18 large circulation U.S. newspapers and finds six frames that draw a nuanced picture of how Islam is framed in the news media. Two frames are negative, one is positive and three are neutral.

Masjids, Ashrams And Mazars: Transnational Sufism And The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, Merin Shobhana Xavier

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship is a community that formed in relation to the Tamil teacher Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (d. 1986). Bawa’s teachings attracted diverse followers- those with Islamic inclinations, those from Jewish, Hindu and Christian backgrounds, and those seeking to transcend religious creeds. With his passing and no appointed successor, the communities that developed during Bawa Muhaiyaddeen’s lifetime rely now on the institutions and spaces established by him. These include a mosque and burial shrine (mazar) in Pennsylvania and an ashram and shrine in Sri Lanka. This case study of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship and its parallel …

Brothers In Motion: Religious Practice, Political Action, And The Mobilization Of The Early Muslim Brotherhood, Ian Henry Vandermeulen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In light of Randy Martin's proposal to use dance as an analytic tool for understanding social movements, this article seeks to reconstruct the early mobilization of the Muslim Brotherhood as "bodies in motion." Through a re-examination of both primary and secondary source material, this study highlights the ways in which founder Hasan al-Banna appropriated both Islamic and colonial choreographic logics into the Muslim Brotherhood's pious training regimen, scouting programs, political expression, and social welfare projects. I argue that the Muslim Brotherhood was mobilized through al-Banna's revival of traditional Islamic practices concerning the body, reconfigured for the goal not of otherworldly …

History In The Making: Tunisia's Revolution, Nathaniel Greenberg

Nathaniel Greenberg

ON THE NIGHT of January 24, 2011, I sat smoking shisha and sipping tea at a coffee shop in the downtown Cairo neighborhood of Lazoghly, just blocks from Tahrir Square. The Tunisian revolution had reached a crescendo, but there was little talk of it in this largely working-class neighborhood. With rumors spreading that protests were planned for the coming day, I asked some of the regulars if they thought Egypt could go the way of Tunisia. It was a laughable query. Egypt was too divided, they said, Mubarak too powerful. The following day seemed to confirm their skepticism. No one …

“States Of Emergency”: Armed Youths And Mediations Of Islam In Northern Nigeria, Conerly Casey Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

On November 14, 2013, the U.S. Department of State labeled Boko Haram and a splinter group, Ansaru, operating in northern Nigeria, “foreign terrorist organizations” with links to al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). This designation is debatable, since the groups are diffuse, with tendencies to split or engage other armed groups into violent actions, primarily focused on Nigerian national and state politics and the implementation of shari’a criminal codes. This essay offers two analytic perspectives on “states of emergency” in Nigeria and the affective, violent forms of “justice” that armed young men employed during the 2000 implementation of shari’a criminal …

Belonging To Law: Religious Difference, Secularism, And The Conditions Of Civic Inclusion, Benjamin L. Berger

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

This paper examines the appeal to law as the basis for civic identity and political belonging under conditions of religious diversity. Beginning by assessing the descriptive utility of the concept of “secularism,” the paper argues that secularism is best approached as a repertoire of moves available in negotiating the relationship between religion and political authority, focussing then on one such move evident in the contemporary project of liberal secularism: the assertion, in the face of the challenges posed by religious diversity, that to belong to the political community means, above all else, to belong to law. This shift of “obedience …

Readings On Islam In Ladakh: Local, Regional, And International Perspectives, John Bray

HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies

The influences of two major religions – Buddhism and Islam - are interwoven in Ladakhi history and contemporary society. However, by comparison with Buddhism, the study of Islam has often been neglected. This essay offers a reading guide as a basis for further study. It draws on a range of sources in Asian and European languages, including texts published locally in Ladakh, as well as academic monographs and articles in specialist international journals. The essay begins with a discussion of the key historical texts before looking more closely at Ladakh’s links with Central Asia, and the political and cultural impact …

The National Muslim Forum Nepal: Experiences Of Conflict, Formations Of Identity, Megan Adamson Sijapati

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

With Nepal's recent transition to state secularism, the politicization of Muslim religious identity has emerged with increasing vitality. One particular pan-Nepali Muslim organization, the Rastriya Muslim Mane Nepal (National Muslim Forum Nepal), offers a window into the complex relationship between national and religious identity that animates this politicization. Through analysis of the National Muslim Forum's earliest discourses, produced between 2005 and 2006, both immediately before and after the people's revolution that resulted in the declaration of Nepal as a secular state, this essay highlights the ways that experiences of conflict coupled with a national political transition shape and contribute to …

Conversion Theory Through The Cognitive Science Of Religion Lense In A Christian-Muslim Context, Jennifer A. Garcia

Scripps Senior Theses

The Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) in recent years is beginning to become more popular. This project evolves around the development of the field as well as critiques of the field. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of CSR, it lends an interesting way to understand religion as well as religious experiences. One of those religious experiences, conversion, is examined and explored through the use of conversion narratives from western women who were formally Christian but converted to Islam. Many themes arise out of this research that paves the way for trying to understand religious experiences. Overall, the project focuses on …

Islamization As Part Of Globalization: Some Southeast Asian Examples, Ron Lukens-Bull, Amanda Pandich, John P. Woods

Journal of International and Global Studies

In both popular and academic imagination, Islamization and globalization are the opposing processes, representing ”the clash of civilizations” (Huntington, 1993,1996). In Southeast Asia, specifically, globalization is imagined as something distinctly Western and, hence, inherently at odds with Islam, while Islam, meanwhile, is seen as the natural enemy of globalization. This paper instead sees Muslims as active participants in globalization. Further, it explores the concept of “Muslim globalization” to suggest that Islam has long been a globalizing force alongside Western-based capitalism and other forces. It explores this general model by using examples primarily from Southeast Asia

Liberalism, Islam, Power, And Religious Violence, Carool Kersten

Journal of International and Global Studies

Review essay on:

• Richard B. Miller. Terror, Religion and Liberal Thought. New York: Columbia University Press. 2011.
• Fevzi Bilgin. Political Liberalism in Muslim Societies. Abingdon/ New York: Routledge. 2011.

