Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Rebranding Religion, Parker Brown

Capstones

The Mormon church spends millions on focus group, lobby groups, surveys, public relations, and marketing, all to fix a single problem: When Americans are asked what they think of Mormons, fewer than 50% give a positive answer. This is the story of God-vertising, of what happens when the traditions of religion meet the proselyting tools of the modern world.

Islam As A Way Of Defining The National Identity Of Bosnian Muslims, Athanasios G. Athanasiadis

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Political changes in Yugoslavia in the 1990s triggered a series of changes in the ethno-religious field. The ethnological problems faced by the residents of Bosnia formed part of more general ethnological reshuffling in former Yugoslavia, promoting idealized nations, non-existent ethnic ideologies and fabricated state designs. However, these nations already constitute part of the reshuffling of the reform of New Europe. A major part was played in the formulation of the ethnic identity of Bosnian Muslims by the Islamic Community, under unique conditions and in cooperation with the Communist Yugoslavia of Josip Broz Tito from 1945 to 1990. The description and …

The Imam And The Pastor: Attempts At Peace In Nigeria Using Interfaith Dialogue, Jinelle Piereder

The Partisan

No abstract provided.

How Secular Should Democracy Be? A Cross-Disciplinary Study Of Catholicism And Islam In Promoting Public Reason, David Ingram, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

I argue that the same factors (strategic and principled) that motivated Catholicism to champion liberal democracy are the same that motivate 21^st Century Islam to do the same. I defend this claim by linking political liberalism to democratic secularism. Distinguishing institutional, political, and epistemic dimensions of democratic secularism, I show that moderate forms of political and epistemic secularism are most conducive to fostering the kind of public reasoning essential to democratic legitimacy. This demonstration draws upon the ambivalent impact of Indonesia’s Islamic parties in advancing universal social justice aims as against more sectarian policies.

Ulu Al Amr & Authority: The Central Pillars Of Sunni Political Thought, Hisseine Faradj

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation evaluates the political history of Islam through the prism of the Sunni conception of authority. It finds an historical red thread that explains the legal and political evolution of different types of Islamic government that have, instead of a European-type sovereign, the Ulu Al Amr (those in authority). In addition, it argues that it is the authority of Ulu Al Amr that legitimizes temporal power via legal rulings such as Wilayah al ahed (allegiance to a dynastic monarchy) and Wlayah al qaher (obedience to coercive power and rule). Those rulings are essential to legitimating historical change. Historical legal …

What Is Enlightenment? An Islamic Perspective, Muqtedar Khan

Muqtedar Khan

This essay draws on Immanuel Kant’s concept of enlightenment as an escape from self- imposed ignorance and argues that a similar concept of enlightenment can be understood within the Muslim context as escape from self-imposed jahiliyyah, which is understood as fear to exercise reason publicly. The article advocates for ijtihad, is critical of Taqlid, and invokes Islamic sources to invest confidence in contemporary use of reason for interpreting Islam.

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 …

The Specter Of Intolerance: Understanding Religious Violence In Pakistan, Syeda Haider

Honors Scholar Theses

The role of religion in Pakistani political and civil life has had a defining role in the political development of the nation. The country is now a breeding ground for religious extremism, with militant groups conducting brutal attacks against the Shia, Ahmedi, Christian and Hindu communities of Pakistan. There have been few explanations attempting to describe the problem of religious violence domestically, within Pakistan’s borders towards Pakistani citizens. This essay examines how, despite Pakistan’s initial conception as a secular state, the country has become haunted by intense religious violence. It links the lack of consensus around national identity with the …

Female Reverberations Online: An Analysis Of Tunisian, Egyptian, And Moroccan Female Cyberactivism During The Arab Spring, Brittany Landorf

International Studies Honors Projects

Digital technologies and social media networks have the potential to open new platforms for women in the public domain. During the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions, female cyberactivists used digital technologies to participate in and at times led protests. This thesis examines how Tunisian, Egyptian, and Moroccan female cyberactivists deployed social media networks to write a new body politic online. It argues throughout that female activists turned to online activism to disrupt gender relations in their countries and demand social, religious, economic, and political gender parity.

The Impact Of Islam As A Religion And Muslim Women On Gender Equality: A Phenomenological Research Study, Sonia D. Galloway

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine and explore the meanings, structures and essence of the lived experience of Muslim women via an Islamic theoretical (Kalam) framework. The study's goal was to describe a detailed and comprehensive description of how Muslim women use Islam to promote gender equality and improve treatment within their daily lives. The critical importance of gleaning a better understanding of Islam and the perceived invisibility of Muslim women motivated the researcher to undertake this study.

The research study included a qualitative phenomenology research approach. Data were collected from multiple sources: observations, semi-structured individual interviews and …

Political Authority In Islam, Muqtedar Khan

Muqtedar Khan

The chapter is a survey of various approaches to political authority in Islamic thought.

Political Authority In Islam, Muqtedar Khan

Muqtedar Khan

The chapter is a survey of various approaches to political authority in Islamic thought.

Haji Bektash Veli And The Bektash Path In Albania And Macedonia, Arben Sulejmani

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The Bektashi World Community officially represents the spiritual teachings of the Bektashi Sufi Order, one of the many mystical branches found within Islam. This religious order was founded in the 13th century by the Sufi saint Hajji Bektash Veli. The ultimate goal of the Bektash spiritual path is the perfection of the human soul. It is a path which fortifies its wayfarers with ethical and spiritual principles, which bring closeness to the Divine. Being founded on the revealed religion of Islam, Bektashism offers a unique and distinctive reading of the Qur’an, as well as the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, …

Atatürk's Balancing Act: The Role Of Secularism In Turkey, Patrick G. Rear

Global Tides

The intersection of religion and politics in the form of a civil religion has been present since time immemorial. This paper looks specifically to the relationship between Turkey’s development of a secular civil religion after gaining independence and the advancing of women’s rights and democratic values. In examining the intersections of state and religion in a secular Islamic society, it draws parallels to the French civil religion as it came to be following the French Revolution. Though Atatürk and other secularists were strong forces in developing the civil religion, the paper also examines liberal democratic and conservative Islamic groups in …

The Development Of Personal Status Law In Jordan & Iraq, Kelsey Cherland

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the historical development of personal status law, which governs a person’s marriage, divorce, and custody rights. It is significant because it is part of a framework that has defined women’s rights for centuries. I will argue that personal status law is a patriarchal framework that has been reinforced over time, leading up to the creation of nation-states in the Middle East. As such, this is the “institution” of personal status that will be traced using historical institutionalism theory. In this thesis I will argue that personal status has undergone a critical juncture, or crucial moment of potential …

The Impossible, Highly Desired Islamic Bank, Haider Ala Hamoudi

Articles

The purpose of this Article is to explore, and explain the stubborn persistence of, a central paradox that is endemic to the retail Islamic bank as it operates in the United States. The paradox is that retail Islamic banking in the United States is impossible, and yet it remains highly desired. It is impossible because the principles that are supposed to underlie the practice of Islamic finance deal with the trading of assets and the equitable sharing of risks, profits and losses among bank, depositor and portfolio investment. It is true that much of this can be, and is, circumvented …

Everyday Violence, Quotidian Griefs: Kidnapping In The Pankisi Gorge, Rebecca Gould

Rebecca Gould

No abstract provided.