Faithless Power As Fratricide: Is There An Alternative In Somalia?, Abdi Ismael Samatar

Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies

No abstract provided.

The Visual Divide Islam Vs. The West, Image Peception In Cross-Cultural Contexts, Hatem Nazir Akil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Do two people, coming from different cultural backgrounds, see the same image the same way? Do we employ technologies of seeing that embed visuality within relentless cultural and ideological frames? And, if so, when does visual difference become a tool for inclusion and exclusion? When does it become an instrument of war? I argue that we‘re always implicated in visuality as a form of confirmation bias, and that what we see is shaped by preexisting socioideological frames that can only be liberated through an active and critical relationship with the image. The image itself, albeit ubiquitous, is never unimplicated - …

Dying For Love: Homosexuality In The Middle East, Heather Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Today in the United States, the most frequent references to the Middle East are concerned with the War on Terrorism. However, there is another, hidden battle being waged: the war for human rights on the basis of sexuality. Homosexuality is a crime in many of the Middle Eastern states and is punishable by death in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait, and Iran (Ungar 2002). Chronic abuses and horrific incidences such as the 2009 systematic murders of hundreds of “gay” men in Iraq are seldom reported in the international media. Speculation as to why this population is hidden includes the …

The Crescent And The Cross: Islamic Influence In Southern Culture, Jesse Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To a large degree, America has adopted African American culture as its own. One may hear and see African American influence in popular music, grammar, fashion and art, but rarely are the sources of these influences divined, in no small part to difficulties inherent in interdisciplinary studies. This thesis will examine the Islamic aesthetics in African American quilts. This work focuses on design and color elements and I trace Islamic influence from West Africa to the U.S. South by way of the slave trade. The original scholarship comes from in the Mississippi Delta, although this thesis also uses quilt books …

Islam, Cultural Hybridity And Cosmopolitanism: New Muslim Intellectuals On Globalization, Carool Kersten Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

This essay explores those Muslim discourses on the phenomenon of globalization which distinguish themselves by not succumbing to the antagonism guiding Huntington’s ‘clash of civilization’ thesis (1996) or Benjamin Barber’s account of ‘Jihad vs. McWorld’ (1995), either through the ‘blind imitation’(taqlid) characterising the unquestioned preservation of the classical Islamic heritage by traditionalist Muslims or through the atavistic return to the supposed pristine Islam of the ‘Pious Ancestors’ (salaf) of revivalist (fundamentalist) respondents. Combining an intimate familiarity with the heritage of Muslim civilization with a solid knowledge of recent achievements of the Western academe in the human sciences, the ‘new Muslim …

Chapter 05 : Theories Of Culture And Cultures, Wolfgang Fikentscher

Wolfgang Fikentscher

Inclusive online updates jan10. Chapter 5 on the attributes of culture and cultures is structured according to the influence of the axial age. The term has already been mentioned in Chapter 1 II. 4. and Chapter 3 III, IX. 2., above.What does axial age mean, and how is it related to other theories of cultural development? A new approach is offered as to the role of time concepts for the distinctions between cultures. By sketching circles of cultures (in particular the modes of thought that shape cultures) some modern issues find discussion, for example the question of whether in view …

U.S. Newspaper Representation Of Muslim And Arab Women Post 9/11., Nahed Mohamed Atef Eltantawy

Communication Dissertations

This study examines U.S. newspaper representation of Muslim-Arab women post 9/11 with an aim of better understanding how women are portrayed in relation to religion, society, politics and the economy. Through a discourse analysis, I examined local articles from across the nation, in addition to international articles, that examine various aspects of Muslim-Arab women’s lives between 9/11/2001 and 9/11/2005. With the increasing focus on the Muslim world in general, and Muslim women in particular, it is necessary to determine how women are portrayed. Muslim-Arab women have increasingly been on the face covers of magazines and front pages of newspapers since …

Muslims In Europe: Challenges Of Cultural Integration, Steven W. Staninger

Copley Library: Faculty Scholarship

Muslims in Europe are faced challenges of cultural and religious integration which affect business practices and socio-economic success. This paper looks at the current Muslim situation in Europe from both a Muslim and native European perspective. The contrast between public information targeted at European Muslims originating from the European Union as opposed to Muslim home-countries is examined, as are the challenges posed by Muslim-majority Turkey’s application for membership in the European Union.

Occidentalism In Late Nineteenth Century Egypt, Alaa Bayoumi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the Occidental discourses of three intellectual leaders of late nineteenth century Egypt, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Qasim Amin, and Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi. It highlights four main factors that shaped the three writers' views of the West. These factors are: the way each writer saw reform as a process, the way each writer viewed the effects of Western foreign policies on the Muslim world, and the attitudes of each writer toward Muslim governments and toward the socially conservative Muslim masses. At the policy level, the study argues that any policy seeking to reform Arabs' perceptions of the US and …